Suprasegmentals are phonetic elements that are not restricted to individual segments, but whose influence extends across a number of segments. What is phonetically the same type of suprasegmental may play a role at a very different place in the grammatical structure of a given language. One type is prominence, involving extra loudness and duration of the segments that are affected. In English, prominence is primarily grammatical stress playing a role in word pronunciation, but also emphasis, playing a role in the structure of a phrase or sentence. In English, an unstressed syllable contains a reduced vowel, normally realized as schwa. Another type of suprasegment involves variation in fundamental frequency. If this occurs at the level of the word (especially where words are restricted to a single syllable), the phenomenon is tone. Where F0 variation plays a role in the grammatical structure of the phrase or sentence, the phenomenon is intonation. Articulatory set (setting) is considered as a suprasegmental.

Chapter 4 introduces the phonetics and phonology of Korean. In this realm as well, Korean is frequently cited as an unusual example of a language with a three-way distinction among obstruents without a contrast in voicing. In recent years this property has attracted renewed attention, as the aspiration contrast appears to be giving way to a prosodic or tonal distinction. Korean is thus a rare example of an intensively studied, major world language undergoing the process of tonogenesis. Korean is also notable for its processes of consonant cluster reduction, which give rise to a striking difference between underlying and surface forms in many environments. Finally, many dialects of Korean have lexical pitch accent. We discuss the differences between these varieties and the prosody of standard Korean.