Phonology is the area of linguistics that is concerned with sound regularities in languages: what sounds exist in a language, how those sounds combine with each other into syllables and words, and how the prosody (stress, accent, tone, and so on) of a language works. Phonology interacts with morphology in a number of ways: morphemes may have two or more different phonological forms whose appearance may be completely or at least partly predictable. Some phonological rules apply when two or more morphemes are joined together. In some languages morphemes display different phonological behavior depending on whether they are native to the language or borrowed into it from some other language We will explore the various ways in which phonology interacts with morphology.

We will frequently make use of phonetic transcriptions, so you may want to review the IPA before you begin reading it. We will also make use of terminology which classifies sounds by their point of articulation (labial, dental, alveolar, and so on) and by their manner of articulation (voiced vs. voiceless, stop, fricative, liquid, and so on).