April McMahon is Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students at the University of Manchester, and Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Her previous books include Understanding Language Change, Lexical Phonology and the History of English and Change, Chance, and Optimality.

To students; To colleagues

1. Sounds, spellings and symbols
1.1 Phonetics and phonology
1.2 Variation
1.3 The International Phonetic Alphabet
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

2 The phoneme: the same but different
2.1 Variation and when to ignore it
2.2 Conditioned variation in written language
2.3 The phoneme
2.4 Some further examples
2.5 The reality of the phoneme
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

3 Describing English consonants
3.1 What's inside a phonetic symbol?
3.2 Consonant classification
3.3 The anatomy of a consonant
Exercises
Recommendations for reading

4 Defining distributions: consonant allophones
4.1 Phonemes revisited
4.2 Making generalisations
4.3 Making statements more precise
4.4 A more economical feature system
4.5 Natural classes
4.6 A warning note on phonological rules
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

5 Criteria for contrast: the phoneme system
5.1 Minimal pairs and beyond
5.2 Phonetic similarity and defective distributions
5.3 Free variation
5.4 Neutralisation
5.5 Phonology and morphology
5.6 Rules and constraints
5.7 The phoneme system
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

6 Describing vowels
6.1 Vowels versus consonants
6.2 The anatomy of a vowel
6.3 Vowel classification
Exercises
Recommendations for reading

7 Vowel phonemes
7.1 The same but different again
7.2 Establishing vowel contrasts
7.3 Vowel features and allophonic rules
7.4 Phonetic similarity and defective distribution
7.5 Free variation, neutralisation and morphophonemics
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

8 Variation between accents
8.1 The importance of accent
8.2 Systemic differences
8.3 Realisational differences
8.4 Distributional differences
8.5 New accents - language contact and World Englishes
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

9 Syllables
9.1 Phonology above the segment
9.2 The syllable
9.3 Constituents of the syllable
9.4 The grammar of syllables: patterns of acceptability
9.5 Justifying the constituents
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

10 The word and above
10.1 Phonological units above the syllable
10.2 Stress
10.3 The foot
10.4 Segmental phonology of the phrase and word
10.5 Intonation
Exercises and topics for discussion
Recommendations for reading

Glossary; Discussion of the exercises; References; Index