Welcome to
ESL Printables, the website where English Language teachers exchange resources: worksheets, lesson plans,  activities, etc.
Our collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If you want to download you have to send your own contributions.

 


 

 

 

ESL Forum:

Techniques and methods in Language Teaching

Games, activities and teaching ideas

Grammar and Linguistics

Teaching material

Concerning worksheets

Concerning powerpoints

Concerning online exercises

Make suggestions, report errors

Ask for help

Message board

 

ESL forum > Message board > help    

help



sajida44
Egypt

help
 
what is the difference between  phonemes and allophones 
I tried Wikipedia but I didn �t understand

20 Apr 2014      





MoodyMoody
United States

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