PHONEMES
Charles François (2004). PHONEMES, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 2557.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2557 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented |
- “The smallest sound units that can change meaning in a language” (J.Z. YOUNG, 1974, p.297).
Basically, phonemes acquire meaning values only by combinations which each other, according to a specific set of rules: this is why a language may be considered as a system.
J.Z. YOUNG gives as examples the vowel i or the consonants b or t.
It should be noted that, in some languages, there are more phonemes than letters in the alphabet. An example are the French sounds, unknown in English, corresponding to the nasal sounds “an”, “in”, “on”, “un”, or vowels like “eu”.
The same letter may represent different phonemes in different languages, as for example “u” in English, as compared with “u” in French or in Dutch, or “u” in German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.