Phonemes or allophones?

[nq:1]Hi all, My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not easy for me to hear the difference between the vowels in , say, 'fill' an 'feel'. But are they considered different phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme (in complementary distribution)?[/nq]
My native language is English and I haven't got a clue what you're talking about. I know, somehow, this must be a burning question, but is

[nq:1]My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not easy for me to hear the difference between the vowels in, say, 'fill' an 'feel'.[/nq]
To make it more fun for you, there's a small area of the United States where natives pronounce as (fIl) and as (fI:l), and where and sound (to most other Americans' ears) like homonyms.

[nq:1]My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not easy for me to hear the difference between the vowels in , say, 'fill' an 'feel'. But are they considered different phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme (in complementary distribution)?[/nq]
In, I believe, all native-speaker English dialects, "fill" and "feel" have different vowel phonemes. In Good Ol' ASCII IPA we generally use /I/ and

[nq:2]Hi all, My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not ... phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme (in complementary distribution)?[/nq]
[nq:1]My native language is English and I haven't got a clue what you're talking about. I know, somehow, this must be a burning question, but is it the most burning on your mind this Sunday morning?[/nq]
The better your knowledge of phonetics and

[nq:2]Hi all, My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not ... phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme (in complementary distribution)?[/nq]
[nq:1]My native language is English and I haven't got a clue what you're talking about. I know, somehow, this must be a burning question, but is it the most burning on your mind this Sunday morning?[/nq]
If you heard my Slavonic friends pronouncin

[nq:2]My native language is English and I haven't got a ... it the most burning on your mind this Sunday morning?[/nq]
[nq:1]If you heard my Slavonic friends pronouncing 'sheep/ship' or 'sheet/***' the same, you wouldn't think it was so pointless.[/nq]
My wife, a Filipina, also has trouble with the long "ee" sound, so it comes out short. "Heat" becomes "hit", and the like.

Skitt (

[nq:2]My native language is English and I haven't got a ... it the most burning on your mind this Sunday morning?[/nq]
[nq:1]If you heard my Slavonic friends pronouncing 'sheep/ship' or 'sheet/***' the same, you wouldn't think it was so pointless.[/nq]
An Indian student at my university used to have trouble with the phrases, "piece of paper" and "sheet of paper". One time, it is said, he a

[nq:2]My native language is English and I haven't got a ... it the most burning on your mind this Sunday morning?[/nq]
[nq:1]The better your knowledge of phonetics and phonemics, the closer you can get, when learning a foreign language, to speaking ... you pronounce the "p" in the French "pas beaucoup," for example, can mark you as a non-native speaker of French.[/nq]
I understand that, bu

[nq:2]My native language is Estonian. Thus it's not easy for ... phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme (in complementary distribution)?[/nq]
[nq:1]In, I believe, all native-speaker English dialects, "fill" and "feel" have different vowel phonemes. In Good Ol' ASCII IPA we generally use /I/ and /i/, respectively, to represent these phonemes.[/nq]
What's so *** good about it? Alls you n

[nq:2]The better your knowledge of phonetics and phonemics, the closer ... for example, can mark you as a non-nativespeaker of French.[/nq]
[nq:1]I understand that, but to learn how to pronounce "pas beaucoup", I listen to a French speaker say it. Simple. Perhaps I should, but I don't ask him about phonemes, allophones, or "complementary distributions" of anything. Why make life more complicat