Allophones are variations on a phoneme. We were asked to consider the phoneme /p/ and try to find variations of /p/ in the English language in order to determine its allophones. The primary allophones for /p/ are [p] and [ph]. This variation can be seen is words such as pit and spit. Pit uses the [p] phoneme and spit uses the [ph] phoneme but they are allophones because they are treated the same in the English language. However, not all languages have the same allophones. The fact that allophones are distinct to individual languages is what can cause confusion for learners. Learners may not have the same allophones in their language and therefore might ignore important differences in physical appearance or sound variation (Freeman et al., 2004, p. 93). For example, in the Chinese language [p] and [ph] are not allophones, which means that when native speakers of Chinese attempt to learn English they may struggle with understanding why the words like pit and spit sound different but are treated the same.
Freeman's stated that many people are fascinated by the study of dialect and it is easy to see why. Dialects represent "variations in language marked by certain ways of pronouncing words" and they can vary based on region or social class. Therefore, two people can be speaking an identical language but have entirely different means of pronouncing words. English is an excellent example of a language that has many dialects. “Proper English” is a dialect of English spoken in England, which is different from the English that is spoken in Australia and an even different still is the English spoken in America. In fact variations exist within America regionally. In the northern United States, the word “vacuum” is used to describe the device that vacuums your floor whereas in the southern United States the word referring to the same object is “sweeper”. In western Pennsylvania people use the expression “yinz” to refer to a group of people instead of “you all” (Example:“yinz going to the diner with us?” ). Many people argue that some dialects sound more distinguished than others. In the example of English, many believe that “proper” English sounds more refined than the dialect of English spoken in the northern United States. To go one step further, many also argue that the dialect of English spoken in the northern United States sounds more sophisticated than that spoken in the southern US.
I hate to say that I agree with dialect reduction but to answer truthfully, I do believe that in some instances dialect reduction is necessary. The primary reason that I support dialect reduction is that in some instances, the dialect has strayed so far from the standard speech that it is nearly impossible to understand . The “cork” dialect in Ireland is an example of a dialect that is nearly impossible to understand even by other English speakers. In this instance, I believe that dialect reduction is necessary because the language has essentially become incommunicable. The second circumstance where I believe that dialect reduction is necessary is when a dialect has developed in such a way that a large majority of people in society deem it socially unacceptable. Pinker points out in his text that the “Black English Vernacular” has become a popular form of speech in the United States in major cities and some rural areas (Pinker et al.,1994, p. 17). This is a hot topic amongst linguists and columnists across the country because the dialect is far astray from Standard English. I believe that this dialect poses several problems, but I support dialect reduction in this instance because BEV makes frequent use of slang and curse words. I don’t believe that curse words are socially acceptable in a professional setting nor is the usage of improper grammatical structure. My personal opinion is that this dialect also makes the speaker sound uneducated and therefore could affect their odds of acquiring a job during the interview process. I especially don’t believe that this dialect should be taught in schools because it teaches poor grammatical structure. I support the idea that standard forms of language should be taught to new language learners.
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