Allophones

Qn ) What do you understand by the term "allophones' . Provide 2 examples of allophones in English

Define allophones

Allophones are varieties of the same phoneme, depending on where the phoneme is placed in the syllable

Eg- compare spit and pit
in the 2 words, there are 2 allophones of the same phoneme /p/

1) pit - short air release puff of air which is known as aspiration.
thus, /p/ is aspirated

2) spit - no short air release - not aspirated
thus /p/ is unaspirated.

thus, we say that [ph] is an aspirated allophone of phoneme /p/ which occurs at the start of the syllable
while [p] is an unaspirated allophone of phoneme /p/ which occurs after /s/

other examples would be school vs cool; allophones of /k/
top vs stop ; allophones of /t/