Every language can be broken down into its smallest speech sounds. These sounds are what differentiate one word from another. These sounds do not have meaning on their own, but when combined together, can form basic words. These sounds are referred to as “phonemes“.
Most readers will recall from their experience in elementary school that words are divided into two building blocks, referred to as “consonants” and “vowels”. Take for example the English word “cat”. The /k/ sound in cat is a consonant. A consonant is a type of phoneme.
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