* Phoneme: A basic unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word. Think of them as the building blocks of language.
* Example: The sounds /p/ and /b/ are phonemes in English because they distinguish words like "pat" and "bat".
* Allophone: A variant pronunciation of a phoneme. They are different ways of producing the same sound, but they don't change the meaning of the word.
* Example: The "t" sound in "top" and "stop" are allophones of the same phoneme. They are pronounced differently (aspirated vs. unaspirated), but they don't change the meaning of the words.
Why this matters:
* Minimal pairs: Phonemes can create minimal pairs, words that differ only by one sound. Allophones do not.
* Meaning: Changing an allophone doesn't change the meaning of a word. It might sound slightly different, but it's still the same word.
Think of it this way:
Imagine you have two different versions of the same key, both fitting the same lock.
* The key represents a phoneme.
* The different versions of the key represent allophones.
They are different, but they both unlock the same "meaning" (the lock).
In summary:
Allophones are variations within a phoneme. They are the same sound phonetically but may vary slightly in pronunciation depending on the context. Phonemes, on the other hand, are the basic building blocks of language, and their presence or absence changes the meaning of a word.