What is defined as the smallest unit of sound that is not language specific?

The term that accurately describes the smallest unit of sound that is not language specific is "phone." A phone refers to any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether it carries meaning in a particular language. It represents the physical realization of speech sounds and can be thought of as the raw sound itself, without any attachment to phonetic features that might denote a specific meaning or function in a language.

In contrast, a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can differentiate meaning between words in a particular language. Allophones are variations of a phoneme that do not change the meaning of a word and are language-specific. A token refers to an instance of a phoneme or phone in context, often used in discussions of frequency and occurrence in speech.

Therefore, the distinction lies in the fact that a phone is a more general concept that encompasses any sound without defining its role in any specific linguistic system.