The term 'study of speech sounds' can be broken down into two distinct fields: phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, such as their production, transmission, and reception. Phonology is the study of how speech sounds are organized and used in language. It looks at the patterns of sound that occur in a language and how they are used to convey meaning. Both phonetics and phonology are important components of linguistics, the scientific study of language.