Phonology

A term that refers to the structure of speech sounds in a language, and also to the study of speech sounds, a multifaceted enterprise.  The importance of phonology for the development of  reading is that children’s awareness of the phonology of their own language (phonological awareness) has a considerable impact on the progress that they make in learning to read and write. 

See Cluster reduction, Final consonant devoicing, Doublets (or geminates), Fricative, Homophones, International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), Linguistics, Orthographic reading skills, Orthography, Phonological process, Phonological reading skills, Phonological rule, Phonotactics, Reading comprehension, Stopping