Editing Phoneme (section)

==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.