Phonemes are the smallest units that distinguish meaning in a language. They are abstract and contrastive. Phones are concrete speech sounds that are realizations of phonemes. Allophones are variant phones that are predictable realizations of a single phoneme. Complementary distribution occurs when similar phones cannot appear in the same context and are considered allophones. Free variation occurs when phones can be substituted without changing meaning. The document also discusses syllable structure in English and features of consonant distribution and realization.

1. Phonemes/ Allophones/ Complimentary
Distribution/ Free Variations
Distribution and Realization of English
Consonants
The Syllable Structure
Prepared by: Zhian Fadhil Asaad

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What's Phoneme?
A phoneme is a basic unit of a language's phonology,
which is combined with other phonemes to form meaningful
units such as words .
The phoneme can be described as "The smallest
contrastive linguistic unit which may bring about a change
of meaning". In this way the difference in meaning between
the English words kill and kiss is a result of the exchange of
the phoneme /l/ for the phoneme /s/. Two words that differ
in meaning through a contrast of a single phoneme are
called minimal pairs. Gimson, ed. Cruttenden (2008). pp. 41
Phonemes are meaning distinguishing sounds ,they
contrastively and they are abstract .they are in the mind.
Fromkin &Rodman(2003).p283

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Phone and Allophone
Phone: is a term in phonetics to refer to the smallest
perceptible discrete segment of sound in stream of speech.
From the viewpoint of segmental Phonology , phones are
the physical realization ofphonemes.Crystal(2003),p347
Allophones: A set of phones all of which are version of one
phoneme ,An Allophone is therefore a predictable phonetic
variant of Phoneme. Fromkin &Rodman(2003).p285

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Distinguish between Phoneme and
Allophone
1.Phoneme:
 Substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with a
different meaning as well as a different pronunciation.
Recognized by speakers as separate sounds
We use slash // to enclose phonemes .
2. Allophone:
 Substituting one allophone for another would result in a different
pronunciation of the same word no change in the meaning.
Speakers hear them as the same sound.
We use square brackets [] for Allophones or Phones.
Yule (2006),p45

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Complimentary Distribution
Complementary distribution is commonly applied to phonology, where
similar phones in complementary distribution are usually allophones of
the same phoneme. For instance, in English, [p] and [pʰ] are
allophones of the phoneme /p/ because they occur in complementary
distribution. [pʰ] always occurs when it is the syllable onset and
followed by a stressed vowel (as in the word pin). [p] occurs in all other
situations (as in the word spin).
There are cases where elements are in complementary distribution, but
are not considered allophones. For example in English [h] and [ŋ] are in
complementary distribution, since [h] only occurs at the beginning of a
syllable and [ŋ] only at the end. But because they have so little in
common in phonetic terms they are still considered separate
phonemes.
When two or more sounds occur in the same phonemic context or
environment, they are said to be in Complimentary Distribution.
ex:
When oral vowel occur, nasal vowels don’t occur and vice versa. In this
sense the phones are said to complement each other.
Fromkin &Rodman(2003).p287,290

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Free Variation
Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more)
sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a
change in meaning and without being considered incorrect
by native speakers.
When phonemes are in free variation, speakers are sometimes
strongly aware of the fact especially where such variation is only
visible across a dialectal , and will note, for example,
that tomato is pronounced differently in British and American
English, or that either has two pronunciations which are fairly
randomly distributed. However, only a very small proportion of
English words show such variations. In the case of allophones,
however, free variation is exceedingly common, and, along with
differing intonation patterns, variation in allophone is the most
important single feature in the characterization of regional
accents
Clark, John Ellery; Yallop, Colin; Fletcher, Janet (2007).Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology.
Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 110, 116–18.

