Which term refers to the smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language?

• A. Free morphemes
• B. Bound morphemes
• C. Phoneme
• D. Orthography

Answer: (C)

The essential idea here is that a phoneme is the smallest sound unit that can distinguish meaning in a language. Phonemes are the abstract categories of sounds that, when swapped, change the meaning of words. For example, changing the initial sound in a pair like bat and pat yields two different words, showing that /b/ and /p/ belong to different phonemes. This contrasts with morphemes, which are about meaning rather than pure sound contrasts; free and bound morphemes are meaningful units that may contain multiple sounds. Orthography, on the other hand, is about writing; it reflects sound in written form but is not the sound unit that distinguishes meaning in speech. So the correct term is the phoneme.