What are the individual sounds in a language called, such as the 46 sounds in English?

The individual sounds in a language are referred to as phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that can change meaning in a language. For example, in English, changing the phoneme from /b/ to /d/ in the word "bat" to "dat" alters the meaning entirely, demonstrating the critical role phonemes play in communication.

Morphemes, on the other hand, are the smallest units of meaning, which can be entire words or parts of words (like prefixes or suffixes) that convey semantic content. Dialects refer to variations in language that reflect differences in region, ethnicity, or social class but do not focus specifically on the individual sounds of a language. Syllables are units of pronunciation that typically consist of a vowel sound and can sometimes include surrounding consonants, but they are broader than phonemes, as syllables can contain multiple phonemes. Thus, phonemes are indeed the correct terminology for the individual sounds that make up the spoken language.