Phonetics and especially the phonological evolution of a language is not my favorite aspect of linguistics. I find the subject of grammatical evolution and change much more interesting, since clearly definable and progressive patterns can be shown to exist there that have a much more logical basis. Nevertheless, this book is notable for the wealth of information it contains, although as the previous reviewer noted, it has its shortcomings since it contains mistakes and the overall systematic framework is prestructuralist. On a personal note, the book I used for my first Chinese class was written by a student of Karlgren's, who spoke highly of Karlgren as a scholar and linguist and of Karlgren's contagious enthusiasm for the Chinese language. That came across in the textbook and I enjoyed the class and the book more as a result.