These are distinct units of sound in a language that differentiate words. A phoneme conveys a distinct meaning like the r of ring and the s of sing. Phonemes are language-specific. It means phonemes that are functionally different in English might not be so in a different language. The phoneme is the central concept in phonology, which’s a distinctive category of sounds that all native speakers of a dialect or language perceive as somewhat the same. Since phonemes are categories instead of actual sounds, they aren’t tangible things. Instead, they’re abstract, theoretical groups or types that are only psychologically real.
Two points should be stressed here. A phoneme’s most important property is that it contrasts with other phonemes in the language. Therefore, one can only speak of the phoneme of some specific speech variety (a particular language’s a particular accent). Languages differ in the number of phonemes, but every valid word in all languages necessarily comprises some permissible sequence of the language’s phonemes.
One cannot depend on the spelling to tell if two sounds are members of different phonemes. For instance, the words car and key start with what a person can consider the same sound. However, the fact is that one is written with the letter c and the other with k. But here, the two sounds aren’t exactly the same. If one whispers just the first consonants in these words, the person can probably hear the difference, and he/she might be able to feel that the tongue touches the mouth’s roof in a different place for every word. This example demonstrates that there might be very precise differences between a phoneme’s members. The sounds at the starting of car and key are slightly different, but it isn’t a difference that alters a word’s meaning in English.
One shouldn’t confuse a phoneme with the letter itself because phonemes are just the sounds made. It’s important to note that phonemes can be made of multiple letters. For instance, there’re three phonemes involved in the word “dog”: a “d,” an “aw,” and a “g.” The word “hope” also has three phonemes: an “h,” an “oo,” and a “p.” The word “school” comprises four phonemes: an “s,” a “k,” a “uu,” and an “l.”
The English language has 44 phonemes, consisting of 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds. One can think of different combinations of vowels and consonants (such as “ea” or “ch”) that make unique sounds.
