nonallophonic

Nonallophonic is a term used in phonology to describe segments or phenomena that do not participate in allophony. Allophony refers to systematic, context-dependent phonetic variations of a phoneme that do not change word meaning. By labeling a segment nonallophonic, linguists indicate that the sound does not have environment-conditioned variants as part of a single phoneme; instead, its realization is invariant or varies for reasons not attributable to allophony. This contrasts with segments that pattern as allophones of a phoneme, such as aspirated versus unaspirated stops, or palatalized versus non-palatalized consonants.

Nonallophonic descriptions are used when a sound is analyzed as a separate phoneme with a consistent realization, or when observed variation is non-phonological (free variation, loanword effects, or morpho-phonemic alternations not tied to phonological rules). The term can also apply to segments that participate in contrastive features or phonotactic patterns that cannot be captured by allophony.

In practice, a language may exhibit few or many allophonic processes; labeling a segment nonallophonic helps clarify that there is no systematic context-driven variant to account for for that segment, at least within the current analysis. The concept is a matter of categorization in phonological description rather than a productive phonetic process itself.

See also: allophony, phonology, phoneme, allophone.