- Segmental phonology studies the individual sounds, or segments, of speech, and how they are combined together to form words. This includes the study of phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound that can distinguish one word from another, as well as the study of allophones, which are the different ways in which a phoneme can be pronounced.
- Suprasegmental phonology studies the features of speech that are not associated with individual segments, such as intonation, stress, and rhythm. Intonation is the variation in pitch of the voice, and it can be used to convey different meanings or emotions. Stress is the emphasis placed on certain syllables, and it can also be used to convey different meanings. Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a word or sentence.
- Morphophonology studies the interaction between phonology and morphology, which is the study of the formation of words. Morphophonology examines how the sounds of a language are affected by the addition of affixes, such as prefixes and suffixes, and how the sounds of words change when they are combined together to form compounds or phrases.