phoneme vrs. allophone

[Coon, Brad]

A simple one that springs to mind is English /t/ which has several
allophones.
In [top], the [t] is aspirated (has a breathy [h] like quality to it)
whereas
in [stop], it doesn't.  I can't represent them correctly with this keyboard
and email program but if we designate them as [t] in [stop] and [t'] in
[top], these two are allophones of /t/.

Brad Coon                             (406) 994-6026
Reference Librarian              bcoon at montana.edu

The Libraries, Montana State University-Bozeman
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT 59717-3320

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Darryl Rvthering [SMTP:drothering at hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Friday, February 11, 2000 1:32 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	phoneme vrs. allophone
>
> I'm a newcomer to this list, and maybe I am out of my depth, so apologies
> in
> advance.
>
> Could one of you linguists give an english (or Spanish) example of an
> allophone? I'm having trouble concetizing this notion. I think the example
>
> of a phoneme is simple, correct me if I'm wrong:
> cat cad :> one sound difference, and a verifiable meaning difference.
>
> Is an allophone something like the difference between Brittish /tomahto/
> and
> American /tomayto/? Or am I barking up a bad tree?
>
> Regards,
>
> Darryl
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