phonologies

Noun

phonology (countable and uncountable, plural phonologies)

1. (uncountable) The study of the way sounds function in languages, including accent, intonation, phonemes, stress, and syllable structure, and which sounds are distinctive units within a language; (countable) the way sounds function within a given language; a phonological system.
   • Prospectus of a new work, entitled Pantographia: Containing accurate copies of all the known alphabets in the world. Together with an English explanation of the peculiar force of each letter: To which will be added specimens of all well-authenticated oral languages, Forming a comprehensive Digest...1798 August, Edmund Fry, Prospectus of a New Work, Entitled Pantographia; …, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, title page

   Synonyms:

   orthoepy, soundlore

2. (broadly, uncountable, sign language) The study of the way components of signs function in a sign language, and which components are distinctive units within the language; (countable) the way components of signs function within a given sign language.
   • Sign language linguists have produced many volumes of description of the phonology and morphology of signs and the syntax of sign languages.1995, David F. Armstrong, William C[larence] Stokoe, Sherman E. Wilcox, “The Universe of Gesture”, in Gesture and the Nature of Language, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press...