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{{Short description|Basic unit of phonology}}
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A '''phoneme''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|oʊ|n|iː|m}}) is any set of similar [[Phone (phonetics)|speech sounds]] that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound&mdash;a smallest possible [[Phonetics|phonetic]] unit&mdash;that helps distinguish one [[word]] from another.<ref>{{Cite_Merriam-Webster|phoneme}}</ref> All languages contain phonemes (or the spatial-gestural equivalent in [[sign language]]s), and all spoken languages include both [[consonant]] and [[vowel]] phonemes. Phonemes are studied under [[phonology]], a branch of the discipline of [[linguistics]] (a field encompassing language, writing, speech and related matters). 

Phonemes are often represented, when written, as a glyph (a character) enclosed within two [[Slash (punctuation)|forward-sloping slashes]] {{char|/}}.  So, for example, /k/ represents the phoneme or sound used in the beginning of the English language word ''cat'' (as opposed to, say, the /b/ of ''bat''). 

==Examples and notation==
The English words ''cell'' and ''set'' have the exact same sequence of sounds, except for being different in the sound of their final consonant: thus, {{IPA|/sɛl/}} versus {{IPA|/sɛt/}} in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA) (a writing system that can be used to represent phonemes). Since {{IPA|/l/}} and {{IPA|/t/}} alone distinguish certain words from others, they are each examples of phonemes of the English language. Specifically they are consonant phonemes, along with {{IPA|/s/}}, while {{IPA|/ɛ/}} is a vowel phoneme. The spelling of English does not strictly conform to its phonemes, so that the words ''knot'', ''nut'', and ''gnat'', regardless of spelling, all share the consonant phonemes {{IPA|/n/}} and {{IPA|/t/}}, differing only by their internal vowel phonemes: {{IPA|/ɒ/}}, {{IPA|/ʌ/}}, and {{IPA|/æ/}}, respectively. Similarly, {{IPA|/pʊʃt/}} is the notation for a sequence of four phonemes — {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/ʊ/}}, {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/t/}} — that when spoken together in order constitute the vocalised word ''pushed''. 

Sounds that are perceived as phonemes vary by language and by dialect.  So, for example, {{IPAblink|n|audio=y}} and {{IPAblink|ŋ|audio=y}} are separate phonemes in English since they distinguish words like ''sin'' from words like ''sing'' ({{IPA|/sɪn/}} versus {{IPA|/sɪŋ/}}); yet they comprise a single phoneme in some other languages, such as Spanish, in which {{IPA|[pan]}} and {{IPA|[paŋ]}} for instance are merely interpreted by Spanish speakers as regional or dialect-specific ways of pronouncing the same word (''pan'': the Spanish word for "bread"). Such spoken variations of a single phoneme are known by linguists as ''[[allophone]]s''. Linguists use [[Slash (punctuation)|slashes]] in the IPA to transcribe phonemes but [[square brackets]] to transcribe more precise pronunciation details, including allophones; they describe this basic distinction as ''phonemic''{{efn|Or more rarely, ''phonematic''.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Classical Philology|volume=40|number=1|date=January 1945|page=47|quote=Professor Whatmough’s assault on the terms “phonemic” and “phonemics” seemed to me, as to others, pedantic. So it is a pleasure to discover that his antipathy to these now well-established terms is not so deep rooted and consistent as one would suppose from his words in ''CP'', XXXVIII (1943), 211: “Nobody says ''mathemics'' instead of ''mathematics''; and I, for one, do not say, and never shall, ''phonemics'' for ''phonematics'' or ''phonemic'' for ''phonematic''.” In happening to re-read an earlier article of his in the ''Mélanges linguistiques offerts à M. Holger Pedersen'' (1937),. I find him beginning a sentence (p. 46) “Ideally the phonemic system of a language. . . . .”|title="Phonemics" versus "Phonematics"|first=Carl Darling|last=Buck|authorlink=Carl Darling Buck|publisher=University of Chicago|doi=10.1086/362860 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/phonematic|title=phonematic|website=Collins}}</ref>}} versus ''phonetic''. Thus, the pronunciation patterns of ''tap'' versus ''tab'', or ''pat'' versus ''bat'', can be represented phonemically and are written between slashes (including {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/b/}}, etc.), while nuances of exactly how a speaker pronounces {{IPA|/p/}} are phonetic and written between brackets, like {{IPA|[p]}} for the ''p'' in ''spit'' versus {{IPA|[pʰ]}} for the ''p'' in ''pit'', which in English is an [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] allophone of /p/ (i.e., pronounced with an extra burst of air).

== Conceptual basis; theory of the definition of phonemes ==
There are many views as to exactly what phonemes are and how a given language should be analyzed in phonemic terms. Generally, a phoneme is regarded as an [[abstraction]] of a set (or [[equivalence class]]) of spoken sound variations that are nevertheless perceived as a single basic unit of sound by the ordinary native speakers of a given language. While phonemes are considered abstracted, [[underlying representation|underlying representations]] for sound segments within words, the corresponding [[phonetic]] realizations of those phonemes&mdash;each phoneme with its various allophones&mdash;constitute the [[surface form]] that is actually uttered and heard. Allophones each have technically different articulations inside particular words or particular [[Phonetic environment|environments within words]], yet these differences do not create any [[semantics|meaningful]] distinctions. Alternatively, at least one of those articulations could be feasibly used in all such words with these words still being recognized as such by users of the language. An example in [[American English]] is that the sound spelled with the symbol ''t'' is usually [[Articulatory phonetics|articulated]] with a [[glottal stop]] {{IPA|[ʔ]}} (or a similar glottalized sound) in the word ''cat'', an [[alveolar flap]] {{IPA|[ɾ]}} in ''dating'', an [[voiceless alveolar plosive|alveolar plosive]] {{IPA|[t]}} in ''stick'', and an [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] alveolar plosive {{IPA|[tʰ]}} in ''tie''; however, American English-speakers perceive or "hear" all of these sounds (usually with no conscious effort) as merely being allophones of a single phoneme: the one traditionally represented in the IPA as {{IPA|/t/}}.

