The phonemes of a language are neither absolutes nor bundles of absolute characteristics, but rather are fluctuating bundles of features identified (1) relative to each other in sequences, (2) relative to a system of fluctuating bundles of characteristics, and (3) relative to structural position in a sequence of such relative elements. Detection techniques, if paralleling phonemic analysis, would need to be able to work with fluctuating relative elements rather than with absolute physical characteristics only.