Allophones of Consonants

8/10/2019 Allophones of Consonants

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/allophones-of-consonants 1/22

Phonemes, Allophones, and

Changes in NAE Consonants

Marla Yoshida

University of California Irvine Extension

International Programs

Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate Program

•Next slide •Previous slide •Title slide

Thursday, March 1, 12



Review: Phonemes and Allophones

Every language has its own set of phonemes.

Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language–thesounds that a native speaker of the language considersto be separate sounds.

Changing from one phoneme to another changes themeaning of a word. Sometimes it makes a wordmeaningless.






Variations of a phoneme that are still heard to be the

same sound are called allophones of the same phoneme.They’re different sounds that function as the samesound.

A phoneme is an abstract concept. It’s related to the

way our minds perceive and categorize sounds–not somuch to the physical sounds themselves.






Every language has its own set of phonemes. No two

languages have exactly the same system.

Two sounds that are separate phonemes in onelanguage might be heard as the same sound in another

language–in that language, they’re just differentallophones of the same phoneme.

When we learn a new language, we have to learn a newset of phonemes. We can’t just keep using thephonemes of our own language.






To distinguish phonemes from allophones when we write

IPA symbols, we put slash marks around phonemes:

“pat” “button” “city” “pull”

/p Q t/ /b!" t n/ /s I"t i y/ /p U l /

When we want to record smaller details, or differentallophones of the phonemes, we put square bracketsaround the symbols:

[ p H Q tº] [b!" / n] [s I"R i y] [ p H U ]

Keep reading to find out what these new symbols mean.





Allophonic variations in consonants

Of all the consonant variations in North American

English, these are the ones that are most important foryou to know about as a teacher:

• Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/

• Flaps and glottal stops as allophones of /t/

• “Dark /l/” and “light /l/”





Allophones of voiceless stops

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

1. When /p/, /t/, and /k/ come at the beginning

of a word or the beginning of a stressedsyllable, they are aspirated. That is, they arepronounced with a puff of air. Werepresent these sounds by adding a small

“h” to the phonemic symbol:

[ph] pan, price, potáto, appéar[th] top, táble, togéther, atténd[k h] can, k éttle, compúter, accúse

pie





2. When /p/, /t/, or /k/ have /s/ before them at the

beginning of a word, they are unaspirated. There is nopuff of air. To represent these sounds, we don’t addanything to their phonemic symbols.

[p] span, spécial, spring[t] stop, stáple, string[k] scan, scátter, screen

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

spy





3. When /p/, /t/, or /k/ comes at the end of a word, it is

often unreleased. We start to say the sound byblocking off the air flow in our mouth, but we don’trelease the air. We add a small circle to thephonemic symbol to represent these sounds.

[pº] stop, hope, devélop[tº] coat, state, básket[kº] back , cak e, stómach

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

cup




What about voiced stops?

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

cub

Voiced stops in English (/b/, /d/, /g/) are

never aspirated. They don’t have a puff ofair in any position.

Voiced stops are often unreleased at the

end of a word, just like voiceless stops:

/b/ rob, ádverb/d/ bad, avóid /g/ big, ládybug




More allophones of /t/

We’ve just learned about three allophones of /t/:

The aspirated one [th] in “top”The unaspirated one [t] in “stop”The unreleased one [tº] in “coat”

In North American English, /t/ has two more importantallophones that /p/ and /k/ don’t have.

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide




The flap as an allophone of /t/

The first “extra allophone” is the sound that we usually

hear in NAE in the middle of the words water, ci t y, orbottle. This is a voiced sound. The tongue taps the alveolarridge very quickly, so that it sounds like a quick /d/. This iscalled an alveolar flap or tap, and it is represented by this

symbol: [R].

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

R





The following sentence has four flaps:

The wáiter bróught us some wáter and bútter.

Sometimes words with /t/ sound just like words with /d/:

látter / ládder wrí ting / rí ding métal / médal

If students pronounce these words with a non-flap /t /, it’sOK. They can still be understood.

The wáiter bróught us some wáter and bútter.

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide





/t/ is pronounced as a flap when two things happen:

1. /t/ comes between vowels or a vowel followed by /r/.

2. The syllable before it is stressed, and the syllable afterit is unstressed.

•Next slide

•Previous slide

•Title slide

/t/ is a flap /t/ is not a flap

fórtyátommátter

státedréticent

fourtéenatómicmáster

statísticretúrn

V t VV t V




The glottal stop as an allophone of /t/

The phoneme /t/ can also be pronounced as a glottal

stop, represented by this symbol: [/]. To produce this

sound, the vocal cords close tightly and then openquickly. It’s like the beginning of a small cough, or themiddle sound when we say “huh-uh” to mean “no.”

The following sentence can have five glottal stops.

Mártin Bénton sells búttons and cótton cúrtains.

We can also say these words with “regular” /t/ soundsinstead of glottal stops.

Mártin Bénton sells búttons and cótton cúrtains.






/t/ can be pronounced as a glottal stop when two things

happen:1. The syllable before it is stressed, and the syllable after

it is unstressed.

2. The syllable after it is /´ n/ or a syllabic /n/. (That is,

the /´/ sound disappears and /n/ becomes the whole

syllable. The symbol for syllabic /n/ is [n ` ].)

kitten button mountain sentence certain


V t VV t /´ n/

.





It’s not absolutely necessary for learners to

pronounce the flap [R] and glottal stop [/] allophonesof /t/, but they need to understand them when theyhear them. And in normal NAE speech, they willhear them often.





“Light /l/” and “dark /l/”

The phoneme /l/ is said to have two allophones: “light”

or alveolar /l/ [ l ] and “dark,” or velarized /l/ [ …]. This iswhat most books say about light and dark /l/:

Light /l/ is pronounced with the tip of the tongue onthe alveolar ridge and the back of the tongue down. It’sused at the beginning of words and before front vowels:

lip leap late timely

Dark /l/ is pronounced with the back of the tongue up,

near the velum. The tip of the tongue can be on thealveolar ridge, or it might be lower. Dark /l/ is used atthe end of a word and before back vowels.

pull fault hollow holes





“Light /l/” and “dark /l/”

However, many Americans don’t make a clear distinction

between dark and light /l/. They may pronounce an /l/that’s similar to a dark /l/ in all positions.

(The difference between light and dark /l/ is much greater

in British English than in American English, especially insome dialects, where final /l/ turns into /o/ or /u/.)

Because the difference between light /l/ and dark /l/ doesnot result in pronunciation that’s hard to understand, it’s

best not to be too concerned about the distinctionbetween the two kinds of /l/.





Summary

• Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language.

Every language has its own set of phonemes.• Variations of a phoneme that still function as the same

sound are called allophones of the same phoneme.

• Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/

• Aspirated at the beginning of words:[ph] as in pan, [th] as in tan, [k h] as in can,

• Unaspirated after /s/ at the beginning of words:[p] as in span, [t] as in stand, [k] as in scan

• Unreleased at the ends of words:/b/ as in rob, /d/ as in bad, /g/ as in big





Summary

• In NAE, /t/ has two more important allophones:

• /t/ becomes a flap in this situation:Stressed vowel + /t/ + unstressed vowel

• /t / can become a glottal stop in this situation:Stressed vowel + /t/ + /´ n/

• “Light /l/” and “dark /l/”

• “Light /l/” occurs at the beginning of words orbefore front vowels.

• “Dark /l/” occurs at the end of words or before

back vowels.• Most Americans don’t strongly differentiate thesetwo /l/ sounds. The difference is not very important.


Allophones of Consonants

Documents

Transcript of Allophones of Consonants