the sounds [x] and [y] are not in free variation, that is, there is a difference in meaning. If there are no minimal pairs and distribution is complementary, the two (allo)phones [x], [y] are variants of the same phoneme /x/ and.

Only some of the variation is significant, by being detectable or perceivable, to speakers. There are two types of allophones, based on whether a phoneme must be pronounced using a specific allophone in a specific situation or whether the speaker has the unconscious freedom to choose the allophone that is used.

Allophones. Allophones are the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme. In other words a phoneme may be realised by more than one speech sound and the selection of each variant is usually conditioned by the phonetic environment of the phoneme.

21/10/2019 · From English Wiki. Jump to navigation Jump to search. An allophone is a variant sound of a phoneme (from Greek állos "other" and phōnē, "voice, sound"). A phoneme is regarded by native speakers of a language as a single sound, though actually any vowel or consonant is pronounced differently in different contexts.