Page 152 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 11: Allophones–Allophonic Variation in English Speech:
Difference between Monopthong and Diphthong Glides

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Concept of Allophones
11.2 Phonemes and Allophones; Describing English Sounds
11.3 Monopthongs and Diphthongs Glides
11.4 Summary
11.5 Key-Words
11.6 Review Questions
11.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this Unit students will be able to:
• Understand Allophones.
• Discuss Monopthong and Diphthong Glides.
Introduction

In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce
a single phoneme. For example, [p ] (as in pin) and [p] (as in spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in
h
the English language. Although a phoneme’s allophones are all alternative pronunciations for a phoneme,
the specific allophone selected in a given situation is often predictable. Changing the allophone used by
native speakers for a given phoneme in a specific context usually will not change the meaning of a word
but the result may sound non-native or unintelligible. Native speakers of a given language usually perceive
one phoneme in their language as a single distinctive sound in that language and are “both unaware of and
even shocked by” the allophone variations used to pronounce single phonemes.
11.1 Concept of Allophones

The term “allophone” was coined by Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s. In doing so, he placed a
cornerstone in consolidating early phoneme theory. The term was popularized by G. L. Trager and
Bernard Bloch in a 1941 paper on English phonology and went on to become part of standard usage
within the American structuralist tradition.
Allophones are audibly distinct variants of a phoneme, such as the different pronunciations of the ‘t’
sound in tar and star. Substituting onc allophone for another allophone of the same phoneme doesn’t
lead to a different word, just a different pronunciation of the same word. In other words the sounds
that are merely phonetic variants of the same phoneme are allophones. Notice that any two sounds of
a given language represent either two allophones of the same phoneme (if the sound can be
interchanged in words with no resulting change in meaning, such as the p’s of pit and keep) or two
different phonemes (if the sounds cannot be interchanged without a resulting change in meaning,
such as the m and s of milk and silk).
“Now consider the word stop. If you say the word several times, you will probably notice that
sometimes the final /p/ contains more aspiration and sometimes, less. (In fact, if you end the word
with your lips together and do not release the /p/, it contains no aspiration at all). Since you are not

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