THE PHONEMIC PRINCIPLE

LNG2063
PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGY
• Phonemes are the basic unit of sound and are sensed in
your mind rather than spoken or heard
• Phonemes are often presented surrounded by // in
transcription (e.g. /p/ and /b/ in English pat, bat).
• So /p/ and /b/ are two phonemes because they can
distinguish between the words "pat" and "bat". /c/ is
another, because it distinguishes the word "cat" from
"pat" and "bat".
Allophones
Allophones
• if two sounds occur in non-overlapping, predictable sets of
contexts, and if substituting one for the other does not make a
semantic difference, then those two sounds must necessarily be
allophones of a single phoneme
• Allophone: the different phonetic realization of a phoneme.
• Top [t ͪap] Stop [stap] Little [lɪɾl] Kitten [kɪʔn]
• Phoneme: /t/
• Allophone: [t ͪ] [t] [ɾ] [ʔ]
• An allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds
(or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme (Jakobson,
1980).
• Allophones do not change the meaning of a word
• Allophones happen because of the position of a phoneme and
the phonetic characteristics of neighboring sounds
• Characterized by strong explosion of breath or puff.
• It happens to voiceless plosive consonants ( /p/ /t/ /k/ ) in the initial position.
• [t]/[k]/[p] can (and must) be aspirated when they are the first sound in a syllable (onset).

• When [p], [t], and [k] are not pronounced with a release of air, we describe them as
being UNASPIRATED. o We can represent unaspirated phones by leaving off the
superscript.
 Word Type of word Tendency Exceptions
stress on the first
apple
syllable hotel
table two-syllable nouns and adjectives
Oo lagoon
happy
apple
the noun has stress on
the first syllable
Oo
suspect
words which can be used as both "You are the suspect!" respect
import
nouns and verbs the verb has stress on witness
insult
the second syllable
oO
"I suspect you."
fairly equally balanced
but with stronger stress
hairbrush
compound nouns on the first part
football
Oo
hairbrush
 Minimal pairs
 A minimal pair is two words with different meanings that are
identical except for one sound that occurs in the same place in
each word or Two (or more) words that differ only by a single
sound in the same position and that have different meanings
- m/n: [sᴧm] ‘sum’ vs [sᴧn] ‘sun’
- k/g: [kɪl] ‘kill vs [gɪl] ‘gill’
 Homophones
• Homophones are words which sound the same but are
written differently. Thanks to the irregularity of its
spelling, there are countless examples in English, for
instance:
Bear-bare, meat- meet, sun-son, sent-scent
Homophones or minimal pairs?
Homophones or minimal pairs?
Homophones or minimal pairs?
Homophones or minimal pairs?
Homophones or minimal pairs?
Homophones or minimal pairs?
The following spelling errors would be impossible for most
computer spelling checkers to deal with. Supply a suitable
homophone to correct each of the sentences
1. You’ll get a really accurate wait if you use these electronic scales
2. Why don’t you join a quire if you like singing so much?
3. The people standing on the key saw Megan sail past in her yacht
4. Harry simply guest, but luckily he got the right answer.
5. Passengers are requested to form an orderly cue at the bus stop.
6. The primary task of any doctor is to heel the sick.
7. For breakfast, many people choose to eat a serial with milk.
8. Janet tried extremely hard, but it was all in vein, I’m sad to say