Editing Allophone (section)

==Complementary and free-variant allophones==
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Each time a speaker vocalizes a phoneme, they pronounce it differently from previous iterations. There is debate regarding how real and universal phonemes are (see [[phoneme]] for details). Only some of the variation is perceptible to listeners speakers.

There are two types of allophones: complementary allophones and free-variant allophones.

Complementary allophones are not interchangeable. If context requires a speaker to use a specific allophone for a given phoneme (that is, using a different allophone would confuse listeners), the possible allophones are said to be ''complementary''. Each allophone from a complementary set is used in a specific phonetic context and may be involved in a [[phonology|phonological]] process.<ref name="ref47qoref">{{Citation | title=English L2 reading: getting to the bottom | author=Barbara M. Birch | year=2002 | publisher=Psychology Press, 2002 | isbn=978-0-8058-3899-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kiHSOxn0zX4C | quote=''...When the occurrence of one allophone is predictable when compared to the other, as in this case, we call this complementary distribution. Complementary distribution means that the allophones are 'distributed' as complements....''}}</ref>

Otherwise, allophones are ''[[free variation|free-variant]]''; speakers choose an allophone by habit or preference.