phoneme; distinctive sound unit
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Meanings
1 sense · 4 examplesnoun
phoneme; the smallest unit of sound in a language capable of distinguishing meaning
formalTechnical term in linguistics and phonology. Refers to the abstract sound unit that distinguishes meaning, contrasted with 音素 (phone), which is the actual physical sound.
Yīn音
wèi位
shì是
yǔ语
yīn音
xué学
zhōng中
de的
zhòng重
yào要
gài概
niàn念
。
The phoneme is an important concept in phonetics.
Zài在
Hàn汉
yǔ语
zhōng中
，
bb
hé和
pp
shì是
liǎng两
gè个
bù不
tóng同
de的
yīn音
wèi位
。
In Chinese, b and p are two different phonemes.
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Zhè这
ge个
yīn音
wèi位
zài在
fāng方
yán言
zhōng中
yǒu有
bù不
tóng同
de的
biàn变
tǐ体
。
This phoneme has different variants in various dialects.
Yīn音
wèi位
xué学
zhǔ主
yào要
yán研
jiū究
yǔ语
yán言
zhōng中
de的
yīn音
wèi位
xì系
tǒng统
。
Phonemics mainly studies the phoneme systems in languages.