December 22, 2020


Definition

A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech sound that distinguishes one word from another word in a particular language. Each phoneme represents the smallest contrastive sound unit which may bring about a change in the word meaning. Traditionally, the linguists put the phonemes between slash marks. For instance: the words “mat” and “hat” are separated from each other based on the initial sound, that is /m/ and /h/ respectively.

Etymology

The English word phoneme was first used in the late 19th century. It came via the French word phonème, which was borrowed from Greek phōnēma meaning “speech sound or utterance”, from phōnein meaning “to make sounds, speak”, from phōnē, meaning “sound, voice”.


Origin of Phoneme

Discussion

The phonemes encompass the possible small subsets of sounds that humans can produce through the speech organs. However, not all of the producible speech sounds are categorized as distinct phonemes since a particular sound may be pronounced in many different ways. Hence, the number of distinct phonemes is always lesser than perceptively different sounds. The phoneme sets may vary depending on the language system. But the five vowel sounds /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/ are present in most languages. Likewise, the consonants /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/ are found nearly in all languages.

We should keep in mind that the phonemes are not letters; rather they simply refer to the sounds of a spoken utterance. Different phonemic symbols are employed to represent each phoneme. The one-part sounds are represented by a single letter, for instance, /p/ in “mop” and /t/ in “mat”. On the other hand, the two-part sounds are represented by a combination of letters, for example, /ʧ/ in “cherry” and /ʤ/ in “judge”.

The Functions of the Phonemes

The phonemes have the following three functions:

  • Distinctive Function: It is the principle function of the phonemes. The phonemes can distinguish one morpheme from others, one word from others. This function could be subcategorized  in the following vein:
    1. Morpheme distinctive: season-seasonal
    2. Word or form distinctive: /bad/-/lad/
    3. Sentence distinctive: Where is the hat? Where is the hut?
  • Constitutive Function: The phonemes in isolation do not convey any meaning, but when they are combined they constitute meaningful words and morphemes. For example, the English phonemes /t/, /æ/and /b/ may constitute the words /tæb/ “tab” and /bæt/ “bat”.
  • Recognitive (Identificatory) Function: We can separately recognize individual words due to the ordered cluster of their phonemes. Therefore, using the right phoneme in the right place is necessary to facilitate identifying different words.

Tools to identify a phoneme

Based on the phonological variation, the phonemes can be identified through the undermentioned tools:

1. Contrastive Sounds:

If two sounds are separate phonemes, then they are considered to be contrastive. Such sounds can be identified through the following principle:

Contrastive Distribution

In contrastive distribution when two sounds are placed in the same phonetic positions, they produce two different words.


Contrastive Distribution

Based on the contrastive distribution, different types of contrastive pairs could be taken into account to determine the phonemes of a language:
i. Minimal Pairs

Minimal pairs are two identical sounding words containing the same number of sounds that can be distinguished by a single phoneme appearing in the same position in both words. The criteria for determining a minimal pair are:

  • Both words will have the same number of sounds.
  • The adjacent sounds must be identical except for the contrastive sound.
  • The contrastive sound must be distributed in the same position in both words.
  • The words must be semantically different.

For example, “rice” and “lice” are different from each other in meaning as they have different initial phonemes, that is,  /r/ and /l/ respectively. 

ii. Minimal Sets

Minimal sets are more than two identical sounding words that can be differentiated by a single phoneme occurring in the same position in all the words. The following are the criteria for determining minimal sets:

  • A group of words.
  • The adjoining sounds must be identical except for one sound.
  • The contrasting sound must occur in the same place in the string.
  • All of the words must have different meanings.

For example, feat, fit, fat, fought, foot (vowel phonemes) and big, rig, fig, dig, wig (consonant phonemes).

iii. Near-minimal Pair

Where minimal pairs are not available, contrasts are illustrated through near-minimal pair. Near-minimal pair is a roughly identical pair of words having the dissimilar number of sounds that are distinguished by a few or more than one phoneme. Whereas minimal pairs are very limited in number, near minimal pairs are very easy to find. Therefore, the latter is the most dependable procedure for identifying phonemes.

Some examples of near-minimal pairs include:

get – guest

knees – sneeze

shoe – show

soup – snoop

tote – toast

feet – feast

2. Non-contrastive Sounds:

The sounds that do not make a difference in meaning are called non-contrastive sounds. Non-contrastive variants of a phoneme are referred to allophones. To be specific, when a phoneme is pronounced in two or more different ways then each variation is called the allophone of the same phoneme. They usually occur in different positions (i.e., environments or contexts) in the words.  However, these variations are not separate phonemes as they cannot contrast with each other, nor be employed to make meaningful distinctions.

The articulatory and acoustic distinctions of allophones are conditioned by:

  • The position of the sound.
  • The surrounding phonemes in the word or sentence.
  • The dialectal variations in pronunciation.
  • Language difference.
  • Social factors.
  • The pitch, tempo and stress of speech.

In contrast to phonemes, the allophones are written between square brackets. For example, in English, the phoneme /p/ has three variants:


Sl.

Allophones

Determining Factor

Distribution

Example

  1.  

[pʰ]

Strongly Aspirated

Word-initially

pot

  1.  

[p]

Weakly Aspirated

After “s”

spot

  1.  

[p¬]

Unaspirated

Word-finally

stop


There are different principles for discovering allophones:

i. Complementary Distribution

It is a distribution of a pair of speech sounds where the two sounds never occur in the same phonetic position. This simply means that only one sound of the pair will be found in a certain position, while the other sound will be found in everywhere else. They are generally the allophones of the same phoneme as they do not contrast with each other.

For example, in English, the aspirated [pʰ] can only be found at the beginning of a stressed syllable as in “pot”, while the unaspirated [p] is never found at the beginning of a syllable but can be found in other positions as in “spot”.


