phoneme
An indivisible unit of sound in a given languageAn indivisible unit of sound in a given language. A phoneme is an abstraction of the physical speech sounds (phones) and may encompass several different phones.
» That sound does not exist in the language as a separate phoneme.
Meaning
1 sensesAn indivisible unit of sound in a given language. A phoneme is an abstraction of the physical speech sounds (phones) and may encompass several different phones.
Phonem
фоне́маfonéma
фоне́маfonéma
- (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language
Examples
6 sentencesThat sound does not exist in the language as a separate phoneme.
The sound exists in the language only as an allophone of the phoneme /t/.
Say which of the following groups of phonemes contains one which is not an English phoneme.
English is full of ambiguous, nebulous phonemes, so English-language pop music attracts many who like such sounds.
The two phones, which initially were allophones of a single phoneme, became distinct phonemes as a result of these sound changes.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). By surface analysis, phone (“speech sound”) + -eme (“unit”).
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