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Distribution and Realization of
English consonants
Distribution:
 the English stop consonants could be defined by the following set of
minimally contrasting words:-
 i) /pɪn/ vs /bɪn/ vs /tɪn/ vs /dɪn/ vs /kɪn/
 Only /ɡ/ does not occur in this paradigm and at least one minimal
pair must be found with each of the other 5 stops to prove
conclusively that it is not a variant form of one of them.
 Again, only five stops belong to this paradigm. A single minimal pair
contrasting /ɡ/ and /k/ is required now to fully demonstrate the set of
English stop consonants.
 /ɡæɪn/ vs /kæɪn/
 eg. In English, /h/ and /ŋ/ are in complementary distribution. /h/ only
ever occurs at the beginning of a syllable (head, heart, enhance,
perhaps) whilst /ŋ/ only ever occurs at the end of a syllable (sing,
singer, finger). They are, however, so dissimilar that no one regards
them as allophones of the one phoneme. They vary in place and
manner of articulation, as well as voicing. Further the places of
articulation (velar vs glottal) are quite remote from each other
and /h/ is oral whilst /ŋ/ is nasal.

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Aspiration – strong explosion of breath. In English a
voiceless plosive that is p, t or k is aspirated
whenever it stands as the only consonant at the
beginning of the stressed syllable.
Lack of plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g)
has no plosion when it is followed by another plosive
or an affricate inside words or across word boundary.
Nasal plosion – In English a plosive (p, t, k, b, d, g)
has nasal plosion when it’s followed by nasal, inside a
word or across word boundary.
Partial devoicing of sonorants – In English a non
vocalic sonorant that is not a vowel (j, w, l, r, m, n, ŋ)
is partially devoiced when it follows a voiceless sound
within the same way inside a word.
Complete devoicing of sonorants – In English a non
vocalic sonorant is completely devoiced in the
position of aspiration, when they follow a voiceless
plosives (p, t, k) standing as the first consonant at the
beginning of the stressed syllable.

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Partial devoicing of obstruents – in English language
a voiced obstruent is partially devoiced next to a
pause or next to a voiceless sound, inside a word or
across its boundary.
Dentalisation – in English t, d, n, l become dental
before voiced and voiceless English ‘th’ sound.
Retraction – in English t, d, n, l are retracted before r.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone

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The Syllable Structure
The structure of English spoken syllable can be
summarized as follows:
Minimally , a syllable consists of a vowel , or a vowel like
sound which acts as a nucleus ,center or pick of the
syllable.
Many syllables have one or more consonants preceding
the nucleus. These make up the syllable onset :me ,so,
play. Traditionally they are known as open syllables.
Many syllables have one or more consonants following
the nucleus. These make up syllables coda :am, ants, eel.
They are traditionally known as closed syllables.
Man syllables have both an onset and a coda :cat, jump.

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•The combination of nucleus and coda has a special
significance, making up the rhyming property of syllable:
cat sat, jump, clump .
In analysing syllable structure its important to look for the
pronunciation behind a word spelling. although ooze ends
in a written vowel , it ends in a spoken consonant and its
structure is VC. Similarly all is VC not VCC, jumped is
CVCCC not CVCCVC and fox is CVCC not CVC.
Crystal(2003)p246

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Syllabic Consonants
There is one exception to the rule that a syllable must have
a vowel as its nucleus. This occur when certain vowel like
consonants-/l/,/r/, or a nasal –act as the center of the
syllable , as in bottle /bDtl/,button /b tn/, and in thoseʌ
accents which pronounce /r/ perhaps /prhaps/.
syllable
onset rhyme
nucleus coda
Crystal(2003)p246

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References
 Cruttenden, Alan, 2008, Gimson's Pronunciation of
English, 7th ed., London.
 Clark, John Ellery; Yallop, Colin; Fletcher, Janet
(2007).Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Oxford:
Blackwell.
 David Crystal,2003,The Cambridge Ensyclopia of the
English Language,2nd
ed.
 Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman,2003,An Introduction
to Language,7th
ed.
 George Yule,2006,The Study of Language, 3rd
ed.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone