What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is defined as a unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another in a specific language. For example, in English, the words "bat" and "pat" differ by a single phoneme, which is the initial sound (the /b/ sound in "bat" versus the /p/ sound in "pat"). Identifying phonemes is crucial for understanding how sounds operate in language and aids in phonics and reading instruction, as recognizing these distinct sounds allows learners to comprehend and produce words accurately.

The other options reflect different language concepts: a unit of meaning in language refers to a morpheme, grammatical structure pertains to the arrangement of words and phrases, and phonetic spelling is a technique for writing sounds in a way that represents their pronunciation. All of these elements contribute to the study of language, but they do not define phonemes.