by Lynne Cahill (Author)

Written in a lively and engaging style, this brand new textbook provides students with a friendly yet authoritative introduction to the sounds of language. Divided into six thematic parts, it unpicks the relationship between sound and spelling before showing you how to describe and classify sounds. It then explains how sounds are combined into syllables, morphemes and words, and looks at stress, tone and duration, collectively known as prosody. It concludes with a discussion of a range of phonological features, processes and theories, including Generative Phonology, Optimality Theory and Feature Geometry. Quizzes prompt students to reflect on what they already know about the subject, and end-of-chapter exercises enable them to consolidate their knowledge before moving on.

This book will be essential reading for undergraduates studying phonetics and phonology as part of an English language or linguistics degree.

Author Biography

Lynne Cahill is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Sussex, UK. In recent years she has focused on the relationship between spelling and pronunciation, with a particular interest in variant spellings in contexts as diverse as medieval legal documents and computer mediated communication.
Lynne Cahill is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Sussex, UK. In recent years she has focused on the relationship between spelling and pronunciation, with a particular interest in variant spellings in contexts as diverse as medieval legal documents and computer mediated communication.