Understanding Phonology, Fourth Edition provides a clear, accessible and broad introduction to Phonology. Introducing basic concepts, it provides a comprehensive account of phonological issues such as segmental contrasts; syllables and moras; quantity, tone, intonation and stress; feature geometry; and prosodic constituent structure.

This new edition has been reorganized and revised with key features including:

A brand new eResource at www.routledge.com/9781138961425, which contains a full answer key for all exercises, and audio recordings of illustrative examples;

Illustrations in languages from all six continents and all major language families, including Arabic, Mandarin, Finnish, Zulu and Hawaiian;

Over 140 exercises to test understanding, including new exercises involving larger data sets;

Revised coverage of tone, stress and opacity in OT.

Understanding Phonology is essential reading for students coming to this topic for the first time.