​The Felt Phoneme
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Whitehead and the Sounds of Language 
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"A single word is not one definite sound. Every instance of its utterance differs in some respect from every other instance: the pitch of the voice, the intonation, the accent, the quality of sound, the rhythmic relations of the component sounds, the intensity of sound, all vary. Thus a word is a species of sounds, with specific identity and individual differences. When we recognize the species, we have heard the word. But what we have heard is merely the sound—euphonious or harsh, concordant with or discordant with other accompanying sounds."

​Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality 

Phonemes, like all events, are expressions of energy, and therefore, from Whitehead's perspective, expressions of feeling. This is because energy itself is a form of feeling. This is true of the sounds of spoken words. When we hear them - when we prehend them, to use Whitehead's phrase - we are hearing feelings in acoustic form,

​Whitehead’s point here, however. is that the meaning of spoken words is not confined to their phonetic content; it also draws from a deep well of what he calls experience in the mode of causal efficacy—the felt influence of past experiences on present perception, for both speakers and hearers. Words gain significance not only through their sounds, but through their symbolism, emotional tone, and embodied history.

However—and importantly—the sounds themselves possess an inherent musicality, and in many contexts, meaning emerges from this musical quality. At the most fundamental level, this interplay of sound and meaning begins with phonemes.

Phonemes are traditionally defined as the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning—such as /p/ and /b/ in pat versus bat. But from a process-relational perspective, phonemes are not fixed entities. Instead, they are relational events, defined not by static acoustic properties but by how they are felt, performed, and received in context.

A phoneme is not a fixed unit of sound, but a felt contrast emerging within a particular moment of experience. In Whitehead's terms, an act of concrescence is the process by which a subject—an actual occasion—integrates many influences into one unified experience. When we speak or hear a phoneme, we are not merely accessing a stable linguistic form; we are prehending—that is, taking account of—many elements: prior speech events, bodily gestures, social cues, aesthetic qualities, and emotional tone.

Thus, the phoneme:

• Is not an isolated object, but a relational pattern that becomes actual through contrast with other sounds;
• Functions as a lure for feeling—its rhythm, pitch, and articulation shape the emotional and aesthetic tone of the utterance;
• Emerges from a field of potential—from what Whitehead calls eternal objects—but only becomes real within the specific, temporal concrescence of speech.

In this view, phonemes are abstract potentials whose reality is found in how they are enacted and prehended in actual occasions of communication. Like every feature of concrescence, they are conditioned by the past yet open to novelty. Spoken language, then, is not a mere chain of fixed units, but a living field of expressive possibilities, shaped by feeling, rhythm, and relation.

In Acting and Performance

In theatrical performance, phonemes are never neutral or disembodied. They are performed with emotion, physicality, and intention. A single line--"To be, or not to be..."—can be spoken with defiance, hesitation, weariness, or hope, depending on how the actor feels and enacts the sounds. The phonemes, then, are vehicles of becoming: they carry not only semantic meaning but mood, gesture, and relation.
From a Whiteheadian view, each utterance is a fresh concrescence—an emergent moment shaped by audience, setting, memory, and bodily expression. The actor becomes a site where linguistic potential is prehended and performed, turning language into living presence. Phonemes here are not abstract signs but felt contrasts in time, shaping and shaped by the occasion.

In Poetry

Poetry thrives on the aesthetic power of sound. Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and rhythm aren’t just decorative—they are modes of feeling that evoke responses beyond conceptual meaning. The phoneme, in poetry, is sensuous and relational—a sound event that resonates with memory, emotion, and bodily intuition.
Take a line like:

“Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.”

The consonant clusters and vowel cadences don’t simply carry meaning—they form it through sonic texture. Each phoneme is an aesthetic lure—inviting a particular tempo of attention, a pause, a breath, a shiver. From a process-relational lens, poetic language is an orchestration of micro-events—sonic concrescences that build toward intensity, contrast, and emotional depth.

In Speech Recognition Technology

Speech recognition systems often treat phonemes as discrete units to be identified, categorized, and matched with stored templates. But real speech is messier—intonation varies, consonants blur, voices tremble. A Whiteheadian perspective suggests that speech recognition must move beyond static identification toward dynamic pattern recognition—an ability to detect relational fields of sound as they unfold in context.
Future systems might be trained not only on fixed phonemic inventories but on probabilistic, rhythmic, and affective features—recognizing, for example, that a whispered “hello” and a shouted “hello” are not the same act, even if the phonemes match. Incorporating context-sensitive prehension—the way human listeners do—could mark a major step toward more relational AI.
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In all three areas—performance, poetics, and technology—a process-relational phonology invites us to treat language not as code but as experience. A phoneme is not simply heard; it is felt, interpreted, and enacted in the moment. It is a spark in the unfolding drama of becoming—a rhythmic, relational flash in the aesthetic field of the world.