äänneteet

Äänneteet refers to the phonemes of a language. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that can distinguish one word from another. For example, in English, the sounds /p/ and /b/ are phonemes because they differentiate words like "pat" and "bat." A given language has a limited set of phonemes, and speakers of that language learn to recognize and produce them.

The study of phonemes is a core part of phonology, a branch of linguistics. Phonemes are abstract representations of speech sounds, and their actual pronunciation can vary depending on the surrounding sounds, the speaker's accent, and other factors. These variations are called allophones. For instance, the phoneme /t/ in English has different allophones in words like "top" (aspirated) and "stop" (unaspirated).

Identifying the phonemes of a language involves finding minimal pairs – pairs of words that differ by only one sound. The number of phonemes varies significantly between languages. For example, Finnish has around 16 phonemes, while English has around 44. Understanding the phonemic inventory of a language is crucial for language learning, speech therapy, and the development of speech technology.