Linguistics & Language · Phonetics & Phonology
A topic within Phonetics & Phonology, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
CrashCourse
Shows that the same physical sound can count as a distinct phoneme in one language and a meaningless variant in another, so phonology studies mental categories, not raw sound.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Edward Sapir
Argues that speakers organise sounds into a small system of mental categories rather than perceiving raw acoustic detail, laying the groundwork for the phoneme as a psychological rather than a purely physical unit.