For computer-typing purposes, [[Comparison of ASCII encodings of the International Phonetic Alphabet|systems]] such as [[X-SAMPA]] exist to represent IPA symbols using only [[ASCII]] characters. However, descriptions of particular languages may use different conventional symbols to represent the phonemes of those languages. For languages whose writing systems employ the [[phonemic principle]], ordinary letters may be used to denote phonemes, although this approach is often imperfect, as pronunciations naturally shift in a language over time, rendering previous spelling systems outdated or no longer closely representative of the sounds of the language (see further the section headed {{Section link||Correspondence between letters and phonemes}}, below).

==Assignment of speech sounds to phonemes==
[[File:Phoneme-allophone-determination-chart.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|A simplified procedure for determining whether two sounds represent the same or different phonemes]]
A phoneme is a sound or a group of different sounds perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect in question. An example is the [[English language|English]] phoneme {{IPA|/k/}}, which occurs in words such as '''''c'''at'', '''''k'''it'', ''s'''c'''at'', ''s'''k'''it''. Although most native speakers do not notice this, in most English dialects, the "c/k" sounds in these words are not identical: in {{audio|en-us-kit.ogg|''kit''}} {{IPA|en|kʰɪt|generic=yes|}}, the sound is aspirated, but in {{audio|en-us-skill.ogg|''skill''}} {{IPA|en|skɪl|generic=yes|}}, it is unaspirated. The words, therefore, contain different ''speech sounds'', or ''[[Phone (phonetics)|phones]]'', transcribed {{IPA|[kʰ]}} for the aspirated form and {{IPA|[k]}} for the unaspirated one. These different sounds are nonetheless considered to belong to the same phoneme, because if a speaker used one instead of the other, the meaning of the word would not change: using the aspirated form {{IPA|[kʰ]}} in ''skill'' might sound odd, but the word would still be recognized. By contrast, some other sounds would cause a change in meaning if substituted: for example, substitution of the sound {{IPA|[t]}} would produce the different word ''s'''t'''ill'', and that sound must therefore be considered to represent a different phoneme (the phoneme {{IPA|/t/}}).

The above shows that in English, {{IPA|[k]}} and {{IPA|[kʰ]}} are [[allophones]] of a single phoneme {{IPA|/k/}}. In some languages, however, {{IPA|[kʰ]}} and {{IPA|[k]}} are perceived by native speakers as significantly different sounds, and substituting one for the other can change the meaning of a word. In those languages, therefore, the two sounds represent different phonemes. For example, in [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], {{IPA|[kʰ]}} is the first sound of {{wikt-lang|is|kátur}}, meaning "cheerful", but {{IPA|[k]}} is the first sound of {{wikt-lang|is|gátur}}, meaning "riddles". Icelandic, therefore, has two separate phonemes {{IPA|/kʰ/}} and {{IPA|/k/}}.

===Minimal pairs===
A pair of words like {{lang|is|kátur}} and {{lang|is|gátur}} (above) that differ only in one phone is called a ''[[minimal pair]]'' for the two alternative phones in question (in this case, {{IPA|[kʰ]}} and {{IPA|[k]}}). The existence of minimal pairs is a common test to decide whether two phones represent different phonemes or are allophones of the same phoneme.

To take another example, the minimal pair '''''t'''ip'' and '''''d'''ip'' illustrates that in English, {{IPA|[t]}} and {{IPA|[d]}} belong to separate phonemes, {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}}; since the words have different meanings, English-speakers must be conscious of the distinction between the two sounds.

Signed languages, such as [[American Sign Language]] (ASL), also have minimal pairs, differing only in (exactly) one of the signs' parameters: handshape, movement, location, palm orientation, and [[nonmanual signal]] or marker. A minimal pair may exist in the signed language if the basic sign stays the same, but one of the parameters changes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.handspeak.com/learn/index.php?id=109|title=Minimal pairs in sign language phonology|last=Handspeak|website=handspeak.com|language=en|access-date=2017-02-13|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214003747/http://www.handspeak.com/learn/index.php?id=109|archive-date=14 February 2017}}</ref>

{{anchor|without-mps}}However, the absence of minimal pairs for a given pair of phones does not always mean that they belong to the same phoneme: they may be so dissimilar phonetically that it is unlikely for speakers to perceive them as the same sound. For example, English has no minimal pair for the sounds {{IPA|[h]}} (as in '''''h'''at'') and {{IPA|[ŋ]}} (as in ''ba'''ng'''''), and the fact that they can be shown to be in [[complementary distribution]] could be used to argue for their being allophones of the same phoneme. However, they are so dissimilar phonetically that they are considered separate phonemes.{{sfn|Wells|1982|p=44}} A case like this shows that sometimes it is the systemic distinctions and not the lexical context which are decisive in establishing phonemes. This implies that the phoneme should be defined as the smallest phonological unit which is contrastive at a lexical level or distinctive at a systemic level.{{efn |See [[Fausto Cercignani]], ''Some notes on phonemes and allophones in synchronic and diachronic descriptions'', in “Linguistik online”, 129/5, 2024, pp. 39–51, [https://bop.unibe.ch/linguistik-online/article/view/11228/14154 online]}}

Phonologists have sometimes had recourse to "near minimal pairs" to show that speakers of the language perceive two sounds as significantly different even if no exact minimal pair exists in the lexicon. It is challenging to find a minimal pair to distinguish English {{IPAc-en|ʃ}} from {{IPAc-en|ʒ}}, yet it seems uncontroversial to claim that the two consonants are distinct phonemes. The two words 'pressure' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|r|ɛ|ʃ|ər}} and 'pleasure' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|l|ɛ|ʒ|ər}} can serve as a near minimal pair.{{sfn|Wells|1982|p=48}} The reason why this is still acceptable proof of phonemehood is that there is nothing about the additional difference (/r/ vs. /l/) that can be expected to somehow condition a voicing difference for a single underlying postalveolar fricative. One can, however, find true minimal pairs for /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ if less common words are considered. For example, '[[Confucianism|Confucian]]' and 'confusion' are a valid minimal pair.

