Phonetics

Question

what is the difference between a morpheme , a phoneme and an allophone? and if possible could u provide examples for each; please?

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

A phoneme is a sound that is perceived as a "separate sound" and that changes the meaning of words. For example, /i/ is a phoneme that is found in the word "sheep", and /?/ is a phoneme that is found in the word "ship". The only difference between "sheep" and "ship" is one phoneme.

An allophone is a way of pronouncing one phoneme that doesn't change the way the phoneme is perceived, and so doesn't change the meaning of words. The word "lip" starts with the /l/ phoneme, and the word "call" ends with the same /l/ phoneme. However, they don't sound exactly the same, because when the /l/ comes at the end of a word it tends to be "darker" (velarized or pharyngealized). If you use the wrong allophone in the wrong place people will still understand you and recognize the right phoneme, but you will sound like you have a foreign accent or a strange accent.

A morpheme is "the smallest component of word, or other linguistic unit, that has semantic meaning" (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme ). There are some examples there. For example, the word "unbreakable" has three morphemes: un, break, and able. Each of those particles has a function or a meaning that can be used to build words. The word "cats" has two morphemes: cat, and the suffix s which makes the word "cat" plural.

Incoan · Answer

thanks. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Phonetics

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