Clear and concise, this textbook is an introduction to phonology for students which assumes no prior knowledge of this area of linguistics and provides an overall view of the field which can be covered within one year. The book does not confine itself to any specific theoretical approach and can therefore be used for study within any framework and also to prepare students for work in more specialised frameworks such as Optimality Theory,Government, Dependency and Declarative Phonology. Each chapter focuses on a particular set of theoretical issues including segments, syllables, feet and phonological processing. Gussmann explores these areas using data drawn from a variety of languages including English, Icelandic, Russian, Irish, Finnish, Turkish and others.