How Do You Spell PHONEME?

Pronunciation: [fˈə͡ʊniːm] (IPA)

The word "phoneme" refers to the smallest unit of sound that can make a difference in a word's meaning. It is spelled as /ˈfəʊniːm/ in the IPA phonetic transcription. The first two letters "ph" represent the voiceless labial fricative sound /f/, followed by the vowel sound /əʊ/. The letter "n" represents the nasal consonant /n/, and the final two letters "e" and "m" represent the vowel sound /i/ and the bilabial nasal consonant /m/ respectively. Understanding the IPA transcription helps to pronounce and spell words correctly.

PHONEME Meaning and Definition

  1. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. It is a linguistic concept used to describe the distinct sounds that make up speech. Phonemes are the building blocks of language and represent the basic units of sound that convey meaning. They are abstract units of sound rather than the physical sounds themselves.

    The English language, for example, has approximately 44 phonemes, including consonants, vowels, and diphthongs. These phonemes can be combined to form countless words and sentences. Each phoneme has its own set of distinctive features, such as voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation, which differentiate one sound from another.

    Languages differ in the number and types of phonemes they have. Some languages may have fewer or more phonemes than English. For example, languages with click consonants like Xhosa or Zulu have a larger inventory of phonemes than languages without clicks.

    In linguistics, phonemes are typically represented using phonetic symbols or letters in square brackets, such as /p/ for the "p" sound in "pat" or /i/ for the "ee" sound in "tree." It is important to note that phonemes can vary in pronunciation depending on their context and neighboring sounds, but they are considered the same phoneme as long as they do not change the meaning of a word.

  2. An hallucination of voices.

    A practical medical dictionary. By Stedman, Thomas Lathrop. Published 1920.

Common Misspellings for PHONEME

Etymology of PHONEME

The word "phoneme" originates from the Greek term "phōnēma" (φώνημα), meaning "sound, voice" or "speech sound". The Greek word, in turn, comes from the verb "phōneîn" (φωνεῖν), which means "to make a sound" or "to speak". The term "phoneme" was first used in the linguistic sense by the American linguist Kenneth L. Pike in the 1940s.

Similar spelling word for PHONEME

Plural form of PHONEME is PHONEMES

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