ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the problem of sonority and its place in the grammar. It provides a morification algorithm which crucially depends on the relative sonority of segments; and a syllabification algorithm which operates on morified structure. The syllabification algorithm operates on moraic structure, grouping moras into syllables. Since the moraic or syllabic status of a segment is clearly based on sonority alone, any class of such segments also picks out a sonority class in the language in question. It has generally been observed that the syllable forms a sonority curve: its most sonorous segment is the nucleus, which is flanked by sequences of segments whose sonority decreases towards the margins. Generalizations about relative sonority of segments are justified by the natural classes that segments form for the purposes of various phonological processes. The chapter also provides a set of features that sonority ranking is universally grounded upon.
