Abstract: This chapter identifies an inventory of core phonological processes that are robustly attested in all or nearly all human languages. These are compared to the classes of phenomena predicted to be possible and impossible by Rule-Based Phonology (Kenstowicz 1994; Vaux 1998) and Classic Optimality Theory (Kager 1999). The comparison is argued to demonstrate that a phonological theory that employs extrinsically ordered rules, cyclicity, inviolable constraints, and the other machinery of Rule-Based Phonology provides a superior empirical match to and formal model of the facts.

Keywords: rule ordering,, derivations,, opacity,, iterativity,, optionality,, unnatural processes,, ineffability,, Optimality Theory,, Abkhaz,, Uyghur,