Which component organizes the sounds of a language?

Concept

A language is described at several distinct levels of analysis, and each level is defined by the kind of unit it organises. One level accounts for the sound system of a language — which speech sounds are contrastive in that language and by what rules those sounds may be combined into syllables and words. A second level accounts for how meaningful units are assembled into words, a third for how words are assembled into sentences, and a fourth for meaning itself. The level that organises the sound system is phonology.

Application

The stem asks for the component that organises the sounds of a language, so the component required is the one whose unit is the speech sound. Phonology fixes a language’s phoneme inventory — the set of sounds that can distinguish meaning — and its phonotactic rules, which decide the sound sequences the language permits. In English, /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes because “pin” and “bin” differ in meaning by that one sound; the cluster /str/ is permitted at the start of a word in “street”, while the sound /ŋ/ never begins an English word. In Hindi, the unaspirated–aspirated contrast between क and ख separates कल from खल. All such patterning of speech sounds is the work of phonology.

Cross-check

Placing each of the four levels against the unit it organises keeps them apart:

Only the sound level is asked for, so the component that organises the sounds of a language is phonology.