==Suprasegmental phonemes==
Besides [[Segment (linguistics)|segmental]] phonemes such as vowels and consonants, there are also [[suprasegmental]] features of pronunciation (such as [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] and [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], syllable boundaries and other forms of [[juncture]], nasalization and [[vowel harmony]]), which, in many languages, change the meaning of words and so are phonemic.

''Phonemic stress'' is encountered in languages such as English. For example, there are two words spelled ''invite'', one is a verb and is stressed on the second syllable, the other is a noun and stressed on the first syllable (without changing any of the individual sounds). The position of the stress distinguishes the words and so a full phonemic specification would include indication of the position of the stress: {{IPA|/ɪnˈvaɪt/}} for the verb, {{IPA|/ˈɪnvaɪt/}} for the noun. In other languages, such as [[French language|French]], word stress cannot have this function (its position is generally predictable) and so it is not phonemic (and therefore not usually indicated in dictionaries).

''Phonemic tones'' are found in languages such as [[Mandarin Chinese]] in which a given syllable can have five different tonal pronunciations:

{{Chinese tones}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Minimal set for phonemic tone in Mandarin Chinese
! scope="row" | [[Tone number]]
| 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5
|-
! scope="row" | [[Hanzi]]
| {{lang|zh|媽}} || {{lang|zh|麻}} || {{lang|zh|馬}} || {{lang|zh|罵}} || {{lang|zh|嗎}} 
|-
! scope="row" | [[Pinyin]]
| {{lang|zh-Latn-pinyin|mā}} || {{lang|zh-Latn-pinyin|má}} || {{lang|zh-Latn-pinyin|mǎ}} || {{lang|zh-Latn-pinyin|mà}} || {{lang|zh-Latn-pinyin|ma}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
| {{IPAc-cmn|m|a|1}} || {{IPAc-cmn|m|a|2}} || {{IPAc-cmn|m|a|3}}{{efn|There is allophonic variation of this tone. It may be realized in different ways, depending on context.}} || {{IPAc-cmn|m|a|4}} || {{IPAc-cmn|m|a|5}}
|-
! scope="row" | Gloss
| mother || hemp || horse || scold || [[Chinese particles|question particle]]
|-
|}

The tone "phonemes" in such languages are sometimes called ''tonemes''. Languages such as English do not have phonemic tone, but they use [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] for functions such as emphasis and attitude.

==Distribution of allophones==
When a phoneme has more than one [[allophone]], the one actually heard at a given occurrence of that phoneme may be dependent on the phonetic environment (surrounding sounds). Allophones that normally cannot appear in the same environment are said to be in [[complementary distribution]]. In other cases, the choice of allophone may be dependent on the individual speaker or other unpredictable factors. Such allophones are said to be in [[free variation]], but allophones are still selected in a specific phonetic context, not the other way around.

==Background and related ideas==
The term ''phonème'' (from {{langx|grc|φώνημα|phōnēma}}, "sound made, utterance, thing spoken, speech, language"<ref name="Liddell & Scott">Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref>) was reportedly first used by [[A. Dufriche-Desgenettes]] in 1873, but it referred only to a speech sound. The term ''phoneme'' as an [[abstraction]] was developed by the Polish linguist [[Jan Baudouin de Courtenay]] and his student [[Mikołaj Kruszewski]] during 1875–1895.{{sfn|Jones|1957}} The term used by these two was ''fonema'', the basic unit of what they called ''psychophonetics''. [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]] became the first linguist in the western world to use the term ''phoneme'' in its current sense, employing the word in his article "The phonetic structure of the Sechuana Language".<ref>Jones, D. (1917), The phonetic structure of the Sechuana language, Transactions of the Philological Society 1917-20, pp. 99–106</ref> The concept of the phoneme was then elaborated in the works of [[Nikolai Trubetzkoy]] and others of the [[Prague School]] (during the years 1926–1935), and in those of [[structuralism|structuralist]]s like [[Ferdinand de Saussure]], [[Edward Sapir]], and [[Leonard Bloomfield]]. Some structuralists (though not Sapir) rejected the idea of a cognitive or psycholinguistic function for the phoneme.{{sfn|Twaddell|1935}}{{sfn|Harris|1951}}

Later, it was used and redefined in [[generative linguistics]], most famously by [[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Morris Halle]],{{sfn|Chomsky|Halle|1968}} and remains central to many accounts of the development of modern [[phonology]]. As a theoretical concept or model, though, it has been supplemented and even replaced by others.{{sfn|Clark|Yallop|1995|loc=chpt. 11}}

Some linguists (such as [[Roman Jakobson]] and [[Morris Halle]]) proposed that phonemes may be further decomposable into [[distinctive feature|feature]]s, such features being the true minimal constituents of language.{{sfn|Jakobson|Halle|1968}} Features overlap each other in time, as do [[suprasegmental]] phonemes in oral language and many phonemes in sign languages. Features could be characterized in different ways: Jakobson and colleagues defined them in [[acoustic phonetics|acoustic]] terms,{{sfn|Jakobson|Fant|Halle|1952}} Chomsky and Halle used a predominantly [[articulatory phonetics|articulatory]] basis, though retaining some acoustic features, while [[Peter Ladefoged|Ladefoged]]'s system{{sfn|Ladefoged|2006|pp=268–276}} is a purely articulatory system apart from the use of the acoustic term 'sibilant'.

