A VIEW SUMMARY OF PHONOLOGY SUBJECT

Complementary distribution in linguistics is 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. It often indicates that two superficially different elements are in fact the same linguistic unit at a deeper level. In some instances, more than two elements can be in complementary distribution with one another.

Here is an example:

* [spæt] [phæt] *[sphæt] *[pæt]
* [spul] [phul] *[sphul] *[pul]
[ph] and [p] are in complementary distribution. [p], or ‘unaspirated p’, doesn’t occur word-initially, but ‘aspirated p’ does. An English speaker hears these sounds as the same sound; even if some speakers pronounce words with unaspriated [p] at the beginning, other speakers won’t hear those pronunciations as different words with different meanings.

For example, In English, [pʰ] and [p] are allophones of the phoneme /p/, since [pʰ] can be found at the beginning of syllables ([pʰɪn]) and nowhere else. Likewise, [p] is never found at the beginning of syllables, but can be found in other positions ([spɪn]). Summarizing in a table:

dissimilation is the substandard pronunciation of chimney as chimley, with the second of two nasals changed to an [l]. The ultimate dissimilation is the complete loss of one sound because of its proximity to another similar sound. A frequent example in present-day standard English is the omission of one of two [r] sounds from words like cate(r)pillar, Cante(r)bury, rese(r)voir, terrest(r)ial, southe(r)ner, barbitu(r)ate, gove(r)nor, and su(r)prised."
Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers.^[1][2]

Morphophonology (also morphophonemics, morphonology) is a branch of linguistics which studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (minimal meaningful units) when they combine to form words.Morphophonological analysis often involves an attempt to give a series of formal rules that successfully predict the regular sound changes occurring in the morphemes of a given language. Such a series of rules converts a theoretical underlying representation into a surface form that is actually heard. The units of which the underlying representations of morphemes.

• Phones are speech-sounds;
• phonemes are groups of sounds which speakers usually think of as "one sound";
• allophones are the variations within each group.

      Phonetics simply describes the articulatory and acoustic properties of phones (speech sounds).  Phonology studies how sounds interact as a system in a particular language.  Stated another way, phonetics studies which sounds are present in a language; phonology studies how these sounds combine and how they change in combination, as well as which sounds can contrast to produce differences in meaning (phonology describes the phones as allophones of phonemes).

suprasegmental or prosodic phonology involves phenomena such as stress (intensity) and tone (pitch).

syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Structure

Tree representation of a syllable

In most theories of phonology, the general structure of a syllable (σ) consists of three segments:

Onset (ω)

consonant, obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others

Nucleus (ν)

sonorant, obligatory in most languages

Coda (κ)

consonant, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others

The syllable is usually considered right-branching, i.e. nucleus and coda are grouped together as a "rime" and are only distinguished at the second level. However, in some traditional descriptions of certain languages^[specify], the syllable is considered left-branching, i.e. onset and nucleus group below a higher-level unit, called a "body" or "core":

Rime (ρ)

right branch, contrasts with onset, splits into nucleus and coda

Body or core

left branch, contrasts with coda, splits into onset and nucleus

In some theories the onset is strictly consonantal, thus necessitating another segment before the nucleus:

Initial (ι)

often termed onset, but leaving out semi-vowels

Medial (μ)

glide between initial, if any, and nucleus or rime

Final (φ)

contrasts with initial, extended rime

Although every syllable has supra-segmental features, these are usually ignored if not semantically relevant, e.g. in tonal languages.

Tone (τ)

may be carried by the syllable as a whole or by the rime