Applied English Phonology, Second Edition ( PDFDrive )

PHONOLOGY 31
represented by the same grapheme in the third and the fourth words is a
fricative, [D]. In a way similar to what happened in the above case with different
nasals in English, Spanish speakers overlook the phonetically different
sounds, because their language does not employ the phonetic difference
between these two sounds in a structurally significant fashion. If, on the other
hand, we give two words containing the same two sounds to a speaker of English,
the difference between [3] and [D] will be immediately noticed. The reason for
this is that the difference between these two sounds is very critical in English
and can separate one word from another, as exemplified by the pair of words
day [de] and they [De].
When such mismatches are pointed out to the speakers of languages where
phonetic differences are overlooked, one very often sees an attempt to justify
this by suggesting that whatever difference is overlooked presents a very small
difference phonetically, whereas the immediately noticed one is very obvious.
That is, in the case of English, the speakers would defend the situation by saying
that the differences among the nasals [n, 6, N, Â] is small and may not be perceptible,
while the difference between [d] and [D] is larger and is easily noticed.
That such explanations cannot be taken seriously becomes obvious when we
switch the cases around and put the same questions to Malayalam speakers
for the difference between [6] and [n], and to Spanish speakers for [3] and [D].
The answers we will get will be diametrically opposed to what we receive from
speakers of English. We are likely to be told how obvious the difference
between the dental and alveolar nasals is by Malayalam speakers, and how
insignificant the difference is between [3] and [D] by speakers of Spanish. These
examples show that whether the users of a given language would be attuned
to a given phonetic difference simply depends on whether that difference is
contrastive (capable of changing the meaning of words) in that language.
Whether a given phonetic difference is meaningful (i.e. easily perceived, catches
the attention of native speakers, etc.) has to do with the functional (contrastive)
status in a language, and this has to do with the distribution of sounds
in a given sound system.
2.2 Complementary versus Overlapping Distribution
2.2.1 Overlapping distribution and contrast
In languages, sounds are in either of two types of distribution. When two sounds
are capable of occurring in the same environment, we say that these sounds
are in overlapping distribution. For example, the sounds [l] and [@] are in
overlapping distribution in English, because they can be found in the same
environment, as exemplified by the following pairs of words:
(a)
(b)
(c)
lake [lek] – rake [@ek]
mole [mol] – more [mo@]
elect [IlEkt] – erect [I@Ekt]