In the description of some languages, the term [[chroneme]] has been used to indicate contrastive length or ''duration'' of phonemes. In languages in which [[tone (linguistics)|tones]] are phonemic, the tone phonemes may be called [[toneme]]s. Though not all scholars working on such languages use these terms, they are by no means obsolete.

By analogy with the phoneme, linguists have proposed other sorts of underlying objects, giving them names with the suffix ''-eme'', such as ''[[morpheme]]'' and ''[[grapheme]]''. These are sometimes called [[emic unit]]s. The latter term was first used by [[Kenneth Pike]], who also generalized the concepts of [[emic unit|emic and etic]] description (from ''phonemic'' and ''phonetic'' respectively) to applications outside linguistics.{{sfn|Pike|1967}}

==Restrictions on occurrence==
{{Main|Phonotactics}}
Languages do not generally allow words or [[syllable]]s to be built of any arbitrary sequences of phonemes. There are [[phonotactics|phonotactic]] restrictions on which sequences of phonemes are possible and in which environments certain phonemes can occur. Phonemes that are significantly limited by such restrictions may be called ''restricted phonemes''.

In English, examples of such restrictions include the following:

* {{IPA|/ŋ/}}, as in ''si'''ng''''', occurs only at the end of a syllable, never at the beginning (in many other languages, such as [[Māori language|Māori]], [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Thai language|Thai]], and [[Tswana language|Setswana]], {{IPA|/ŋ/}} can appear word-initially).
* {{IPA|/h/}} occurs only at the beginning of a syllable, never at the end (a few languages, such as [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Romanian Language|Romanian]], allow {{IPA|/h/}} syllable-finally).
* In [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|non-rhotic dialects]], {{IPA|/ɹ/}} can occur immediately only before a vowel, never before a consonant.
* {{IPA|/w/}} and {{IPA|/j/}} occur only before a vowel, never at the end of a syllable (except in interpretations in which a word like ''boy'' is analyzed as {{IPA|/bɔj/}}).

Some phonotactic restrictions can alternatively be analyzed as cases of neutralization. See [[#Neutralization and archiphonemes|Neutralization and archiphonemes]] below, particularly the example of the occurrence of the three English nasals before stops.

==Biuniqueness==
'''Biuniqueness''' is a requirement of classic [[structuralism (linguistics)|structuralist]] phonemics. It means that a given [[Phone (phonetics)|phone]], wherever it occurs, must unambiguously be assigned to one and only one phoneme. In other words, the mapping between phones and phonemes is required to be many-to-one rather than [[many-to-many]]. The notion of biuniqueness was controversial among some pre-[[generative linguistics|generative]] linguists and was prominently challenged by [[Morris Halle]] and [[Noam Chomsky]] in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

An example of the problems arising from the biuniqueness requirement is provided by the phenomenon of [[flapping]] in [[North American English]]. This may cause either {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}} (in the appropriate environments) to be realized with the phone {{IPA|[ɾ]}} (an [[alveolar flap]]). For example, the same flap sound may be heard in the words ''hi'''tt'''ing'' and ''bi'''dd'''ing'', although it is intended to realize the phoneme {{IPA|/t/}} in the first word and {{IPA|/d/}} in the second. This appears to contradict biuniqueness.

For further discussion of such cases, see the next section.

=={{anchor|Neutralization}}Neutralization and archiphonemes==
{{more citations needed|section|date=May 2019}}
Phonemes that are contrastive in certain environments may not be contrastive in all environments. In the environments where they do not contrast, the contrast is said to be '''neutralized'''. In these positions it may become less clear which phoneme a given phone represents. '''Absolute neutralization''' is a phenomenon in which a segment of the [[underlying representation]] is not realized in any of its [[phonetic]] representations (surface forms). The term was introduced by [[Paul Kiparsky]] (1968), and contrasts with '''contextual neutralization''' where some phonemes are not contrastive in certain environments.<ref>Kiparsky, P., ''Linguistic universals and linguistic change.'' In: E. Bach & R.T. Harms (eds.), ''Universals in linguistic theory'', 1968, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (pp. 170–202)</ref> Some phonologists prefer not to specify a unique phoneme in such cases, since to do so would mean providing redundant or even arbitrary information – instead they use the technique of [[underspecification]]. An '''archiphoneme''' is an object sometimes used to represent an underspecified phoneme.

An example of neutralization is provided by the Russian vowels {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}. These phonemes are contrasting in [[stress (linguistics)|stressed]] syllables, but in unstressed syllables the contrast is lost, since both are [[vowel reduction|reduced]] to the same sound, usually {{IPA|[ə]}} (for details, see [[vowel reduction in Russian]]). In order to assign such an instance of {{IPA|[ə]}} to one of the phonemes {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/o/}}, it is necessary to consider [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] factors (such as which of the vowels occurs in other forms of the words, or which [[inflection]]al pattern is followed). In some cases even this may not provide an unambiguous answer. A description using the approach of underspecification would not attempt to assign {{IPA|[ə]}} to a specific phoneme in some or all of these cases, although it might be assigned to an archiphoneme, written something like {{IPA|⫽A⫽}}, which reflects the two neutralized phonemes in this position, or {{IPA|<nowiki>{a|o}</nowiki>}}, reflecting its unmerged values.{{efn|Depending on the ability of the typesetter, this may be written vertically, an o over an a with a horizontal line (like a fraction) without the braces.}}

