Phonetics/Descriptive Linguistics Section I

Question 1

Describe the difference between phonological terms “complementary distribution” and “free variation” and support your answer through examples from Spanish.

Answer 1

Two or more allophones of a phoneme are said to be in free variation in a given context if all of them may occur in that context. For instance, in some Spanish dialects [s] and [h] are in free variation word finally. Very often apparent free variation is actually stylistically conditioned. (Hualde 2005)

The relationship between two different elements, where one element is found in a particular environment and the other element is found in the opposite environment. As Dalbor puts it, it is the name given to the predictable occurrence of the allophones of one phoneme. Ej. With the phoneme /b/, there are the allophones [b] and [β]. There is a rule that states that [b] is found after a nasal, pause, and that [β] is found elsewhere, aka in all other situations.