Question

How many phonemes are there in the word ‘dogs’?

Answer 1

Hint: Phonemes are units of sound. They help in distinguishing one word from another of a given language.

Complete answer:
A phoneme is a unit of sound that creates a distinction between two words by means of sound. When a phoneme is changed, it not only changes the sound of the pronunciation of the word but it also changes the entire meaning of the word. There are 44 phonemes in the English language.

For example Bat and bad are words with three phonemes each. B, a and t in Bat and B, a and d in Bad. By changing only one phoneme in Bat we get a totally different word; bad. The changed phoneme gives it a new sound and a new meaning.

Such a pair which differs in meaning through contrast of a single phoneme is known as a minimal pair.
From the above explanation we can say that the word ‘dogs’ has four phonemes; i.e. d, o, g and s. Each of the alphabets have a different sound and are clearly heard while pronouncing.

Sometimes, one phoneme can be pronounced with the help of different spellings. For e.g. Jug has a specific J sound. This exact sound or phoneme can also be spelled as ‘dg’ in case of Dodge or hedge. This very same phoneme can also be produced with ‘G’ and in ‘germs’ and ‘luggage’. These specific spellings having the same phoneme are called graphemes.

Note:
- Another similar part of pronunciation are allophones. Allophones are different pronunciations of the same phoneme.
- In the word ‘pea’, the phoneme p is aspirated but the p in tap is unaspirated. That is the correct pronunciation of the respective words.
- But even if we say the word pea with an unaspirated p and the word tap with an aspirated p, it will not change the meaning of either of the words. Thus, aspirated p and unaspirated p are two allophones on the phoneme p.