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

2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. Distribution and Realization of
English consonants
Distribution: Distributional ideas were originally developed in
phonology, but were later extended to other linguistic units. In
some approaches, the notion of distribution became a major
explanatory principle, being seen as a possible way of grouping
sounds into phonemes without reference to the meaning or
grammatical properties of the words in which they appear – or
even to the phonetic similarities existing between them. On this
basis, for instance, [h] and [o] in English might be considered
members of the same phoneme, because they never share the
same set of environments. In phonemic phonology, the most
important continuing use of the term is in the phrase.
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8. complementary distribution, which refers to the status of
related sounds (or allophones) when they are found in mutually
exclusive environments, as in the use of a dental v. an alveolar
allophone of /t/ in English, e.g. eight v. eighth. (In generative
phonology, on the other hand, distributional statements of this
kind are handled by a formulation in terms of phonological rules .)
Crystal(2003)p147
Realization: The physical expression of an abstract linguistic unit
example ,phonemes are realized in phonic substance as phones
.as a technical term this word is used to refer to the act of
pronouncing a phoneme. Since phonemes are said to be
abstract units ,they are not physically real. when we speak we
produce sounds ,and these are the physical realisation of the
phonemes. Each realisation is different from the other since you
can never do the same thing twice, but also some realizations
are noticeably different in quality from others, example: the
English phoneme /l/is sometimes realised as a clear l and
sometime as a dark l. Crystal(2003)p387,Peter Roach(2002)p63
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9. 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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10. •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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11. 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 /bʌtn/, and in those
accents which pronounce /r/ perhaps /prhaps/.
syllable
onset
rhyme
nucleus coda
Crystal(2003)p246
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12. 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 Encyclopedia 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.
 Peter Roach(2002),A Little Encyclopedia of Phonetics
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