associated with neutralization there is a term for the phonemes which is neutralized (suspended), is called An archiphoneme is a phonological unit which expresses the common features of two or more phonemes which are involved in a neutralization. capitalized /T/ between /t/ and /d/ for example: minimal pairs can be found for /t/ and /d/ initially, as in till versus dill; medially, in matter versus madder; finally, as in lit versus lid; and in consonant clusters, as in trill, font versus drill, fond – and the same is true for the labial and velar plosives. However, no contrast is possible in an initial cluster, after /s/: spill, still and skill are perfectly normal English words, but there is no *sbill, *sdill or *sgill. SO The archiphoneme /T/ is proposed where the normal opposition between /t/ and /d/ is suspended, so neither /t/ nor /d/ is a possibility. /T/ is an intermediate form, sharing the feature values common to /t/ and /d/, but with no value possible for voicing, since there is no contrast of voiced and voiceless in this context.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 23:06:29 +0000