| | The phoneme is the sound, while it can have many different representations by characters of that sound in the language. For example, the phoneme "j" (IPA nomenclature, the same as the old affricate /dʒ/) is expressed in English by the characters "Y" (as in "yes"), "i" (as in "onion"), and "j" (as in "hallelujah")<ref name="EP">https://englishphonetics.net/english-phonetics-academy/the-44-sounds-of-english-based-on-the-IPA.html</ref> Meanwhile, the other "j" sound has five different expressions: j, g, ge, dge, and d.<ref>https://ortongillinghamonlinetutor.com/five-ways-to-spell-the-j-sound-in-the-english-language/</ref> | | The phoneme is the sound, while it can have many different representations by characters of that sound in the language. For example, the phoneme "j" (IPA nomenclature, the same as the old affricate /dʒ/) is expressed in English by the characters "Y" (as in "yes"), "i" (as in "onion"), and "j" (as in "hallelujah")<ref name="EP">https://englishphonetics.net/english-phonetics-academy/the-44-sounds-of-english-based-on-the-IPA.html</ref> Meanwhile, the other "j" sound has five different expressions: j, g, ge, dge, and d.<ref>https://ortongillinghamonlinetutor.com/five-ways-to-spell-the-j-sound-in-the-english-language/</ref> |
| − | There are 44 sounds (phonemes) in English, while only 24 in Spanish, 34 in French, 46 in German, and 49 in Italian.<ref name="EP"/> | + | There are 44 sounds (phonemes) in English, while only 24 in Spanish, 34 in French, 46 in German, and 49 in Italian.<ref name="EP"/> There are thousands of different phonemes in Chinese. |