Entertainment / Literature / Grapheme: In a writing system, the smallest written mark or symbol that has meaning, and which cannot be subdivided into smaller markings recognized as symbols in a particular written form of language. For example, in English, the marking for the letter 'a' involves two diagonal lines that slant upward and one horizontal line. If any one of those three lines are removed, the markings are no longer recognizably a letter. Thus, the letter is a grapheme that cannot be further subdivided into smaller symbols. Linguists indicate graphemes and written words by placing them in chevrons or carroted brackets in order to distinguish the markings from phonemes when discussing the sounds of the spoken word. For phonetic transcription, they would place the symbols for the sounds in slashes like /this/. Thus, the markings
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Entertainment / Literature / Phoneme: The smallest sound or part of a spoken word that serves as a building block in a larger syllable or word, and which cannot be broken down further into smaller constitutive sounds. Phonetic transcripti MORE