In English, the aspirated [pʰ] in 'pin' and the unaspirated [p] in 'spin' are best analyzed as

allophones of the same phoneme /p/ conditioned by position

Which pair provides the strongest evidence that two sounds belong to different phonemes in a language?

A minimal pair differing only in those two sounds with different meanings

A student claims: 'If two sounds are articulatorily very different, they cannot be allophones of the same phoneme.' Which evaluation is best?

The claim is generally too strong; although phonetic similarity matters, distributional and systemic evidence can still motivate allophonic analysis

In a language, [d] and [ɾ] alternate within related forms: [d] appears after nasals, while [ɾ] appears intervocalically. No minimal pairs contrast them. What is the strongest analysis?

They are allophones of one phoneme, with the underlying form chosen to best capture the alternation and distribution

In a language, [l] occurs before vowels, while [ɫ] occurs only syllable-finally. There are no minimal pairs contrasting them. The most economical analysis is that

[l] and [ɫ] are allophones of one phoneme because their distribution is predictable

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GATE Humanities and Social Sciences - Linguistics

Includes phonetics, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics, aimed at candidates studying the scientific structure and evolution of languages.

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