phoneme
/ˈfəʊ.niːm/ · noun
Meaning
- An 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.
Etymology / origin
From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). By surface analysis, phone (“speech sound”) + -eme (“unit”).
- φώνημα(Ancient Greek)→
- *bʰeh₂-(ine-pro)→
- phoneme (English)
- Relations: root, der
Related words
Descendant words
- meme(English) (cog)
- foneemi(Finnish) (cog)
- fonimu(Swahili) (bor)
Sources
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