Phonology is the study of the sound systems of spoken human languages. It examines the production of speech sounds, the structure and patterning of sounds in a given language, and how sounds combine and change depending on their environment. Phonology has several branches including phonemics, which studies phonemes - the basic units of sound that distinguish meaning. It also examines related concepts like allophones, morphophonemes, and phones. The systematic study of a language's phonology can provide insight into how and why sounds change over time and vary between dialects.