phonology

PHONOLOGY = [fı'nolıci] noun
sesbilim

PHONOLOGY
Phonology is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sounds (phonemes) used in a language, as well as the rules and patterns that govern how these sounds are combined to form words and sentences. It is concerned with the abstract, mental representation of speech sounds, as opposed to their physical production or perception. Phonology is interested in describing the sound system of a language, including the inventory of speech sounds (consonants, vowels, and other types of sounds), their distribution and variation, and the rules that determine how they combine and interact with each other in different phonetic contexts.

One important concept in phonology is the distinction between phonemes and allophones. Phonemes are abstract units of sound that can differentiate the meaning of words in a language, while allophones are the various ways in which a phoneme can be realized or pronounced in different phonetic contexts without changing the meaning of the word. For example, the /p/ sound in "pit" and the /p/ sound in "spit" are different phonemes in English, but they are both allophones of the same phoneme in Hindi. Phonological rules can also account for other sound changes that occur in languages over time, such as vowel shifts, consonant lenition or fortition, and assimilation. By examining the patterns and rules of sound systems in different languages, phonologists can gain insights into how languages are structured and how they change over time.