Identification, description, and classification of sounds used in articulate speech. These sounds are codified in the International Phonetic Alphabet (a highly modified version of the English/Roman alphabet).
A phoneme is the range of sound that can be substituted without change of meaning in the words of a particular language, for example—r and l form a single phoneme in Japanese but are two distinct phonemes in English. The study of phonemes is called phonemics, a branch of linguistics.
Jespersen, Jens Otto HarryThe branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis.