Phoneme: the smallest meaning-distinguishing sound unit in the abstract representation of the
sounds of a language.
-> The smallest phonetic unit of a language that can convey a distinction in meaning.
= The smallest distinctive sound unit.
An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively.
We know there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the contrast in meaning between the words fat and vat, or fine and vine.
If we change one sound in a word and there is a change of meaning, the sounds are distinct phonemes.
Natural Classes: we use th (+) and (-) to mark the presence or absent of the phoneme features.
Ex: /p/ [-voice, +bilabial, +stop]
/b/ [ +voice, +bilabial, +stop]
A set of sounds with phonetic features in common, such as /p/, /t/ and /k/ in English, which are all voiceless stops
/p/: voiceless, bilabial, stop
/k/: voiceless, velar, stop
/v/: voice, labiodental, fricative
/n/: voice, alveolar ,nasal
Table presents an analysis of some of the distinguishing features of four English phonemes. Only /p/ and /k/ have sufficient features in common to be members of a natural class. They are both voiceless stops.
/v/ has the features [+voice, +labiodental, +fricative] and so cannot be in the same natural class of sounds as /p/ and /k/.
This type of feature analysis allows us to describe not only individual phonemes, but also the possible sequences of phonemes in a language.