Detailed definitions vary from one theory to another.
But, in general, two words are composed of different phonemes only if they differ phonetically in ways that are found to make a difference in meaning. The individual phonemes are then the smallest units in each word that distinguish meanings and, in addition, are realized over distinct time spans. Also phonemics , for the branch of linguistics in which phonemes are identified. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press 2. All rights reserved.