Distribution of Speech Sounds

Distribution of Speech Sounds
The set of phonetic environments in which a phone occurs

- In English, vowels preceding a nasal consonant become nasalized

bead [bid] bead [bĩn]

pit [phIt] pin [phĨn]

- In English, voiceless stops –/p/, /t/, /k/ -in word-initial position become aspirated

top [thap] stop [stap]

pot [pht] spot [spat]

cop [khap] Scot [skat]

- In English, voiceless stops –/p/, /t/, /k/ - in word-final position, at the end of an utterance, can be unreleased.

mop [map΄] Where’s the mop?

bit [bIt΄] Can I have a bit?

pick [phIk΄] That’s a nice pick.

- In English, velar stops –/k/, /g/ - preceding a front vowel become palatilized

keep [ķhip(΄)] cop [khap(΄)]

gate [gejt(΄)] goat [gowt(΄)]

- In English, alveodental stops –/t/, /d/ - following a stressed vowel and preceding an unstressed vowel can be pronounced as flaps

b΄itter [bIDґ]

b΄idder [bIDґ]

Contrastive Distribution

A pair of phones is contrastive if interchanging the two, results in a new word

- The sounds occur in the same environment, and

- Contrast meanings - make different words

- They are Different Phonemes

- In English: /p/ vs. /b/ à pat vs. bat /p/ with its phonetic variants [ph], [p], [p(΄)] is a distinct phoneme

- In Hindi: /ph/ vs. /p/ à [phәl] ‘fruit’ vs. [pәl] ‘moment’ /p/ and /ph/are distinct phoneme in English: /l/ vs. /r/ à leaf vs. reef /l/ and /r/ are distinct phonemes

Complementary Distribution
- Two sounds in complementary distribution are in mutually exclusive distributions

- The sounds always appear in different phonetic environments

- Phones in complementary distribution are allophones of the same

Phoneme.
- In English: /p/

· [ph] aspirated in word-initial position

· [p] unaspirated when following /s/ /k/

· [ķh] palatalized in word-initial position before a front vowel kit

· [kh] aspirated in word-initial position preceding other vowels cop

· [ķ] palatalized preceding front vowels skip

· [k] in other environments Scot/i/

· [ĩ] nasalized before a nasal consonant pin

· [i] oral (non-nazal) in all other environments pit

- In Korean: [l] vs. [r]

· [r] occurs between vowel

· [l] never occurs between vowels

Free Variation

- Variants of a phoneme that can replace one another in exactly the same environment are called free variants.

- There is a tremendous amount of free variation in speech which goes entirely unnoticed

- In English: the alternation between word-final released and non-released stops is an example of free variation

- Word-final stops can be optionally non-released at the end of an utterance à [p(΄)] - [map(΄)]