Allophones

What are allophones?

Free variations or different realizations of the same phoneme that do not change the meaning of words.

What is a principal allophone?

The most common or neutral pronunciation of a phoneme.

subsidiary allophones

Variations that occur in specific phonetic contexts, such as the /d/ sound being palatalized, lacking plosion, or becoming dental in different environments

How is /d/ pronounced before front vowels or the sonorant /j/?

It is slightly palatalized, as in “deal” or “day.”

Subsidiary Allophones of /d/

1. How is /d/ pronounced before front vowels or the sonorant /j/?

   • It is slightly palatalized, as in “deal” or “day.”

2. What happens to /d/ when it is followed by another stop?

   • It is pronounced without plosion, as in “bad pain.”

3. How is /d/ pronounced before nasal sonorants like /n/ and /m/?

   • It is pronounced with nasal plosion, as in “sudden” or “admit.”

4. How does /d/ change before the lateral sonorant /l/?

   • The plosion becomes lateral, as in “middle” or “bad light.”

5. How does /d/ change when followed by /r/?

   • It becomes post-alveolar, as in “dry” or “dream.”

6. What happens to /d/ when followed by the interdental sounds /θ/ or /ð/?

   • It becomes dental, as in “breadth” or “good thing.”

7. How does /d/ change when followed by the labial sound /w/?

   • It becomes labialized, as in “dweller.”

Positional Variations of /d/

1. What is the characteristic of /d/ in the initial position?

   • It is partially devoiced, as in “dog.”

2. How is /d/ pronounced in the intervocalic position or when followed by a sonorant?

   • It is fully voiced, as in “leader” or “order.”

3. What happens to /d/ in the word-final position?

   • It is voiceless, as in “road” or “old.”

What is complementary distribution?

When allophones of the same phoneme appear in different, non-overlapping phonetic environments, such as aspirated [k] in “cool” versus unaspirated [k] in “school.”

What is contrastive distribution?

When sounds in the same environment change meanings, as seen in minimal pairs like “ten” vs. “pen.”

What is broad (phonemic) transcription?

It represents only the phonemes without showing detailed variations, such as “farmer” as /ˈfɑːmə/.

What is narrow (allophonic) transcription?

It captures precise allophonic details, showing specific articulatory features, like “farmer” transcribed as [fɑ͟ː(r)mə(r)].