English Phonology: An Introduction

This is an excellent introduction in English phonology. In keeping with its title, it does not pay attention to the theoretical difficulties that can occur studying languages other than English. Too bad it is out of print, though Mr Giegerich's website indicates that he works on a follow-up.

Giegerich's English Phonology is used as the textbook for the introductory phonology course in Applied Linguistics at Portland State University. The MA-TESOL diploma in this dept requires a course in "linguistic argumentation" and for that purpose this is a good book. Not easy to understand, and not a fast read, but beautifuly argued. We needed very little supplemental handout since G's argument is extremely detailed and disciplined. The argument's theoretical framework is essentially generative phonology, which claims that an adequate set of phonologically argued rules for a given language will produce all and only the correct expressions of that language. Three varieties of modern spoken English -- prestige Southern British "RP", middle-class Scottish English "SE", and midwest regional General American English "GA" -- are compared in great detail. In the first 130 pages, Giegerich develops a comprehensive feature set for English phonemes. In pages 130-330, he moves carefully stepwise from the phonemic basis into an argument for the structure of syllables, the metrical foot, and the metrical phrase in English. The argument itself is logically satisfying despite the proliferation of "exceptions" throughout. Exceptions are items that don't follow the rules. This is not a flaw from the educator's perspective. By paying close attention to each step as Giegerich lays out a long (330 pages) program of binary choices, the student observes phonological rule testing in action. When some items fail to pass the rules, we learn from the error. Professional phonologists will have heated opinions as to whether the presence of so many 'exceptions' invalidates the theory. However from the classroom perspective this is a good book from which to learn how to construct and test phonological rules. There is no mention in English Phonology of competing phonological theories or alternative representations such as Autosegmental Phonology or Optimality Theory. If the instructor wishes to introduce other theories, s/he might need additional texts.