phoneme - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

pho·neme

Audio Help [foh-neem] Pronunciation Key

–noun Linguistics.

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. Compare distinctive feature (def. 1).

[Origin: 1890–95; < F phonème < Gk phnéma sound, equiv. to phōné-, verbid s. of phōneǐn to make a sound (deriv. of phon sound, voice) + -ma n. suffix denoting result of action

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
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phoneme

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

pho·neme Audio Help (fō'nēm') Pronunciation Key
n. The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.

[French phonème, from Greek phōnēma, phōnēmat-, utterance, sound produced, from phōnein, to produce a sound, from phōnē, sound, voice; see bhā-² in Indo-European roots.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
phoneme

"distinctive sound or group of sounds," 1896, from Gk. phonema "a sound," from phonein "to sound or speak," from phone "sound, voice," from PIE base *bha- "speak" (see fame).

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