Phonemes
Smallest distinctive sound unit. Ex: bat (buh-ah-t)
Phonemes are the basic unit of sound in speech. They are the smallest units of sound that can be distinguished from one another in a language. Phonemes are like building blocks of language, as words are made up of many phonemes. They are different sounds that are used to make up words and carry meaning in a language.
For example, in the English language, the word “cat” is made up of three phonemes: /k/, /æ/, and /t/. Changing any of these phonemes would result in a different word. For example, changing the /k/ sound to /s/ would result in the word “sat”. This is why phonemes are important in language acquisition because they help to differentiate between different words with different meanings.
There are about 44 phonemes in the English language, and each language has its own set of phonemes. Phonemes can be classified as either vowels or consonants, and they can be further classified based on their manner of articulation, place of articulation, and voicing. Understanding phonemes is an important part of learning to read and write.
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