Phones versus phonemes Whereas a phone is a concrete sound used across various spoken languages, a phoneme is more abstract: any class of phones that the users of a particular language nevertheless perceive as a single basic sound, a single unit, and that distinguishes words from other words. If a phoneme is swapped with another phoneme inside a word, it can change the meaning of that word: changing one word into another word.
phones versus phonemes whereas a phone is a concrete sound used across various spoken languages a phoneme is more abstract any class of phones that the users of a particular language nevertheless perceive as a single basic sound a single unit and that distinguishes words from other words if a phoneme is swapped with another phoneme inside a word it can change the meaning of that word changing one word into another word