the.com/phoneme
The smallest sound that can ruin or rescue a word.
means A unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another in a given language, like the difference between bit and pit.
from From Greek phonema, a sound uttered, coined in linguistics in the late 1800s to name the brain's atomic units of speech.
Count variesEnglish has about 44; some languages under 15.
Not lettersSound-based, so spelling lies constantly about them.
Minimal pairsCat versus bat proves they exist.