Phonemes are the building blocks of language. Represented by letters of the alphabet, they are the component sounds of spoken words. Most people automatically hear, for example, that the word ...

V(C)DlV --> V(C)D $ lT. 'D' = an alveolar stop, (C) = any immediately preceding consonant, 'l' = /l/. If an alveolar stop and the phoneme /l/ occur between vowels, the alveolar stop goes with the ...