LinguisticsLesson 2 of 3 in the course Phonology

Phonemes, Allophones, and Sound-System Patterns

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

A phoneme is a basic sound category that speakers use to distinguish words. This lesson introduces the idea of phonemic contrast, the difference between phonemes and exact pronunciations, and the symbols linguists use to represent them.

A phoneme is a sound category, or a set of speech sounds, that speakers of a language perceive as a single basic unit and that can distinguish one word from another. For example, English /l/ and /t/ distinguish cell /sɛl/ from set /sɛt/. A change in one phoneme can therefore change a word's identity.

All flashcards

Phoneme
An abstract, language-specific sound category that can distinguish words.
Allophone
A pronunciation variant that a language treats as a realization of one phoneme.
Minimal pair
Two words differing in one sound in the same position and having different meanings.
Phonotactics
The patterns and restrictions governing possible sound sequences and positions in a language.
Neutralization
The loss of a phonemic contrast in a particular environment.

Quiz questions

  1. What makes two words a minimal pair?Answer: They differ in one sound in the same position and have different meanings.
  2. What describes complementary distribution between two allophones?Answer: They occur in different environments and normally do not occur in the same one.
  3. How does lexical tone differ from intonation?Answer: Lexical tone can distinguish words; intonation often conveys emphasis or attitude.
  4. What does phonotactics describe?Answer: Restrictions on possible sound sequences and their positions in a language.
  5. What does a morphophoneme represent?Answer: An abstract unit for a morpheme with sound forms that vary by conditions.

Based on the Wikipedia article Phoneme, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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