A somewhat different example is found in English, with the three [[nasal consonant|nasal]] phonemes {{IPA|/m, n, ŋ/}}. In word-final position these all contrast, as shown by the minimal triplet ''sum'' {{IPA|/sʌm/}}, ''sun'' {{IPA|/sʌn/}}, ''sung'' {{IPA|/sʌŋ/}}. However, before a [[stop consonant|stop]] such as {{IPA|/p, t, k/}} (provided there is no [[morpheme]] boundary between them), only one of the nasals is possible in any given position: {{IPA|/m/}} before {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/n/}} before {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}}, and {{IPA|/ŋ/}} before {{IPA|/k/}}, as in ''limp, lint, link'' ({{IPA|/lɪmp/}}, {{IPA|/lɪnt/}}, {{IPA|/lɪŋk/}}). The nasals are therefore not contrastive in these environments, and according to some theorists this makes it inappropriate to assign the nasal phones heard here to any one of the phonemes (even though, in this case, the phonetic evidence is unambiguous). Instead they may analyze these phonemes as belonging to a single archiphoneme, written something like {{IPA|⫽N⫽}}, and state the [[underlying representation]]s of ''limp, lint, link'' to be {{IPA|⫽lɪNp⫽}}, {{IPA|⫽lɪNt⫽}}, {{IPA|⫽lɪNk⫽}}.

This latter type of analysis is often associated with [[Nikolai Trubetzkoy]] of the [[Prague school]]. Archiphonemes are often notated with a capital letter within double virgules or pipes, as with the examples {{IPA|⫽A⫽}} and {{IPA|⫽N⫽}} given above. Other ways the second of these has been notated include {{IPA|{{!}}m-n-ŋ{{!}}}}, {{IPA|{m, n, ŋ<nowiki>}</nowiki>}} and {{IPA|⫽n*⫽}}.

Another example from English, but this time involving complete phonetic convergence as in the Russian example, is the flapping of {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} in some American English (described above under [[#Biuniqueness|Biuniqueness]]). Here the words ''betting'' and ''bedding'' might both be pronounced {{IPA|[ˈbɛɾɪŋ]}}. Under the [[generative grammar]] theory of linguistics, if a speaker applies such flapping consistently, morphological evidence (the pronunciation of the related forms ''bet'' and ''bed'', for example) would reveal which phoneme the flap represents, once it is known which morpheme is being used.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A Re-Examination of Phonological Neutralization|last=Dinnsen|first=Daniel|year=1985|journal=Journal of Linguistics|volume=21|number=2|pages=265–79|jstor=4175789|doi=10.1017/s0022226700010276|s2cid=145227467 }}</ref> However, other theorists would prefer not to make such a determination, and simply assign the flap in both cases to a single archiphoneme, written (for example) {{IPA|⫽D⫽}}.

Further mergers in English are [[plosive]]s after {{IPA|/s/}}, where {{IPA|/p, t, k/}} conflate with {{IPA|/b, d, ɡ/}}, as suggested by the alternative spellings ''[[wikt:sketti|sketti]]'' and ''sghetti''. That is, there is no particular reason to transcribe ''spin'' as {{IPA|/ˈspɪn/}} rather than as {{IPA|/ˈsbɪn/}}, other than its historical development, and it might be less ambiguously transcribed {{IPA|⫽ˈsBɪn⫽}}.

==Morphophonemes==
{{Main|Morphophonology}}
A '''morphophoneme''' is a theoretical unit at a deeper level of abstraction than traditional phonemes, and is taken to be a unit from which [[morpheme]]s are built up. A morphophoneme within a morpheme can be expressed in different ways in different [[allomorph]]s of that morpheme (according to [[morphophonological]] rules). For example, the English plural morpheme ''-s'' appearing in words such as ''cats'' and ''dogs'' can be considered to be a single morphophoneme, which might be transcribed (for example) {{IPA|⫽z⫽}} or {{IPA|{{!}}z{{!}}}}, and which is realized phonemically as {{IPA|/s/<!--keep this as phonemic notation - that's the whole point-->}} after most [[voiceless consonant]]s (as in ''cat'''s''''') and as {{IPA|/z/}} in other cases (as in ''dog'''s''''').

==Numbers of phonemes in different languages==
All known languages use only a small subset of the many possible [[speech sound|sounds]] that the human [[speech organs]] can produce, and, because of [[allophony]], the number of distinct phonemes will generally be smaller than the number of identifiably different sounds. Different languages vary considerably in the number of phonemes they have in their systems (although apparent variation may sometimes result from the different approaches taken by the linguists doing the analysis). The total phonemic inventory in languages varies from as few as 9–11 in [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] and 11 in [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] to as many as 141 in [[ǃKung languages|ǃXũ]].{{sfn|Crystal|2010|p=173}}<ref name="Everett 1986">{{cite book |last=Everett |first=Daniel L. |author-link=Daniel Everett|date=July 1, 1986|title=Handbook of Amazonian Languages|volume=1|chapter=Pirahã|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110850819/html|url-access=subscription |location=Berlin, Germany |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|pages=315–317|isbn=9783110102574|doi=10.1515/9783110850819.200}}</ref><ref name="Everett 2008">{{cite book |title=Don't Sleep, there are Snakes |publisher=Pantheon Books |author=Everett, Daniel L. |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-375-42502-8 |pages=178–179 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dontsleeptherear00ever }}</ref>

The number of phonemically distinct [[vowel]]s can be as low as two, as in [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] and [[Arrernte language|Arrernte]]. At the other extreme, the [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] language [[Ngwe language|Ngwe]] has 14 vowel qualities, 12 of which may occur long or short, making 26 oral vowels, plus six nasalized vowels, long and short, making a total of 38 vowels; while [[!Xóõ language|!Xóõ]] achieves 31 pure vowels, not counting its additional variation by vowel length, by varying the [[phonation]]. As regards [[consonant]] phonemes, [[Puinave language|Puinave]] and the Papuan language [[Tauade language|Tauade]] each have just seven, and [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] has only six. [[!Xóõ language|!Xóõ]], on the other hand, has somewhere around 77, and [[Ubykh phonology|Ubykh]] 81. The [[English language]] uses a rather large set of 13 to 21 vowel phonemes, including diphthongs, although its 22 to 26 [[English consonants|consonants]] are close to average. Across all languages, the average number of consonant phonemes per language is about 22, while the average number of vowel phonemes is about 8.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UPSID Nr. of segments|url=http://www.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de/upsid_nr_seg.html|access-date=2022-01-22|website=www.phonetik.uni-frankfurt.de}}</ref>

