phonetic

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός (phōnētikós). Surface analysis: phone + -tic.

adj

1. Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
2. (linguistics) Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes).
3. Relating to the spoken rather than written form of a word or name, as opposed to orthographic.

noun

1. (linguistics) 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. 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
   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