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From: hartsuiker@nici.kun.nl (Rob Hartsuiker)
Subject: Re: Phonemes from PlainTalk?
Message-ID: <hartsuiker-110294105401@psych5.psych.kun.nl>
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References: <2j7r62$56n@acorn.acorn.co.uk> <1994Feb11.131603.25221@waikato.ac.nz>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 09:41:15 GMT
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In article <1994Feb11.131603.25221@waikato.ac.nz>, ldo@waikato.ac.nz
(Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) wrote:
> The PlainTalk synthesizer also supports something called "allophones", which
																																																											^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> seem to be an even more elaborate form of phonemes.

'Allophones' are variants of a phoneme that differ only in non-distinctive
features. Take the /p/ in English as an example. It's aspired (puff of air)
in 'pot' but not aspired in 'spot'. Yet the aspiration feature doesn't
distinguish words from each other. Both allophones [p-aspired] and
[p-not_aspired] are allophones of /p/.

> Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-7-856-2889

Rob

Robert J. Hartsuiker
NICI, KU Nijmegen      
hartsuiker@nici.kun.nl      
phone: +31 80 612608       
                            
