Not every phonetic difference matters equally in a language. Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and function within a particular linguistic system to encode meaning.

Phonologists identify phonemes, state allophonic rules, analyze syllable structure, stress, and tone, and model alternations that appear in morphology. They abstract away from raw phonetic detail to capture patterns speakers implicitly know. Typological work compares phonological systems across languages.

Phonology interfaces with phonetics, morphology, and the lexicon. Theoretical frameworks differ in representation and rule versus constraint architecture, yet they share the goal of explaining native-speaker intuitions about sound patterns. Field description always includes a phonological sketch alongside the phonetic inventory.

• Study of sound patterns within languages
• Covers phonemes, rules, syllables, stress, and tone
• More abstract than phonetics
• Essential in language description and theory