Despite the amount of material currently in print on Korean grammar, phonology, and morphology, the need for a book combining careful grammatical descriptions with theoretical discussions is more than evident. This book fills that void with an in-depth analysis of morpho-phonology. Working within the Optimality Theoretic framework, the author offers solutions to seemingly intractable problems--addressing issues such as segmental processes and metrical and phrasal phonology as well as systematically addressing questions of opacity and the phonological lexicon. The broad range of topics discussed also includes Korean vowels, palatalization and derived environment effects, and tonal and rhythmic developments from Middle to Modern Korean.