phoneme

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Related to Phonemes: Allophones

pho·neme

(fō′nēm′)

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- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

phoneme

(ˈfəʊniːm)

(Linguistics) linguistics one of the set of speech sounds in any given language that serve to distinguish one word from another. A phoneme may consist of several phonetically distinct articulations, which are regarded as identical by native speakers, since one articulation may be substituted for another without any change of meaning. Thus /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes in English because they distinguish such words as pet and bet, whereas the light and dark /l/ sounds in little are not separate phonemes since they may be transposed without changing meaning

[C20: via French from Greek phōnēma sound, speech]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pho•neme

(ˈfoʊ nim)

n.

any of the minimal units of speech sound in a language that can serve to distinguish one word from another: The (p) of pit and the (b) of bit are considered two different phonemes, while the unaspirated (p) of spin and the aspirated (p) of pin are not. Compare allophone.

[1890–95; < French phonème < Greek phṓnēma sound <phōneîn to make a sound (derivative of phonḗ sound, voice)]

phoneme

- A word for a hallucination in which voices are heard.

phoneme

Any of the speech sounds in a language that convey a difference in meaning.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

phoneme - (linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language

linguistics - the scientific study of language

speech sound, phone, sound - (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language

allophone - (linguistics) any of various acoustically different forms of the same phoneme

Translations

Phon Phonem

φώνημα

fonema

häälik

foneemi

phonème

fonem

fonéma

fonema

foneem

fonema

фонема

fonem

phoneme

[ˈfəʊniːm] N → fonema m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

phoneme

[ˈfəʊniːm] n → phonème mphone number n → numéro m de téléphonephone tap n → écoute f téléphonique
He assured them that ministers were not subjected to phone taps → Il leur a assuré que les ministres n'étaient pas placés sous écoute téléphonique.phone tapping n → écoutes fpl téléphoniques

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

phoneme

n → Phonem nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

phoneme

[ˈfəʊniːm] n (Ling) → fonema m

References in periodicals archive ?

The Allophonic Theory, in turn, postulates that the phonological change presented by dyslexic individuals would be caused by a deficit in the speech perception, characterized by an allophonic mode of perception, where there is insensitivity to the perception of phonemes. To the Auditory Deficit Theory changes on speech perception would be secondary to a more elementary alteration in the processing of acoustic stimuli.

Theories of Dyslexia: Support by Changes in Auditory Perception/Teorias da Dislexia: Sustentacao com Base nas Alteracoes Perceptuais Auditivas

Two sounds must also exhibit phonetic similarity in order to be considered allophones of the same phoneme. Thus, English [h] and [[??]], which never occur in the same environment, are nevertheless separate phonemes, even though no minimal pairs can be found, because they lack phonetic similarity, qv.

Linguistics and lyric diction - a personal retrospective and a selective glossary

The second paper entitled Deficiencies in the Performance of Arab Phonemes in Heritage: Causes and Means of Developing Phonemic Awareness and Language Delay of Kindergarten and 1stGrade Pupils of Basic Education, will be presented by Prof.

SQU Organizes Reading Seminar

At their inherently linguistic level, speech sounds are represented as phonemes. The nature of phonemes is to be understood through an understanding of the underlying nature of features.

An analysis of phonology and linguistic interfaces as a new case for a biopsychological foundation for linguistics

To train phoneme recognition systems we must have speech databases with their respective phonemes adequately segmented and validated, which requires costly and intensive processes in skilled labor.

Phoneme Recognition System Using Articulatory-Type Information/Sistema de reconocimiento de fonemas usando informacion de tipo articulatorio

The sign gesture is the union the sign phonemes. The sign phonemes (manual and non-manual features) are the basic units of the sign gestures.

Sign gesture representation using and-or tree

Phonological awareness has been defined as consciously knowing that words have several constituent units of sound (Gillam & van Kleecl, 1996), and being able to reflect on and manipulate the subunits of speech: syllables, intrasyllabic units, and phonemes (Anthony et al., 2011; Morais, 1991; Treiman, 1991).

The Loleva oral and written language test: psychometric properties

Other students from the URLearning project school engage with Russian (a Slavic language with unpredictable vowel patterns), Korean (a character-based language made up of 19 consonant and 21 vowel phonemes), and Myanmar (a circular letter alphabet made up of 33 letters and 12 vowels) or come from nation states with multiple official languages of varying histories, such as those found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan.

Teaching spelling in the middle years: reviewing programs for diverse student groups

Another study, published this year by Marc Slutzky at Northwestern University, made an attempt to decode signals from the motor cortex as patients read aloud words containing all of the 39 English phonemes (consonant and vowel sounds).

A speech synthesizer connected directly to the brain: recordings from the brain's surface are giving scientists unprecedented views into how the brain controls speech

It has been long believed that dyslexia is a result of an inability of the brain to learn all the small sound units or "phonemes" used to build up words, but the new study suggested that the real problem lies in one part of the brain not being able to link up with another, the Independent reported.

Faulty 'brain wiring' may cause dyslexia

In addition, 27 phonemes sometimes pronounced like sez in different accents or in slurred talk give a shonky total of 55 spellings.