Sorry to open this up AGAIN, but a number of you still seem to find it difficult to unlearn the preoccupation with spelling that the school system has rammed into you.
You absolutely can’t write “[x] and [y] are allophones because the letter <x> can be pronounced in two different ways” or something to this effect. We’ve talked about this in the lecture and the seminars. Written language is secondary. The phones [l] and [ɹ] were already allophones in Hawaiian before writing was introduced in the 19th century. I’m really sorry that people with otherwise excellent answers lose points because they add such unnecessary nonsense.
No offense to anyone who posted this! Really. I’m making a fuss now and taking points off you because I really need you to understand this. You will not be able to write decent term papers next semester unless you stop thinking in terms of letters.
You cannot use spelling as an explanation for linguistic phenomena. Please stop talking about letters! Letters are never the reason for anything.
If spelling is that important to you, argue the other way round: it is because [l] and [ɹ] are allophones in Hawaiian that they do not need to be distinguished in spelling. But that wasn’t the question.
