The editors introduce 13 essays derived from a 1999 workshop held at Konstanz U., Germany, by defining the prosodic system (or metrical phonology) of a language as the organizing principles for the structure of its individual sounds. For several tongues from Old English to the Weert dialect spoken in that Dutch town, contributors (whose affiliations are not given) present frameworks for describing the range of variation and types of change in such language systems. Indexed by language and subject. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
