'The test is a piece of cake.'
The study of pronunciation consists of two fields, namely phonetics and phonology.
Phonetics refer to the study of speech sounds. Phonetics (from the Greek: φωνή, phōnē, "sound, voice", pronounced /fɵˈnɛtɨks/) is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (phones), and their physiological production, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.
Phonetic transcription is a universal system for transcribing sounds that occur in spoken language. The most widely known system of phonetic transcription, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), uses a one-to-one mapping between phones and written symbols.
In contrast to phonetics, phonology is the study of how sounds and gestures pattern in and across languages, relating such concerns with other levels and aspects of language. Phonetics deals with the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds, how they are produced, and how they are perceived.
If phonetics deals with the physical reality of speech sounds, then phonology, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with how we interpret and systematize sounds. Phonology deals with the system and pattern of the sounds which exists within particular languages.
The study of the phonology of English looks at the vowels, consonants and suprasegmental features of the language.
