在语言学中，语音（英语：phon）可以被认为是用来表示语言的声音符号（即语言的物质外壳），也可以被定义为是人的发音器官所发出来的具有一定意义的声音。在语音学与音韵学中，语音一词所指的是说话时所发出的声音。语音是具体存在的物理现象。最小的实际语音单位为单音，而在建构成单音时，可能需要几个音素合并成的「切音」。

In phonetics and linguistics, a phone is any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether or not the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words. In contrast, a phoneme is a speech sound that, in a given language, if it were swapped with another phoneme, would change the meaning of the word. Phones are absolute, not specific to any language, but phonemes can be discussed only in reference to specific languages.