Some languages, such as [[French language|French]], have no phonemic [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] or [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], while [[Cantonese]] and several of the [[Kam–Sui languages]] have six to nine tones (depending on how they are counted), and the Kam-Sui [[Kam language|Dong language]] has nine to 15 tones by the same measure. One of the [[Kru languages]], [[Wobé language|Wobé]], has been claimed to have 14,<ref name=Bearth&Link>{{cite journal | url = https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1070.html | title = The tone puzzle of Wobe | first1 = Thomas | last1 = Bearth | first2 = Christa | last2 = Link | journal = Studies in African Linguistics | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | year = 1980 | pages = 147–207 | access-date = 5 January 2019 | archive-date = 24 February 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224210712/https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/sal/article/view/1070.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> though this is disputed.<ref>{{cite journal | first = John Victor | last = Singler | title = On the underlying representation of contour tones in Wobe | journal = Studies in African Linguistics | volume = 15 | issue = 1 | year = 1984 | pages = 59–75 | doi = 10.32473/sal.v15i1.107520 | s2cid = 170335215 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

{{anchor|Most common}}
The most common vowel system consists of the five vowels {{IPA|/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/}}. The most common consonants are {{IPA|/p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/}}.<ref>{{cite web|editor-last1=Moran|editor-first1=Steven|editor-last2=McCloy|editor-first2=Daniel|editor-last3=Wright|editor-first3=Richard|year=2014|title=PHOIBLE Online|place=Leipzig|publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology|url=http://phoible.org|access-date=2019-01-05}}</ref> Relatively few languages lack any of these consonants, although it does happen: for example, [[Arabic]] lacks {{IPA|/p/}}, [[Hawaiian language|standard Hawaiian]] lacks {{IPA|/t/}}, [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] and [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]] lack {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/m/}}, [[Hupa language|Hupa]] lacks both {{IPA|/p/}} and a simple {{IPA|/k/}}, colloquial [[Samoan language|Samoan]] lacks {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/n/}}, while [[Rotokas language|Rotokas]] and [[Quileute language|Quileute]] lack {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/n/}}.

==Non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions==
During the development of phoneme theory in the mid-20th century, phonologists were concerned not only with the procedures and principles involved in producing a phonemic analysis of the sounds of a given language, but also with the reality or uniqueness of the phonemic solution. These were central concerns of [[phonology]]. Some writers took the position expressed by [[Kenneth Pike]]: "There is only one accurate phonemic analysis for a given set of data",<ref>Pike, K.L. (1947) ''Phonemics'', University of Michigan Press, p. 64</ref> while others believed that different analyses, equally valid, could be made for the same data. [[Yuen Ren Chao]] (1934), in his article "The non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chao|first1=Yuen Ren|title=The non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems|journal=Academia Sinica|date=1934|volume=IV.4|pages=363–97}}</ref> stated "given the sounds of a language, there are usually more than one possible way of reducing them to a set of phonemes, and these different systems or solutions are not simply correct or incorrect, but may be regarded only as being good or bad for various purposes". The linguist [[Fred Householder|F. W. Householder]] referred to this argument within linguistics as "God's Truth" (i.e. the stance that a given language has an intrinsic structure to be discovered) vs. "hocus-pocus" (i.e. the stance that any proposed, coherent structure is as good as any other).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Householder | first1 = F.W. | year = 1952 | title = Review of ''Methods in structural linguistics'' by Zellig S. Harris | journal = International Journal of American Linguistics | volume = 18 | pages = 260–8 | doi=10.1086/464181}}</ref>

Different analyses of the English vowel system may be used to illustrate this. The article [[English phonology]] states that "English has a particularly large number of vowel phonemes" and that "there are 20 vowel phonemes in Received Pronunciation, 14–16 in General American and 20–21 in Australian English". Although these figures are often quoted as fact, they actually reflect just one of many possible analyses, and later in the English Phonology article an alternative analysis is suggested in which some diphthongs and long vowels may be interpreted as comprising a short vowel linked to either {{IPAslink|j}} or {{IPAslink|w}}. The fullest exposition of this approach is found in [[George L. Trager|Trager]] and Smith (1951), where all long vowels and diphthongs ("complex nuclei") are made up of a short vowel combined with either {{IPA|/j/}}, {{IPA|/w/}} or {{IPA|/h/}} (plus {{IPA|/r/}} for rhotic accents), each comprising two phonemes.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Trager|first1=G.|last2=Smith|first2=H.|title=An Outline of English Structure|date=1951 |publisher=American Council of Learned Societies|page=[https://archive.org/details/outlineofenglish00trag/page/20 20] |url=https://archive.org/details/outlineofenglish00trag|access-date=30 December 2017}}</ref> The transcription for the vowel normally transcribed {{IPA|/aɪ/}} would instead be {{IPA|/aj/}}, {{IPA|/aʊ/}} would be {{IPA|/aw/}} and {{IPA|/ɑː/}} would be {{IPA|/ah/}}, or /ar/ in a rhotic accent if there is an {{angbr|r}} in the spelling. It is also possible to treat English long vowels and diphthongs as combinations of two vowel phonemes, with long vowels treated as a sequence of two short vowels, so that 'palm' would be represented as /paam/. English can thus be said to have around seven vowel phonemes, or even six if schwa were treated as an allophone of {{IPA|/ʌ/}} or of other short vowels.

