Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies the patterning of speech sounds in language. To a large extent, it is related to Phonetics but has a different focus. Whereas Phonetics concentrates on the physical articulatory and auditory aspects of speech sounds, Phonology investigates sound types that subsume all the variations of speech sounds which we actually produce while speaking. For example, it gives explanations why [p] is aspirated in the words like put, pity, and rump; but is non-aspirated in spite, splash, and spirit.
In Phonology, the central term is phoneme, which is defined as the smallest meaning distinguishing sound unit. In other words, phonemes can distinguish words with different meanings. For example, /p/ and /b/ are two separate phonemes because they can distinguish words such as pit and bit; pull and bull, etc.
Another important word in Phonology is allophone which is any of the speech sounds that represent a single phoneme, such as the aspirated k in kit and the unaspirated k in skit, which are allophones of the phoneme /k/.
Also, we have the concept of distinctive features, which are the distinguishing characteristics of phonemes. For instance, comparing the same phonemes /p/ and /b/, we may notice that they are very similar in their articulation, only /b/ is voiced and /p/ is voiceless. If the feature is present in a phoneme, it is marked with a plus sign and if it is absent, it is marked with a minus sign. Thus /b/ is presented as [+VOICE] and /p/ as [-VOICE].
One more field of study in phonology is the possible patterning of sounds and the constraints on the sequence, ordering or position of phonemes in various languages. These possible sequential arrangements of phonological units in a language are called phonotactics. In English, for example, /spm-/ or /nb-/ are not possible initial phonotactic sequences.
On the other hand, it is important to set the differences between phonetic transcription and phonological transcription.
-Phonetic transcription is given in square brackets [ ]. It is used in allophones.
-Phonological transcription is given in slashes / /. It is used in phonemes.
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