Page 129 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 10: Phonemes: Detailed Study

10.3.5 Phonetic Similarity Notes
Phonetically similar sounds are sounds that share a phonetic feature, such as nasality /m,n,ŋ/, or
labial quality (/p/ and /b/ or front vowel quality (/i/ and /e/). But the notion of phonetic similarity
is not a reliable guide. In a sense all sounds are phonetically similar, and are produced by the same
organs of speech. In another sense they are also dissimilar, which is why we can tell them apart.
Hence phonetic similarity is a tricky notion.

10.3.6 Complementary Distribution
Having discovered sets of phonetically similar sounds, for examples /p/ and /b/ we must ask whether
the variation in each set can be accounted for in terms of the phonetic environments of the members
of the set. Mutually exclusive distribution is otherwise known as complemenatry distribution. For
every phoneme there may be positional variants—allophones. Sometimes an allophone occurs in a
fixed place in a word. The English phoneme /l/, for example, has one form at the beginning of a
word and another form at the end. In a word such as light, the first consonant is a ‘clear’ l, pronounced
by placing the tip of the tongue just behind the teeth and keeping the back of the tongue fairly low. In
hill, the tongue tip is in the same place, but the back of the tongue is raised resulting in a ‘dark’ 1.
These variants of /l/ are said to be in complementary distribution: each allophone occurs in its own
predictable place in a word.
Another example of complementary distribution is found in the English phoneme /p/. When p
occurs in initial and stressed position, it is pronounced with aspiration (a puff of breath). After s, this
puff of breath disappears. This can be tested by holding a sheet of paper in front of the mouth and
saying the words spot, spill, pot, pill. In the case of spot and spill, the paper remains motionless. But
when pot and pill are pronounced, the accompanying puff of breath makes the paper billow out.
The notion of complementary distribution in the discovery and assignment of the allophones of a
phoneme is useful in a number of cases, but fails in some other cases. For example, in English no
word has the segment /ŋ/ in its initial position. Nor does the segment /h/ ever occur in the final
position. These two phones are in mutually exclusive distribution, but they are not phonetically very
similar to each other. Therefore, the linguist does not regard them as allophones of a simple phoneme,
but two different phonemes in English, although there is no minimal pair establishing that these two
sounds are in contrastive distribution. If two allophones are not in contrast, they are said to be in
complementary distribution: that is, neither occurs in any environment in which the other is found.
10.3.7 Symmetrical Patterning
A third principle of discovering allophones, besides those of phonetic similarity and complementary
distribution, is that of symmetrical patterning. Languages seem to have symmetrical patterning. This
patterning is also known as phonetic patterning or pattern congruity. This pattern differs from
language to language. It is to a large extent unconscious and appears to be one of the means by which
human memory is able to store a large number of items. In English, for example, many consonant
phonemes are unconsciously paired together: /p/ is paired with /b/, /t/ is paired with /d/, /f/ is
paired with /v/. In addition, /p/ and /t/ and /k/ behave in a very similar way to one another. Each
of them has an aspirated form which occurs at the beginning of a word, as in pill, till, kill, and an
unaspirated form after /s/, as in spill, still, skill.
By pattern congruity we also mean that relationships are far more important than the phonetic
characteristics of the sounds. For example, the allophones of /t/ in English are produced at different
points of articulation in words like fountain, the allophone of /t/ is realized at the back of the mouth
and in a word like little it is at the glottis. For this reason, they ought not to be considered allophones
of a dental stop. They are phonetically similar to velar and glottal stops. But the linguist looks at
distribution and maintains there are parallel positional variants for /p/ and /k/. So, disregarding
the physical characteristics and paying attention to the patterning, the assignment of the allophones
to a phoneme is made.

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