Phonemes in spoken languages are the smallest units in the sound system of a spoken language. Sounds are members of the same phoneme if they are similar and if substituting one member for another does not cause a change in meaning. A sound is phonemic if its substitution does cause a change in meaning.
Because phonemes are defined by the contrast they make, they are especially identified by “ minimal pairs”. These are pairs of words that differ in only one phoneme. Mat differs from pat in only one sound /m/ versus /p/, so we can say that /m/ and /p/ are two different phonemes in English because they create two different words.
Need some help?
