This Element addresses the challenges and opportunities that arise in the study of sound systems of understudied languages within the context of language documentation, an expanding field that seeks to develop records of the world's languages and their patterns of use in their broader cultural and social context. The topics covered in this Element focus on different elements of language documentation and their relationship to phonological analysis, including lexicography, documentary corpora, music and the verbal arts, as well as grammar writing. For each of these areas, the authors examine methodological and theoretical implications for phonology. With growing concern in the field of language documentation and linguistics more generally for the distribution and implementation of the products of research and its impact for Indigenous language communities, this Element also discusses how phonological documentation may contribute to the development of resources for language communities.
