In any teaching about languages ​​there is such a thing as a phoneme. It may seem strange and incomprehensible to a person who is far from linguistics. In fact, this is an essential element in the system of general philology.
Phoneme concept
To deal with this term can be an example of abstract and concrete concepts. The concrete sound of human speech is associated with the abstract definition of a phoneme. One and the same person in different situations pronounces the same phoneme in different ways. Therefore, it can be argued that there are an unlimited number of sounds, while their abstract images are a definite finite set in each language.
Based on all this, scientists determine that the phoneme is the smallest semantic unit of speech, generalizing specific sounds.
She has a form of expression and a form of meaning. This concept is expressed by specific signs (graphemes) and sounds of speech. The phoneme has no lexical meaning, but carries a grammatical meaning. For example, a horse-horse is different forms of the word, as indicated by the phoneme [a], expressed using the letter I.
Study history
At the end of the 19th century, the scientist F. de Saucyur first introduced this term into scientific use. At that time, he said that the phoneme is a mental image of sound, indicating its subjectivity.
A little later B. de Courtenay filled this concept with a new meaning. He suggested that phonemes can be elementary units of speech. L. Shcherba proved this assumption, pointing to the functions of this unit.
Since that time, all linguists already know exactly what a phoneme is and how to distinguish it in a specific language system. Scientists began to study the so-called phonetic matrix. It consists of a specific set of phonemes that allow a native speaker to distinguish other people's words and create their own.
If people do not match phonetic matrices, they cannot communicate. Therefore, when learning foreign languages, it is very important to constantly listen to its native speakers. This allows you to form in your mind an adequate system of phonemes for oral communication.
Phonetics, phonology and orthoepy
In linguistics, it has traditionally been the case that three of its sections answer the question “What is a phoneme?” The main task of phonetics is to study the system of abstract speech units of a particular language, their interaction and change under the influence of different phonetic positions.
In phonology, sounds are studied, the methods of their formation and the factors from which they can change. The concept of phoneme is used here to correlate the abstract and concrete revealing of one and the fact of reality. It is phonology that helps to determine what the formation of one or another phoneme in the language depends on.
Orthoepy is a practical science. She compares phonemes and sounds and makes sure that they match each other. The mismatch of these concepts is fraught with a change in the entire linguistic system on a global scale, and a simple misunderstanding by talking people of each other in particular.
Orthoepy develops a series of rules on how phonemes should be pronounced so that the sounds they designate are obtained. As a rule, they are known to native speakers on an intuitive level, but sometimes it happens that people can “eat” sounds, blurring the boundaries between phonemes.
Method of determining
Any unit must be allocated according to certain rules. The signs of a phoneme are quite simple: it is the smallest unit of speech, and it determines the meaning of a word without carrying such a meaning.
The phoneme's minimality can be proved by dividing the speech stream into the smallest components - sounds. Replacing one sound with another, we get new words. Since the phoneme is a generalized meaning of sound, it can be argued that it is the smallest unit of language.
Regarding her ability to distinguish words, it is worth looking at specific examples. The nose and knife differ in only one consonant phoneme. The substitution at the end radically changes the lexical meaning of the word from the body part of the living being to the kitchenware for slicing products.
The words sit and go gray in speech have blurry borders of phonemes [ith]. Therefore, the exact lexical meaning of a word can be determined either in context or by putting the word in a form where the phoneme will be in a strong position and will provide conditions for a clear sound. It is in this way that the differential signs of phonemes appear in any language.
Functions
Scientists distinguish only two functions of the phoneme. One exists for the formation of the semantic shell of the word. It is from a constant set of phonemes that the same units have lexical and grammatical meaning. Without this permanent system, not a single language can function in the world. The greater the correspondence between phonemes and sounds, the easier it is to master a foreign language. Esperanto was created by this principle, where a complete identity between these concepts is maintained.
The second function is distinctive. What is a phoneme in its context, it becomes clear with concrete examples. The lexical meaning dark time of the word “night” cardinally changes to “female child” (daughter) when replacing only one initial phoneme.
Grammatical connections are clearly visible on the example of endings hand (singular) - hands (plural).
Thus, all phonemes are of great importance for the structure of the minimum semantic units of the language and their differentiation.
Types of phonemes
Phonemes of any language are divided according to several criteria. For the participation of noise and voices, vowels and consonants are distinguished. It is common for vowels to sometimes come under stress when the flow of exhaled air is at the highest point of articulation.
In terms of softness of pronunciation, consonants are palatalized and non-palatalized. By the method of education, africanic and occlusal fissure are distinguished. The voices distinguish between deaf and voiced.
Consonant and vowel phonemes can be in both strong and weak positions. The simplicity of their differentiation depends on this.
The role of the position in the word
One and the same phoneme in a weak position may lose its distinctive function. It depends on the fact that the minimal units of speech next to it begin to influence it. The mechanism of this process is quite simple. The human speech apparatus in the process of pronouncing a word in a split second should be rebuilt for each specific phoneme. If a word has units that are fundamentally different in some way or this is the absolute end, then there is a possibility when the speech apparatus does not adjust correctly and smears the clarity of the sound of the phoneme in a particular sound.
An example is the word “carrot”, where the final sound is heard as soft [f], but in the test word “carrot” a clear [c] is heard.
Things are even more complicated with vowels [and]. In a weak position, they become similar to each other, forming an average phoneme in sound. In this case, it is difficult to determine which lexical meaning the word has. This becomes the cause of speech incidents. Thus, the differential functions of the phoneme strongly depend on its strong or weak position in the word.
Phonemic-sound-letter ratio
In linguistics, the concepts of phoneme, sound, and letter are strongly intertwined. All this is because they are a reflection of the same fact of reality. The most primary concept in human speech is sound. Even prehistoric people published them, starting to form some rudiments of the language.
Only after human beings learned to communicate using sounds did the concept of phonemes form - a reproducible set of sounds that has a certain meaning. Of course, the term itself and the understanding of what a phoneme is, came to humanity only at the end of the 19th century.
Letters became necessary to create graphic designations of sounds and words. With the development of civilization, people have learned to reflect the minimum unit of speech with the help of written signs. At the same time, in hieroglyphic writing there is still no designation of specific phonemes. But in the alphabetical system of many languages, there is a striking correspondence between letters and phonemes.