Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “phoneme” come from?

Phoneme comes from Ancient Greek φώνημα, derived from φωνή meaning "sound" or "voice," which traces to Proto-Indo-European bʰeh₂- meaning "to speak."

phoneme (English): An indivisible unit of sound in a given language....

Definitions

  1. An indivisible unit of sound in a given language....

Ancestry of “phoneme”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Ancient Greekφώνημαsound made, utterance; thing spoken, speech,...
2Ancient GreekφωνέωI produce a sound or tone; I speak loud or...
3Ancient Greekφωνήsound; Usually of the human voice: voice, cry,...
4Proto-Hellenicpʰōnā́—
5Proto-Indo-Europeanbʰoh₂-néh₂—
6Proto-Indo-Europeanbʰeh₂-to shine, glow light; to speak, say
7Proto-Indo-Europeanbʰeh₂-s-ri-—

Words derived from “phoneme”

  • phonemic
  • emic
  • grapheme
  • graphemic
  • phonemically
  • morphophonemic
  • kineme
  • phonemics
  • morphophonemics
  • ideologeme
  • emically
  • mytheme
  • archiphoneme
  • phraseme
  • subphonemic
  • motifeme
  • graphemically
  • phonemicization
  • toneme
  • morphophoneme
  • nonphonemic
  • moneme
  • tonemic
  • graphemics
Every word from Proto-Indo-European bʰeh₂-s-ri- →