Types Of Allophones And Their Uses 1g1s30

Introduction As we all should already know, phonemes are the abstraction of the sounds we produce within words, being their smallest unit in of speech. Each phoneme is important within a word, because changing just one of them within a word could mean a total change in its meaning. Normally, phonemes are used for words in their isolation form or when in emphasis, when words are not in isolation or emphasis, very probably they will sound different, and that’s when allophones come to be used. Allophones are one or more similar speech sounds belonging to a determined phoneme which is the one being replaced by the allophone. This replace has the singularity of keeping the word’s meaning, which makes the main difference between phonemes and allophones. Allophones are nowadays used in many ways either accepted or unaccepted, and it’s a task for us English Language Teachers to teach their correct way of being used. This paper is about the way in which allophones are used and how it’s different among languages, English and Spanish in this case.

Types of allophones and their uses As already told, allophones are replacements for phonemes which do not alter the meaning of the words. We have allophones for almost any sound we wish to make, and it’s important to have clear how many allophones can we find, normally allophones are in free variation, meaning that both phonemic and allophonic speech would be correct. We shall focus on the following types of allophones: -

Weak forms of words

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Aspirations

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Elisions

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Yod coalescence

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Yod dropping

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Releases

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Coarticulations

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Labializations

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Velarizations

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Dentalizations

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Specific allophones for specific phonemes

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Consequent changes

Weak forms In English, most words will have at least one stressed syllable, and hence no separate strong and weak forms. Also, in English, all the words having that distinction between strong and weak forms are monosyllables, and are usually function words or particles. When having words said to be in their isolation form, meaning that they are pronounced with nothing before or after them, they are shown as when we pronounce them in their strong form, this form is also used when wanting to mark that word. As opposed, the weak form is a form that can be used when the word has no stress.

In RP, the main words with weak forms are: A, am, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, can, could, do, does, for, from, had, has, have, he, her, him, his, just, me, must, of, shall, she, should, some, than, that, the, them, there, to, us, was, we, were, who, would, you. Let’s take this first word “a” as an example. It will normally be used in its weak form unless we want to implicate more things. -

“I’ve found a /eI/ leaf in your hair.” When told like that, you’re probably

answering or correcting the fact that there was just one leave, trying to denote this. - “I’ve found a [ə] leaf in your hair.” This means that there was one leaf in the hair of the listener. In here, the article “a” lacks of real importance. This one is the weak form. Aspirations When voiceless plosive sounds /p/, /t/ and /k/ are in stressed syllables, they are accompanied by a strong burst of air. They are symbolized as a [ h] put over the phoneme, meaning that they would look like this: [th], [ph], [kh]. In most of English dialects, this rule does not apply when there’s a /s/ before the phoneme t, p or k, so words like <store> (/st ɔ:/), <skill> (/skIl/) or <split> (/splIt/) will remain without any aspiration, not as ([t hɔ:]), ([khIl]) or ([phIl]).

Elisions

Another way of having a phoneme is with nothing in the place of the phoneme. As its name says, elision means to elide sounds, but you can’t elide just any sound you find. You must follow certain rules, some of which we’re going to mention: -

The sound /d/ can be elided when being at the end of words between consonants, especially if being a weak form.

“We have to buy tomato and cheese” phonemically, it should be transcribed as “/ənd tʃi:z/”, but what people normally would say is “[ən tʃi:z]” -

The sound /t/ is elided in the same way as the sound /d/ is.

“This is my last night here” as phonemic transcription: /la:st naIt/ but with an allophonic transcription of [la:s naIt]

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The sound /k/ is just elided in the word (from /a:skt/ to [a:st])

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The sound /l/ is elided after the sound / ɔ:/ and before a consonant, but that is just within a word, especially when those words are frequently used.

/ɔ:lweIz/, [ɔ:weIz]

Yod coalescence

There’s a semivowel sound called yod, which is symbolized as /j/. This sound, when coming after the plosive sounds /t/, /d/, /s/ and /z/ suffers certain changes according to the sound. -

When going after /t/, it turns into a [ tʃ] sound instead of /tj/ as in the example

“Haven’t you?” /hævnt ju:/ is transcribed as [hævnt ʃu:] -

When going after /d/, yod turns into a [ dʒ], being like follows:

“Did you?” /dId ju:/ is transcribed as [dIdʒu:] -

When following a /s/ sound, it turns into a [ʃ]

“Those are the stars you were counting” /sta:s ju:/ turns into [sta:ʃu:] -

When a /z/ is followed by a yod, they turn into a [ʒ] sound.

