phonetic

1. not comparableRelating to the sounds of spoken language.
2. not comparablehuman sciencesRelating to phones (as opposed to phonemes).
3. not comparableRelating 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.

plural phonetics

1. human sciencesIn 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).

   Or, the semantic may wrap around the phonetic, or position within the phonetic.

   2013, William S-Y. Wang, Love and War in Ancient China: Voices from the Shijing, page 25

   2 more examples

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

   1887–88, J. Edkins, “The character 眞 true”, in The China Review, volume 16, page 306

   In the first case the character is pronounced identically, even as to tone, as the phonetic.

   1984, John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy