The phonemic system of a language (phonology) that studies the totality of that phonemes of the language, makes an analysis of the phonemes, places them in various categories and finds a) which phonemes can be found in sequence and b) how they are affected by the neighbouring phonemes. Each language has its own unique phonological system.

The smallest sound unit of a language. With these units we differentiate the meanings of the words. Even a slight alteration in a phoneme, can change the meaning of the word. E.g. in the words cry and try the phonemes /k/ and /t/ give a different meaning to each word. The initial sounds in those two words constitute one of the many minimal pairs in English.