This book grew out of a 1997 workshop sponsored by Aditi Lahiri and her group at the University of Constance. It consists of eleven chapters and an introduction by Aditi Lahiri, the editor. The articles are focused largely on Germanic languages, although not entirely, as Bengali and Latin also receive detailed discussion. There is diversity in the range of topics covered in the volume – tonogenesis, stress, quantity changes, voicing alternations, allomorphy, paradigms and grammaticalisation are some of the major areas of phonology and morphology that are addressed. Authors adopt different theoretical frameworks, with Optimality Theory playing some role in many articles. Optimality Theory is assumed by some, argued against by others and modified by yet others.