In the same period there was disagreement about the correct basis for a phonemic analysis. The [[Structural linguistics|structuralist]] position was that the analysis should be made purely on the basis of the sound elements and their distribution, with no reference to extraneous factors such as grammar, morphology or the intuitions of the native speaker; this position is strongly associated with [[Leonard Bloomfield]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bloomfield |first1=Leonard|title=Language|date=1933|publisher=Henry Holt |url=https://archive.org/details/language0000unse_p0r2|url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Zellig Harris]] claimed that it is possible to discover the phonemes of a language purely by examining the distribution of phonetic segments.{{sfn|Harris|1951|p=5}} Referring to [[Mentalism (psychology)|mentalistic]] definitions of the phoneme, [[William Freeman Twaddell|Twaddell]] (1935) stated "Such a definition is invalid because (1) we have no right to guess about the linguistic workings of an inaccessible 'mind', and (2) we can secure no advantage from such guesses. The linguistic processes of the 'mind' as such are quite simply unobservable; and introspection about linguistic processes is notoriously a fire in a wooden stove."{{sfn|Twaddell|1935}} This approach was opposed to that of [[Edward Sapir]], who gave an important role to native speakers' intuitions about where a particular sound or group of sounds fitted into a pattern. Using English {{IPA|[ŋ]}} as an example, Sapir argued that, despite the superficial appearance that this sound belongs to a group of three nasal consonant phonemes (/m/, /n/ and /ŋ/), native speakers feel that the velar nasal is really the sequence [ŋɡ]/.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sapir|first1=Edward|title=Sound patterns in language|journal=Language|date=1925 |volume=1|issue=37|pages=37–51 |doi=10.2307/409004|jstor=409004}}</ref> The theory of [[generative phonology]] which emerged in the 1960s explicitly rejected the structuralist approach to phonology and favoured the mentalistic or cognitive view of Sapir.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chomsky|first1=Noam |title=Current Issues in Linguistic Theory|date=1964|publisher=Mouton}}</ref>{{sfn|Chomsky|Halle|1968}}

These topics are discussed further in [[English phonology#Controversial issues]].

==Correspondence between letters and phonemes==
{{Main|Phonemic orthography}}
Phonemes are considered to be the basis for [[alphabet]]ic writing systems. In such systems the written symbols ([[grapheme]]s) represent, in principle, the phonemes of the language being written. This is most obviously the case when the alphabet was invented with a particular language in mind; for example, the Latin alphabet was devised for Classical Latin, and therefore the Latin of that period enjoyed a near one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes in most cases, though the devisers of the alphabet chose not to represent the phonemic effect of vowel length. However, because changes in the spoken language are often not accompanied by changes in the established [[orthography]] (as well as other reasons, including [[dialect]] differences, the effects of [[morphophonology]] on orthography, and the use of foreign spellings for some [[loanword]]s), the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation in a given language may be highly distorted; this is the case with English, for example.

The correspondence between symbols and phonemes in alphabetic writing systems is not necessarily a [[one-to-one correspondence]]. A phoneme might be represented by a combination of two or more letters ([[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]], [[Digraph (orthography)|trigraph]], {{abbr|etc.|et cetera}}), like {{angbr|sh}} in English or {{angbr|sch}} in [[German language|German]] (both representing the phoneme {{IPA|/ʃ/}}). Also a single letter may represent two phonemes, as in English {{angbr|x}} representing {{IPA|/gz/}} or {{IPA|/ks/}}. There may also exist spelling/pronunciation rules (such as those for the pronunciation of {{angbr|c}} in [[Italian language|Italian]]) that further complicate the correspondence of letters to phonemes, although they need not affect the ability to predict the pronunciation from the spelling and vice versa, provided the rules are consistent.

==Phonemes in sign languages==
Sign language phonemes are bundles of articulation features. [[William Stokoe|Stokoe]] was the first scholar to describe the phonemic system of [[American Sign Language|ASL]]. He identified the bundles ''[[location (sign language)|tab]]'' (elements of location, from Latin ''tabula''), ''[[handshape|dez]]'' (the handshape, from ''designator''), and ''[[movement (sign language)|sig]]'' (the motion, from ''signation''). Some researchers also discern ''[[orientation (sign language)|ori]]'' (orientation), facial [[expression (sign language)|expression]] or [[mouthing]]. Just as with spoken languages, when features are combined, they create phonemes. As in spoken languages, sign languages have minimal pairs which differ in only one phoneme. For instance, the ASL signs for ''[https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/13/455635.mp4 father]'' and ''[https://media.spreadthesign.com/video/mp4/13/48601.mp4 mother]'' differ minimally with respect to location while handshape and movement are identical; location is thus contrastive.

[[Stokoe notation|Stokoe's terminology and notation system]] are no longer used by researchers to describe the phonemes of sign languages; [[William Stokoe]]'s research, while still considered seminal, has been found not to characterize American Sign Language or other sign languages sufficiently.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Linguistics of American Sign Language : an introduction|last1=Clayton|first1=Valli|last2=Lucas|first2=Ceil|date=2000|publisher=[[Gallaudet University Press]]|isbn=9781563680977|edition=3rd|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=57352333|author-link1=Clayton Valli|author-link2=Ceil Lucas}}</ref> For instance, [[Sign language#Non-manual elements|non-manual features]] are not included in Stokoe's classification. More sophisticated models of sign language phonology have since been proposed by [[ Diane Brentari|Brentari]],<ref>Brentari, Diane (1998). ''A prosodic model of sign language phonology''. MIT Press.</ref> [[Wendy Sandler|Sandler]],<ref>Sandler, Wendy (1989). ''Phonological representation of the sign: linearity and nonlinearity in American Sign Language''. Foris.</ref> and Van der Kooij.<ref>Kooij, Els van der (2002). ''Phonological categories in Sign Language of the Netherlands. The role of phonetic implementation and iconicity''. PhD dissertation, Leiden University.</ref>

