Cafodd y gair ''aloffon'' (yn [[Saesneg]]: ''allophone'') ei fathu gan [[Benjamin Lee WhortWhorf]] yn y 1940au. Wrth wneud hynny, cyfnerthodd ddamcaniaeth [[ffonem]]egol gynnar.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Penny|year=1996|title=The Whorf Theory Complex — A Critical Reconstruction|publisher=John Benjamins | ref = harv |pages=46, 88}}</ref> Poblogeiddiodd G. L. Trager a [[Bernard Bloch]] y gair mewn papur 1941 am [[ffonoleg]] Saesneg,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Trager|first=George L.|title=The Systematization of the Whorf Hypothesis|journal=Anthropological Linguistics|volume= 1|issue=1|publisher=Operational Models in Synchronic Linguistics: A Symposium Presented at the 1958 Meetings of the American Anthropological Association|year= 1959|pages=31–35 | ref = harv }}</ref> ac aeth y term i fod yn rhan o'r defnydd safonol yn nhraddodiad [[Strwythuriaeth|strwythuraidd]] Americanaidd.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dell H. |last=Hymes|first2=John G. |last2=Fought|title=American Structuralism|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year= 1981|ref=harv|page=99}}</ref>
