The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning is a:

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Multiple Choice

The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning is a:

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change meaning. In English, for example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ distinguish words like pat and bat, so they’re considered separate phonemes. By contrast, a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning (like “book” or the plural suffix “-s”), a grapheme is a written symbol representing a sound, and an allophone is a variant pronunciation of the same phoneme that doesn’t change meaning. So the description points to the phoneme.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change meaning. In English, for example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ distinguish words like pat and bat, so they’re considered separate phonemes. By contrast, a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning (like “book” or the plural suffix “-s”), a grapheme is a written symbol representing a sound, and an allophone is a variant pronunciation of the same phoneme that doesn’t change meaning. So the description points to the phoneme.

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