Page 159 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

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

What is the distribution? Notes
Rule (to be revised in the following lectures):
Before a vowel, we say [l], after a vowel we say [ ].
Thus, English [l] and [ ] are in predictable (complementary) distribution.
Turkish Scots Gaelic
[so ] ‘left’ [bala] ‘town’
[sol] ‘a musical note’ [ba‘ ’a] ‘wall’
d. English voiceless alveolar stop /t/:
tip
stick
little
Acoustic/ articulatory phonetic facts
FACT #1: Aspiration
Examples
[p at] vs. [spat] “pot” vs “spot”
h
h
[t ek] vs. [stek] “take” vs. “stake”

When sounds are in complementary distribution, they cannot be contrastive. The
replacement of one sound for the other does not change the meaning of the word.

FACT #2
a. Speakers of American English
The /t/ in “little” sounds a lot “softer” (and a bit voiced). In American English, this
sound is actually pronounced as a flap ([ ]).
Flap: A flap sound is a consonant in which one articulator strikes the other with a sliding
motion (as in the Spanish word pero).
b. Speakers of (non-Standard) British English
/t/ is pronounced as a glottal stop [ ]
• At least at some psychological level, that this word contains a /t/sound although we may
not pronounce or hear it as such.
/t/
h
[t] [t ] [r] [ ]

h
[t ]op “top”
s[t]op “stop”
li[r]le “little”
/t/

Harry

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 153