Actually, this isn't entirely true. Phonons are a type of quantized sound "quasi"particle, much like photons are to light (though photons are true particles according to the standard model). In fact, I have heard that phonon research has helped to develop things that are the equivalent of lasers for sound.
Perhaps light and sound are more similar than you originally thought?Sorry for the off-topic post. I think it would have been very interesting if Oda had made Whitebeard's devil fruit a logia. I wonder how he would have chosen to draw such a vibration man…
Well, not really. The quasiparticle phenomenon, from my understanding, is simply a state in which a particle acts like it should be a different particle in a different situation, and as such a phonon is less a physical particle and more a way of making particles behave like something slightly different. For instance, inside a steel block phonons don't make the particles notsteel, it just means they're behaving sort of like notsteel rather than steel. So once again, phonon quasiparticles are something that is done to physical matter, rather than actual physical particles themselves. Also, it's not really macroscopic at all, which means it's not really relevant to Oda's story I'd bet. I think phonon quasiparticles and quantum interactions is getting a bit in-depth for a Logia :P
The very fact that the quake fruit was a paramecia seems to indicate to me the limitation that you need some sort of physical composition for your body to turn into in order to become a Logia, as otherwise quakes would have fit perfectly as a Logia force of nature. Storywise it was to show that it's not just Logia that are incredibly powerful, but from a justified in-universe perspective I think it tends to indicate a limitation of the Logia parameters as well.