phonetic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   of or relating to the scientific study of speech sounds

   Phonetic analysis.

2. 2
   adj

   of or relating to speech sounds

   Phonetic transcription.

3. 3
   adj

   Relating to the spoken rather than written form of a word or name, as opposed to orthographic.

   All unfamiliar names have been transcribed in phonetic spelling.

4. 4
   noun

   In such writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a phono-semantic character that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with semantic (which is usually the radical).

   I suspect that 田 dien is the original character and true phonetic of the whole group.

Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός (phōnētĭkós). By surface analysis, phone + -etic.

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