Etymology

toneme

T1O1N1E1M3E1

Today it means: A phoneme in a language that uses different tones for different meanings. Full definition →

English phonemeclip. ← Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma) ← Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ten-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*tónos
  3. Proto-Hellenic*tónos
  4. Ancient Greekτόνος (tónos)
  5. Latintonus
  6. Middle Englishtone
  7. Englishtone
  8. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  9. Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
  10. Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
  11. Ancient Greekφωνέω (phōnéō)
  12. Ancient Greekφώνημα (phṓnēma)
  13. Englishphonemeclip.
  14. English todaytoneme

From tone + -eme.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.