Which term describes the smallest unit of sound in spoken language?

• A. Phoneme
• B. Morpheme
• C. Syllable
• D. Grapheme

Answer: (A)

The smallest unit of sound in spoken language is a phoneme—the individual sound that can change meaning when swapped with another. For example, changing the first sound in “bat” from /b/ to /p/ creates “pat,” a different word, showing how phonemes distinguish meaning.

Morphemes are about meaning, not sound. A morpheme is the smallest unit that carries meaning, like cat or cats. A syllable is a beat or chunk of speech that usually contains a vowel, such as “ba” or “ba-na-na.” A grapheme is a written symbol or letter or letter combination that represents a sound, like the letters b, a, t or the digraph sh.