Phonology, also known as phonemics, is the study of the particular sound units (phonemes) in languages. It can be compared to phonetics, which is the study of human speech in general, and includes the articulation and perception of sounds.

Example
Phonology aims to describe the sounds (phonemes) that are distinctive in a language. This can be done by identifying minimal pairs such as 'tin' and 'bin'.

In the classroom
Phonological areas looked at in language teaching include phonemes, intonation, stress, accent and features of connected speech such as elision, intrusion and catenation.