Phonemic Systems
A phoneme is redefined here as a signifié of each phonogram in the simplest system for a given language. This means to see a phoneme as an expression figure in the Hjelmslevian tradition, not as a bundle of distinctive features.
A phonogram system, i.e. a phonemic system, is simpler in proportion to the degree of well-balancedness between two contradicted demands, namely to minimize the total number of phonograms in use and to shorten the spellings of words. (Such a simplest system is probably a latent goal of romanization.)
The simplicity of the system is assumed to be tested by the phonemic table empirically arranged as follows.
a) Put phonemes with a common property in the same line in order of their tongue positions.
b) Apply symbols +, - and ± respectively to show positive, negative and neutral values, with + and - to phonemes which have contrastive counterparts, and ± to those which have none.
c) The fewer the squares and blanks in the table, the simpler the system.
Examples: Japanese.
| V | -B | ±B | +B | C | -B | -B' | +B' | +B | |
| -L | i | u | -V | p | t | s | k | ||
| +L | e | a | o | +V | b | d | z | g | |
| V' | y | w | ±V | m | n | l | h |
| V | -B | ±B | +B | C | -B | -B' | +B' | +B | |
| -L | i | ü | u | -A | b | d | z | g | |
| +L | ï | a | e | +A | p | t | c | k | |
| -F | f | l | s | h | |||||
| +F | m | n | r | ng | |||||
F = possible syllable final L = low v = voiced
