This course introduces some of the essential topics in the field of phonology—the study of the sound systems of the world's languages—through problem-solving and analysis. We will begin with an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet and the types of sounds present in the languages of the world. Students will then learn to analyze phonological alternations whereby a (part of a) word is pronounced differently in different situations, e.g. the English plural suffix is pronounced as [z] in tiger-s but as [s] in cat-s. Exploring diverse sound patterns from numerous languages, students will learn to construct phonological arguments and write professional analyses of phonological data following the stylistic and technical conventions of the field.

There are no prerequisites for this course, but it is recommended that students have taken one prior course in Linguistics, such as LING 1060, Human Language. This course satisfies one of the core prerequisites for the capstone course of the Linguistics major, LING 4870, Field Methods in Linguistics. English 4630/7630 is cross-listed with Linguistics 4630/7630.