===Chereme{{anchor|Cherology}}{{anchor|Chereme}}===
<!-- linked from redirect [[Chereme]] and [[Cherology]] -->
'''Cherology''' and '''chereme''' (from {{Langx|grc|χείρ}} {{gloss|hand}}) are synonyms of [[phonology]] and phoneme which were previously used in the study of [[sign language]]s. The terms were coined in 1960 by [[William Stokoe]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stokoe |first1=William C. |date=1960 |url=http://saveourdeafschools.org/stokoe_1960.pdf |title=Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf |series=Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers (No. 8) |publisher=Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Buffalo |via=Save Our Deaf Schools |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123193225/http://saveourdeafschools.org/stokoe_1960.pdf |archive-date= Nov 23, 2021 }}</ref> at [[Gallaudet University]], who sought to describe sign languages and their constituent parts as true and full languages. Once a controversial idea, the position is now universally accepted in linguistics. Stokoe's terminology, however, has been largely abandoned.<ref>Seegmiller, 2006. "Stokoe, William (1919–2000)", in ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', 2nd ed.</ref> 

''Cheremes'', as the basic units of signed communication, are functionally and psychologically equivalent to ''phonemes'' in oral languages. ''Cherology'', as the study of ''cheremes'' in language, is thus equivalent to ''phonology''. These ''cher''-root terms have thus been deprecated or replaced in the academic literature and elsewhere. Instead, the terms ''phonology'' and ''phoneme'' (or ''distinctive feature'') are used, which in turn tends to stress the linguistic similarities between signed and spoken languages.<ref>Bross, Fabian. 2015. "Chereme", in In: Hall, T. A. Pompino-Marschall, B. (ed.): Dictionaries of Linguistics and Communication Science (Wörterbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, WSK). Volume: Phonetics and Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
* {{annotated link|Alphabetic principle}}
* {{annotated link|Alternation (linguistics)}}
* {{annotated link|Complementary distribution}}
* {{annotated link|Diaphoneme}}
* {{annotated link|Diphone}}
* {{annotated link|Emic and etic}}
* {{annotated link|Free variation}}
* {{annotated link|Initial-stress-derived noun}}
* {{annotated link|International Phonetic Alphabet}}
* {{annotated link|Minimal pair}}
* {{annotated link|Morphophonology}}
* {{annotated link|Phone (phonetics)|Phone}}
* {{annotated link|Phonemic orthography}}
* {{annotated link|Phonology}}
* {{annotated link|Phonological change}}
* {{annotated link|Phonotactics}}
* {{annotated link|Sphoṭa}}
* {{annotated link|Tone (linguistics)|Toneme}}
* {{annotated link|Triphone}}
* {{annotated link|Viseme}}
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
*{{Citation
|last1=Chomsky
|first1=Noam
|author-link1=Noam Chomsky
|last2=Halle
|first2=Morris
|author-link2=Morris Halle
|year=1968
|title=[[The Sound Pattern of English]]
|publisher=Harper and Row
|oclc=317361
}}
*{{Citation
|last1=Clark
|first1=J.
|last2=Yallop
|first2=C.
|year=1995
|title=An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
|publisher=Blackwell
|edition=2nd
|isbn=978-0-631-19452-1
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Crystal
|first=David
|author-link=David Crystal
|year=1997
|title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
|publisher=Cambridge
|edition=2nd
|isbn=978-0-521-55967-6
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Crystal
|first=David
|year=2010
|title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
|publisher=Cambridge
|edition=3rd
|isbn=978-0-521-73650-3
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Gimson
|first=A.C.
|editor-last=Cruttenden
|editor-first=A.
|year=2008
|title=The Pronunciation of English
|publisher=Hodder
|edition=7th
|isbn=978-0-340-95877-3
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Harris
|first=Z.
|year=1951
|title=Methods in Structural Linguistics
|publisher=Chicago University Press
|oclc=2232282
}}
*{{Citation
|last1=Jakobson
|first1=R.
|last2=Fant
|first2=G.
|last3=Halle
|first3=M.
|year=1952
|title=Preliminaries to Speech Analysis
|publisher=MIT
|oclc=6492928
}}
*{{Citation
|last1=Jakobson
|first1=R.
|last2=Halle
|first2=M.
|year=1968
|title=Phonology in Relation to Phonetics, in Malmberg, B. (ed) Manual of Phonetics
|publisher=North-Holland
|oclc=13223685
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Jones
|first=Daniel
|year=1957
|title=The History and Meaning of the Term 'Phoneme'
|journal=Le Maître Phonétique
|volume=35
|issue=72
|pages=1–20
|publisher=Le Maître Phonétique, supplement (reprinted in E. Fudge (ed) Phonology, Penguin)
|oclc=4550377
|jstor=44705495
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Ladefoged
|first=P.
|year=2006
|title=A Course in Phonetics
|publisher=Thomson
|edition=5th
|isbn=978-1-4282-3126-9
}}
*{{Citation
|last=Pike
|first=K.L.
|year=1967
|title=Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of Human Behavior
|publisher=Mouton
|oclc=308042
}}
*{{citation|last=Swadesh|first=M.|year=1934|title=The Phonemic Principle|journal=Language|volume=10|issue=2 |pages=117–129|doi=10.2307/409603|jstor=409603}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Twaddell|first1=W.F.|title=On Defining the Phoneme|journal=Language|date=March 1935 |volume=11|issue=1|pages=5–62|publisher=Linguistic Society of America|jstor=522070|doi=10.2307/522070}} (reprinted in Joos, M. Readings in Linguistics, 1957)
*{{Citation
|last=Wells
|first=J.C.
|year=1982
|title=Accents of English
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|isbn=0-521-29719-2
}}
{{refend}}

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