A Workbook in Phonology (review)

This useful workbook is designed as a companion to A course in phonology (Oxford & Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), by the same authors. It contains ten chapters, each consisting of a somewhat terse introduction and a collection of problem sets, as well as several appendices (including indices, cross-references to A course in phonology, and a table of information about the languages used in the problem sets). The chapters are: ‘Phonetics’ (1–12), ‘Foundations of phonology’ (13–28), ‘Syllables’ (29–40), ‘Stress’ (41–51), ‘Tone’ (53–66), ‘The interaction between morphology and phonology’ (67–75), ‘Phonological domains’ (77–86), ‘Aspects of lexical representation’ (87–99), ‘Derivational theory’ (101–9), and ‘Optimality theory’ (111–126).

This is a well-done book. The problem sets progress smoothly in difficulty, beginning with an exercise where students are supposed to give the IPA symbol for a given sound and concluding with an OT analysis of Shona height harmony. Moreover, the data are drawn from a vast range of languages, including Faroese, Basque, Berber, Yawelmani, and Korean, among others. Further editions might benefit from a booklet of solutions to the problem sets, however.