phoneme

[ foh-neem ]

noun

, Linguistics.

1. any of a small set of units, usually about 20 to 60 in number, and different for each language, considered to be the basic distinctive units of speech sound by which morphemes, words, and sentences are represented. They are arrived at for any given language by determining which differences in sound function to indicate a difference in meaning, so that in English the difference in sound and meaning between pit and bit is taken to indicate the existence of different labial phonemes, while the difference in sound between the unaspirated p of spun and the aspirated p of pun, since it is never the only distinguishing feature between two different words, is not taken as ground for setting up two different p phonemes in English.

phoneme

/ ˈfəʊniːm /

noun

1. linguistics one of the set of speech sounds in any given language that serve to distinguish one word from another. A phoneme may consist of several phonetically distinct articulations, which are regarded as identical by native speakers, since one articulation may be substituted for another without any change of meaning. Thus /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes in English because they distinguish such words as pet and bet, whereas the light and dark /l/ sounds in little are not separate phonemes since they may be transposed without changing meaning

Word History and Origins

Origin of phoneme¹

First recorded in 1890–95; from French phonème, from Greek phṓnēma “sound,” equivalent to phōnē-, verbal stem of phōneîn “to make a sound” (derivative of phonḗ “sound, voice”) + -ma noun suffix denoting result of action

Word History and Origins

Origin of phoneme¹

C20: via French from Greek phōnēma sound, speech

Example Sentences

According to Rendell, the evidence shows whales are mainly repeating the same phoneme over and over again instead of actually combining varieties of phonemes into complex words.

From Salon

A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech - often a letter or two - that distinguishes one word from another.

From Salon

By recording individual neurons, the researchers found that certain neurons become active before this phoneme is spoken out loud.

From Science Daily

For example, 'my' and 'lie' have the same phoneme at the end, but different graphemes.

From Science Daily

The researchers measured accuracy and speed in rearranging phoneme sequences, and they obtained structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings.

From Scientific American