Preface

     This work represents my limited knowledge of English phonology, but uses where possible the formal apparatus introduced in the rest of my work in English grammar. I am planning to move towards making the formal apparatus a separate work to be studied independently of any of the parts, but this is down the road a ways. The most up-to-date coverage of these ideas is found in the section called “Processing Names.”
     I have tried to make use of the following typographical conventions and common abbreviations.

     AmE     American English conforms to usage in North America
BrE     British English conforms to usage in England and many other parts of the Commonwealth (sometimes including Canada).
Gk     Origins in Classic Greek language
Lat     Origins in Classic or Late Latin language
OE     Origins in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language
OF     Origins in Old French language
/feys/     phonemic transcription (indicates pronunciation of face)1
'offer     syllable just after the accent mark is stressed
You  should
=ought to		 be here.
     both You should be here and You ought to be here are acceptable in the example given, without change of meaning
He  does
did		 not go.
     both He does not go and He did not go are acceptable in the example given, but they have a different meaning
I said (that) it was so.     the word in parentheses is optional; there are two examples here
cf.     compare [Lat. confer]
e.g.     for example [Lat. ex gratia]
i.e.     that is [Lat. id est]
viz.     namely [Lat. vide licet]
1 after a sentence     refers to a footnote (NOTICE: you must click on the footnote number to see the text of the note.)
* before a sentence     the sentence is not grammatical
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