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sajida44
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what is the difference between phonemes and allophones I tried Wikipedia but I didn �t understand
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20 Apr 2014
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MoodyMoody
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Words are made up of sounds, or phones. Each letter of the IPA corresponds to a phone. A phoneme is the one sound perceived in a language. However, sometimes languages "hear" different phones as the same phoneme. Usually these different phones are used in different phonetic environments. These different phones are called allophones.
For example, in English, [p] and [ph] are different allophones of the phoneme /p/. [ph], or aspirated p, is used at the beginning of a syllable before a vowel. [p] is used before a consonant or at the end of a syllable. English speakers interpret the two allophones as the same sound or phoneme.
From what I understand, in Arabic, [b] and [p] are allophones of the phoneme /p/. This makes it more difficult for Arabic speakers to hear the difference between ban and pan in English, for example. |
20 Apr 2014
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