Segment (linguistics)

In linguistics, a segment is "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech".

In spoken languages, segments will typically be grouped into consonants and vowels, but the term can be applied to any minimal unit of a linear sequence meaningful to the given field of analysis, such as a mora or a syllable in prosodic phonology, a morpheme in morphology, or a chereme in sign language analysis.

Other articulatory, visual or acoustic cues, such as prosody (tone, stress), and secondary articulations such as nasalization, may overlap multiple segments and cannot be discretely ordered with them.

The segmental phonemes of sign language (formally called "cheremes") are visual movements of hands, face, and body.

[example needed] Some contrastive elements of speech cannot be easily analyzed as distinct segments but rather belong to a syllable or word.