Iggy Roca and Wyn Johnson (1999). A course in phonology. Oxford & Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. Pp. xxi+725.

Abstract

Roca & Johnson (R & J) are ambitious in their goals for A course in phonology (CP), now in its second printing.I would like to thank Dirk Elzinga and Sharon Hargus for helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this review. I would also like to thank Iggy Roca for his thorough commentary on that earlier draft, although I realise that he will likely remain unsatisfied with the present version. The book, intended for beginners (p. xv), covers what the authors see as the outcome of 30 years of work in mainstream generative phonology, including the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), and strives to do so in a pedagogically sound fashion. CP contains 20 chapters, divided into three parts: Phonetics and phonology, Suprasegmental structure and Advanced theory. There is, in addition, an accompanying workbook by the same authors and publisher, A workbook in phonology (WP) (pp. x+144), which is designed to be employable with other textbooks or on its own.