18Phonology2-alt_removed (4).pdf

Back to Hindi — Does Hindi organize [ph] and [p] in the same way that English does? — Which diagram represents the way Hindi organizes these sounds? [p] phoneme phonemes /p/ [ph] /p/ [p] /ph/ [ph] allophones allophones 21 21 CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION One basic property of phonemes is tha...

Back to Hindi — Does Hindi organize [ph] and [p] in the same way that English does? — Which diagram represents the way Hindi organizes these sounds? [p] phoneme phonemes /p/ [ph] /p/ [p] /ph/ [ph] allophones allophones 21 21 CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION One basic property of phonemes is that they are contrastive – when two sounds are in a contrastive distribution: They can form minimal pairs. — We cannot predict the appearance of the allophones of these phonemes; they will not have a predictable sound environment. — Interchanging allophones from these two phonemes triggers a change (or contrast) in meaning. — 22 22 CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION For example, [ʃ] for [s] are in a contrastive distribution in English. You can see this if you substitute one for the other. If you tell a story about a really difficult class and how a very helpful study partner shaved you last semester, you are going to get some really strange looks… 23 23 COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION — Minimal pairs can help us to determine whether two sounds are allophones or phonemes, but the lack of a minimal pair does not necessarily indicate that two sounds belong to the same phoneme. For that, we need more proof. — The second way to determine whether two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme or belong to separate phonemes is to look for a complementary distribution. — In our class, if two allophones belong to the same phoneme, they will be in complementary distribution, and each allophone in the set will have a predictable environment. 24