According to the phoneme theory, every utterance, in any language, is totally analysable in a succession of distinctive units; these units are discrete, and their number, in the language is strictly limited. Methods have been devised for the analysis of utterances into phonematic segments. It is clear, for instance, that the Spanish word 'mucho' is made up of four successive phonemes: the segment corresponding to the 'ch' group of the spelling is one and the same phoneme, although it begins as a stop [t] and ends as a fricative [š], because that fricative never occurs in Castilian Spanish without the preceding stop, which implies that this stop, as such, is automatic and not distinctive. The reasons for conceiving of the consonantal complex at the beginning of English 'chip' as a single phoneme are undoubtedly very cogent, although not quite as obvious as in the case of Spanish 'ch'. But there are many cases on record where no agreement has never been reached as to whether one should reckon with one phoneme or two successive phonemes: some would analyse the word 'ice' into two, others, into three phonemes. If 'ice' presents two phonematic segments, an /ai/ phoneme has to be listed among the phonological units of the language; this will be probably entail a similar decision regarding /au/ as the former of two segments of 'out'. If, on the contrary, 'ice' is made up of three segments, 'out' follows suit and English loses two phonemes.
- Martinet (1962), Pag. 6