What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is a member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect.

A unit of speech is considered a phoneme if replacing it in a word results in a change of meaning. Here are some examples of phonemes:

• pin becomes bin
• Bat becomes rat
• cot becomes cut

• Concept module: phoneme
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): P
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International