Phoneme (Noun)
Meaning
(linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The English language has 44 phonemes, which are the basic sounds that distinguish one word from another.
- In the word "cat", the sounds /k/, /æ/, and /t/ are three distinct phonemes.
- The phoneme /p/ is often replaced by /b/ in informal speech, but the distinction is still made in formal situations.
- Linguists study phonemes to understand the sound systems of different languages and how they change over time.
- The phoneme /θ/ is a voiceless interdental fricative, which is a unique sound in the English language.