“This is his yellow shirt” /hIz jeləʊ/ is turned into [hIʒeləʊ] Yod dropping This is the elision of the sound /j/ after some phonemes. -

After [tʃ, dʒ, j], for example chew [tʃu:], juice [dʒu:s], yew [ju:]

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After /ɹ/, for example rude [ɹu:d]

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After consonant + /l/ clusters, for example blue [blu]

Releases

Nasal Release When plosive sounds as /t/ or /d/ are put before a nasal sound /n/, their release turns into a nasal release, which is symbolized as [t nn] or [dnn] respectively, meaning that the sound you produce is still a release but with a different place of articulation. As goes the examples: /klaʊd naIn/ would turn into [klaʊdnnaIn] /aI dəʊnt nəʊ/ would turn into [aI dəʊntnnəʊ] Lateral Release It works nearly the same as with nasal release, but the difference lies in the sound following the plosives, which is the lateral sound /l/. This turns the phonemes into the allophones [tll] or [dll] as in the examples: /botl/ is turned into [botll] /kreIdl/ would now be [kreidll]

Coarticulations

When two sounds are produced by the same articulators, it is said that those are homorganic phonemes. When plosives are followed by a homorganic consonant, there is not a separate release, it’s better to say that the plosive is released through the following consonant. That is to say: <… but take…> [t^t] creating some kind of musical Saltillo from one /t/ to the other. Here’s a list of English’s plosive sounds, which homorganic sounds to coarticulate with and which one not to. Plosive /p/, /b/ /t/, /d/ /k/, /g/

With /p/, /b/ /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/ /k/, /g/

Not /m/ /l/, /n/ -

Labialization In English, /n/, /t/ and /d/ sounds change their point of articulation, becoming bilabial when followed by a bilabial sound. Phoneme /n/ /t/ /d/

Followed by /p/, /b/, /m/ /p/, /b/, /m/ /p/, /b/, /m/

Turns into /m/ /p/ /b/

Example /n p/ → [mp] /t p/ → [p p] /d p/ → [b p]

Velarization In the same way as labialization, when phonemes /n/, /t/ and /d/ are followed by a velar sound, they turn into a velar sound as well.

Phoneme /n/ /t/ /d/

Followed by /k/, /g/ /k/, /g/ /k/, /g/

Turns into /ŋ/ /k/ /g/

Example /n k/ → [ŋk] /t g/ → [kg] /d k/ → [g k]

Dentalization Sounds /t/, /d/, /l/ and /n/ change its pace of articulation to the teeth when being followed by the dental consonants /ð/ and /θ/. They have a [∏] symbol under the dentalized sound. -

Hit the road [t^ð] ∏

Some specific allophones for specific phonemes -

Dark l (for the /l/ sound)

Symbolized as [ɫ], it’s a velarized version of the /l/ sound. -

Flap (for the /t/ sound)

Symbolized as [ɾ], it’s used when the /t/ sound goes at the end of a word, between vowel sounds. -

Glotal stop (for the /t/ sound)

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Symbolized as [ʔ] voiceless glottal plosive, it’s used in a final syllable when preceded by a sonorant (nasal – liquid – semivowel) and followed by an obstruent (affricate – fricative – plosive). It’s used to add more emphasis and reinforce voiceless plosives.

One significant consequent change because of allophones is the syllabic consonant. This is because in English sometimes syllables would end being vowel-less. In this case, a consonant is needed to be the centre of that syllable, and that’s the syllabic consonant, which is symbolized by placing a [,] under the consonant.

Allophones’ definition applies to all languages, that is to say, the idea of allophone is the same in every language and dialect. When speaking about allophone you talk not only about sound variations, it also has to do with the different factors that have an influence when producing speech such as intention, emphasis, phonological rules, speed, context, , etc. These variations, which are not only specific alternative sounds but also processes that take place in spoken speech that result as different sounds; occur in consonants and vowel sounds, being these last ones the object of our analysis.