English and Arabic Phonemes and Allophones

Give examples of English and Arabic phonemes and Allophones (at least 3
examples from each language and explain them)

A phoneme is the individual level of sound in speech. Throughout the mid-
twentieth century, numerous theories have emerged in the attempt to precisely
define the phoneme and provide an accurate model of its use across different
languages. Linguistic schools in both the former Soviet Union and the United States
developed a standard definition of the term around the 1950s: a phoneme is the
smallest phonic (having to do with sound) constituent of a word form, one which
cannot be broken down into smaller constituents. A phoneme is thus differentiated
from something like a syllable, which can be broken down into constituent
phonemes. For example, in the word “cantaloupe”, there are three distinguishable
syllables (“can,” “ta,” and “loupe”), because syllables are broken down according
to the presence of a vowel. However, each of these can further be broken down into
the individuals sounds (phonemes) that make up the syllable (“can” = /c/, /a/, and
/n/).
The definition of a phoneme is not the same as that of a letter, however, because
there are several phonemes in different languages that are made up of multiple
letters acting together. In English, a common, multi-letter phoneme is /th/, such as
in the word “this.” The “th” in this word is the first distinguishable sound that the
language produces. The theory of phonemes is even more important in a language
like Russian, in which individual letters serve the same function as consonant
clusters do in English. For example, the Russian letter “ч” (pronounced “ch”) takes
the place of a sound that requires two letters in English. Thus, phonemes are
distinguished entirely by their contributions to individual sounds in speech, not by
how many letters make them up.
An allophone is a various articulation of the same phoneme. In general, each
allophone can only occur in speech environments in which none of the other
allophones of the same phoneme occur. Allophones are formed through the
different enunciative positions the mouth can take. An example of this would be the
English words “hot” and “top.” Here, both words consist of the /t/ phoneme.
However, the word “top” enunciates the /t/ via complete aspiration of the letter,
whereas the word “hot” enunciates the /t/ via a glottal stop (whereby a phoneme is
pronounced and heard by the audible release of air from the airstream). Thus,
phonemes in any language can have multiple different allophones.
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. When children first begin to
read, we teach that phonemes have distinctive sounds that are represented by letters
and that each phoneme carries distinct word meaning. For example, the word 'cat'
has three phonemes, 'c' 'a' and 't', but if 'c' is changed for the other phoneme 'mat',
the meaning of the word changes.
Allophones are variations in the realization (or sound) of phonemes, like the
different pronunciations of the phoneme 't' in the word 'tar' and the word 'letter',
where the 't' allophone (sound) is softened to a 'd' sound. Allophones do not indicate
a change in the meaning of the word, nor do they indicate a change in the phoneme
used to make up the word.
A difference between the two is that changing the phoneme changes the meaning of
the word, whereas changing the allophone changes the sound of the realization of
word but does not change the meaning of the word.
Even in the most formal of conventions, pronunciation depends upon a speaker's
background.[13] Nevertheless, the number and phonetic character of most of the 28
consonants has a broad degree of regularity among Arabic-speaking regions. Note
that Arabic is particularly rich in uvular, pharyngeal, and pharyngealized
("emphatic") sounds. The emphatic coronals (/sˤ/, /dˤ/, /tˤ/, and /ðˤ/) cause
assimilation of emphasis to adjacent non-emphatic coronal consonants.[citation
needed] The phonemes /p/ ⟨‫ ⟩پ‬and /v/ ⟨‫( ⟩ڤ‬not used by all speakers) are not
considered to be part of the phonemic inventory, as they exist only in foreign words
and they can be pronounced as /b/ ⟨‫ ⟩ب‬and /f/ ⟨‫ ⟩ف‬respectively depending on the
speaker.[12][14] The standard pronunciation of ⟨‫ ⟩ج‬/d͡ʒ/ varies regionally, most
prominently [d͡ʒ] in the Arabian Peninsula, parts of the Levant, Iraq, and northern
Algeria, it is also considered as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic
outside the Arab world, [ʒ] in most of Northwest Africa and the Levant, [g] in
Egypt, coastal Yemen, and south coastal Oman, as well as [ɟ] in Sudan.
Note: the table and notes below discusses the phonology of Modern Standard
Arabic among Arabic speakers and not regional dialects.
Example of English and Arabic phonemes:
English:
/p/ voiceless bilabial stop as in 'pot'
/b/ voiced bilabial stop as in 'bat'
/t/ voiceless apico-alveolar stop as in 'tub'
/d/ voiced apico-alveolar stop as in 'dog'
Arabic:
/i/ (high front) as in 'tibb'
/u/ (high back) as in 'kutub'
/a/ (low back) as in 'katab'

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Give examples of English and Arabic phonemes and Allophones (at least 3

examples from each language and explain them)

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