Glossary → Voice & AI audio
Voice & AI audio

Phoneme

A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that distinguishes words in a language — English has roughly 44, spanning sounds like /p/ vs /b/.

Phonemes are the alphabet of speech technology: pronunciation lexicons, forced alignment and TTS front-ends all operate on them. Alignment at the phoneme level is what enables precise lip-sync and dubbing.

Related terms

Forced alignmentForced alignment is the process of taking an existing transcript and an audio recording and computing exactly … ProsodyProsody is the melody of speech — pitch movement, rhythm, stress and pauses — carrying meaning beyond the word…

Frequently asked

What is Phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest sound unit that distinguishes words in a language — English has roughly 44, spanning sounds like /p/ vs /b/.

Why does Phoneme matter?

Phonemes are the alphabet of speech technology: pronunciation lexicons, forced alignment and TTS front-ends all operate on them. Alignment at the phoneme level is what enables precise lip-sync and dubbing.

What terms are related to Phoneme?

Closely related concepts: Forced alignment, Prosody — each has its own entry in this glossary.