ɒ vs ʌ - allophones of the same phoneme?

Question

Hi everyone!Can someone please explain the difference between seperate phonemes and allophones of the same phoneme?E.g. with the vowels such as /?/ and /?/I guess they have different pronunciations, [oh] and [ah] so would that make them allophones of the same phonemesThanks for the help!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymousCan someone please explain the difference between separate ~~phonemes and~~ allophones of the same phoneme?

You can't have separate phonemes of the same phoneme, if that's what you meant. "Separate phonemes" are simply different phonemes, like /k/ and /æ/.

Basic definition of "allophone": one of the slightly different ways that a phoneme can be pronounced.

Phonemes are symbolized / ... /. Allophones are symbolized [ ... ].

Phonemes are abstractions. Basic fact: You cannot hear a phoneme. You can only hear its allophones.

The allophones of a phoneme are all the different ways of pronouncing the same phoneme. The symbol for the phoneme represents all of its allophones, and it is usually chosen to be the same as the most often heard allophone.

In American English the word "saw" is pronounced differently depending what region of the country you are from. On the East Coast you hear [s?], for example, and in the Midwest you are more likely to hear [sa]. So both [?] and [a] are used in the same place in the same word. They are allophones of the same phoneme. But what should we choose to represent the phoneme? [?] or [a]? It turns out that the best choice for the phoneme is /?/ (for reasons I won't go into). Note the difference between [?] and /?/.

The word "pen" is another case. In the Colorado region it's pronounced [p?n], but in most of the rest of the country it's pronounced [p?n]. Thus, [?] and [?] are allophones of the same phoneme. The phoneme in this case is /?/.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

I hope that helped.

CJ

ɒ vs ʌ - allophones of the same phoneme?

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