Phonemes - What makes a Word?

A phoneme is from linguistics, the science of language. Each sound difference that speakers recognizes as creating a different word is considered a phoneme. For instance, "pit" has an aspirated "p", meaning it is followed by a slight puff of breath. The p in stop doesn't have aspiration. English speakers don't consider them different sounds. P doesn't have the vocal chords vibrate ("voiced"). B does. English speakers consider "bit" and "pit" two different words because in English p and b are different phonemes.

In Kin con, each word differs ONLY by the vowel sound. Regarding "can can", the first word means "is able" and is pronounced like the first A in Anna. The second word means "put in a can" and is pronounced like the A in Ann. (In the South, 'coon is short for racoon, i.e., Ken's nickname means "Keen Racoon".)