The articles in this volume – consisting of selected papers presented at the first Old-World Conference on Phonology (OCP1), held in Leiden on January 10-12, 2003 – show that there are still many interesting questions to be asked on segmental structure, that there is quite a lively debate on many of the issues concerned, and that the field is far from monolithic in its methodological approach: some authors use OT as a tool, but others do not; some refer explicitly to the results of phonetics for phonological explanation, while others prefer a purely abstract, cognitive approach. Furthermore, the reader will find contributions from neighbouring disciplines such as language typology and historical linguistics. The articles study topical questions within this particular field from various angles: to what extent do we still need a feature geometry, and to what extent is it universal? What is the relevance of evidence from historical linguistics, typology, etc.? How should we represent the 'complexity' of 'complex' segments?

Marc van Oostendorp and Jeroen van de Weijer Phonological alphabets and the structure of the segment

Part 1: Features and feature geometry

Christian Uffmann (University of Marburg) Optimal geometries

Moira Yip (University College London) Variability in feature affiliations through violable constraints:the case of [lateral]

Don Salting (University of North Dakota) The geometry of harmony

Yen-Hwei Lin (Michigan State University) Piro affricates: Phonological edge effects and phonetic anti-edge effects

Els van der Kooij (University of Nijmegen) and Harry van der Hulst (University of Connecticut) On the internal and external organization of sign language segments: Some modality-specific properties

Part 2: Nasality

Laura J. Downing (Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin) On the ambiguous segmental status of nasals in homorganic NC sequences

Gregory D.S. Anderson (University of Manchester) Areal and phonotactic distribution of ŋ

Siri G. Tuttle (Technische Universität Berlin) Cryptosonorant phonology in Galice Athabaskan

Part 3: Laryngeal features

Bert Botma (Leiden University) On the phonological interpretation of aspirated nasals

Hyunsoon Kim (Hongik University) The representation of the three-way laryngeal contrast in Korean consonants

Patrick Honeybone (University of Edinburgh) Diachronic evidence in segmental phonology:the case of obstruent laryngeal specifications