linguistic:voice_change, quality:correction, structural:expansion
A phoneme (/ ˈ f oʊ n iː m /) is any set of similar speech sounds that is perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single distinct unit, a single basic sound, that helps distinguish one word from another. To put it in another way, it is the smallest unit of phonetic difference that distinguishes meaning. Phonemes are primarily associated with the branch of linguistics known as phonology.