LIN229H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Obstruent, Monogamy, Complementary Distribution
Document Summary
Phonemes and allophones are terms that we use to make sense of the ways sounds work in a language. The two sounds [m] and [n] are minimal pairs, because if we switch the [m] in /mit/ (meet), we get /nit/ (neat); meaning the words differ minimally by one sound only. By holding the other variables constant, we can see that switching the sound in question changes the meaning of the word; and if it does, it means there"s two different words and are therefore there"s two different sounds. This means that /m/ & /n/ are two distinct phonemes in english. The sounds [k] and [kh] are different, but we hear them as variants of the same sounds; therefore they are allophones of the phoneme /k/ In the example of input and imput, the /m/ and /n/ are variants of the same sounds and are thus allophones of the same phoneme - /n/
