In Phonology, field of the Linguistic , a phoneme is the smallest discrete or distinctive unit (i.e. allowing to distinguish from the words from/to each other) which one can isolate by segmentation in the connected speech. A phoneme is actually an abstracted entity, which can correspond to several sounds. It is indeed likely to be marked in a different way according to the speakers or its position and its environment within the word (see Allophone). One transcribed traditionally phonemes by letters placed between oblique bars: /a/, /t/, /r/, etc, according to the rule a phoneme = a Symbol .

The identification of the phonemes of a language is done by building minimal pair , i.e. pairs of words of different directions and which differ in their sound form only by one sound (this sound can then be regarded as a phoneme).

Examples:

• shingles and sauna is two words different from the French language, and there is one different sound (the first). Therefore, one can conclude that /s/ and /z/ are phonemes for the French language;

• dimension (/kɔt/) and coast (/kot/) is also two different words, differentiated by the respective use of the phonemes/ɔ/and /o/, just as leg (/pat/) and paste (/pɑt/), bit (/brɛ̃/) and brown (/brœ̃/);
• contrary king with a /r/ rolled () and king with a /r/ not rolled () are identified with same the Signifié. There is thus no opposition between the /r/ rolled and the /r/ not rolled, which are then Allophone S and not of the phonemes.

This concept of phoneme is relative to a language, by taking again the examples of sauna and shingles on the one hand and king on the other hand. In Spanish there does not exist minimal pair which distinguishes /s/ from /z/, which are thus Allophone S in standard Spanish. A contrario the pair pero and perro form a minimal pair, which proves that /r/ and /rr/ are distinct standard Spanish phonemes.

the concept of phoneme is described in detail in the article Phonologie .

In addition to the phonemes, there exists other discrete units, like the suprasegmental Unités.

Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay is one of the inventors of the mot.

Related articles

• Phonology;
• Allophone;
• Distribution of the phonemes;
• Phonetic;
• Linguistic
• Archiphoneme
• deterioration of the phonemes: the Sandhi in Sanskrit;
• List of the C-Ws communication of the phonemes of French;

External bonds

• Demonstration of Voice synthesis using of the phonemes

Zh-min-nan: Im-sò͘