Complementary Distribution


ii. Free Variation

When two different sounds occur in the same phonetic position without causing any change of meaning are said to be in free variation. That means, this principle does not try to contrast meanings in two different words, rather it simply to shows that there are two different ways of pronouncing the same word. Such allophones of a phoneme may arise due to different dialects, sociolinguistic or geographical factors.

For example, the word “either” may be pronounced as [aɪðər] or [iːðər].

Free Variation

Types of Phonemes

1. Vowels

Features

Examples

Closeness

Frontness

Lip Rounding

 

 

Long Vowels

Close

Front

Unrounded

/i:/ as in sheep

Close

Back

Rounded

/u:/ as in food

Open-mid

Central

Unrounded

/ɜ:/ as in fern

Open-mid

Back

Rounded

/ɔ:/ as in board

Open

Back

Unrounded

/ɑ:/ as in car

 

 

 

Short Vowels

Near-close

Near-front

Unrounded

/ɪ/ as in ship

Near-close

Near-back

Rounded

/ʊ/ as in put

Open-mid

Front

Unrounded

/e/ as in pet

Near-open

Front

Unrounded

/æ/ as in cat

Open-mid

Back

Unrounded

/ʌ/ as in cup

Open

Back

Rounded

/ɒ/ as in dog

Mid

Central

Neutral

/ə/ as in garden


2. Diphthongs

Features

Examples

Starting  Point  of Glide

Finishing Point

Lip Rounding

 

 

 

Centring Diphthongs

/ɪ/

 

 

 

 

 

 

/ə/

The lips are neutral throughout, with a slight movement from spread to open

/ɪə / as in ear

/e/

The lips remain neutrally open throughout

/eə/ as in fare

/ʊ/

The lips are loosely rounded, becoming neutrally spread

/ʊə/ sure

 

 

 

 

 

Closing Diphthongs

/e/

 

 

 

/ɪ/

The lips are spread

/eɪ/ as in aid

/a/

The lips move from neutral to loosely spread

/aɪ/ as in isle

/ɔ/

Lips start open rounded and change to neutral

/ɔɪ/ as in oil

/ə/

 

 

 

 

/ʊ/

The lips are neutral but change to loosely rounded

/əʊ/ as in old

/a/

The lips start neutral with a movement to loosely rounded

/aʊ/ as in owl


3. Semi-vowels

Features

Examples

Place

Manner

Voicing

Lip Rounding

labio-velar

Glide

Voiced

Unrounded

/w/ as in west

Palatal

Glide

Voiced

Rounded

/j/as in yard


4. Consonants

Features

Examples

 

 

 

Plosives

Place

Manner

Voicing

Bilabial

Stop

Voiceless

/p/ as in pin

Stop

Voiced

/b/ as in bin

Alveolar

Stop

Voiceless

/t/ as in tin

Stop

Voiced

d/ as in dog

Velar

Stop

Voiceless

/k/ as in coffee

Stop

Voiced

/g/ as in gun

 

Nasals

Bilabial

Nasal

Voiced

/m/ as in mat

Alveolar

Nasal

Voiced

/n/ as in native

Velar

Nasal

Voiced

/ŋ/ as in bring

Affricates

Palato-alveolar

Affricate

Voiced

/ʧ/ as in cheap

Affricate

Voiceless

/dz/as in jam

 

 

 

 

Fricatives

Labio-dental

Fricative

Voiceless

/f/ as in fast

Fricative

Voiced

/v/ as in void

Dental

Fricative

Voiceless

/θ/ as in theme

Fricative

Voiced

/ð/ as in thus

Alveolar

Fricative

Voiceless

/s/ as in sit

Fricative

Voiced

/z/ as in zoo

Palato-alveolar

Fricative

Voiceless

/ʃ/ as in ship

Fricative

Voiced

/ʒ/ as in pleasure

Glottal

Fricative

Voiceless

/h/ as in hen

Lateral

Alveolar

Liquid

Voiced

/l/ as in lee

Alveolar

Liquid

Voiced

/ɫ / as in pool

Frictionless Continuant

Alveolar /Post-alveolar

Liquid

Voiced

/r/ as in rain





References

“Complementary distribution and Free variation.” ELLO. 2020. abergs. 14 November 2020

<http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/PhoneticsandPhonology/ComplementaryDistributionAndFreeVariation>.

 

 “Phoneme .” Wikipedia. 2020. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 14 November 2020

<https://www.thoughtco.com/phoneme-word-sounds-1691621>.

 

 “Phoneme .” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2020. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 14 November 2020

<https://www.britannica.com/topic/phoneme>.

 

 “Phoneme .” SIL. 2020. SIL International, Inc. 14 November 2020

<https://glossary.sil.org/term/phoneme>.

 

“Proverbs with diphthongs.” studfiles. 2020. studfiles. 14 November 2020

<https://studfile.net/preview/5650607/page:5/>.

 

Roach, Peter. English Phonetics and Phonology: A self-contained, comprehensive pronunciation course.

3rd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 2000.

 

Varshney, Dr. R.L.  An Introduction of Linguistics & Phonetics. Dhaka: BOC, n.d. 76-77.

 

Yule, George. The Study of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1996. 54-61.

 

 “What Is a Phoneme? .” ThoughtCo. 2020. dash. 14 December 2020

<https://www.thoughtco.com/phoneme-word-sounds-1691621>.

Tanvir Shameem Tanvir Shameem is not the biggest fan of teaching, but he is doing his best to write on various topics of language and literature just to guide thousands of students and researchers across the globe. You can always find him experimenting with presentation, style and diction. He will contribute as long as time permits. You can find him on:

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