Allophones of the English phonemes 1 Allophones of /p



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Chapter 7: Syllables


7.1. Syllable

7.2. Kinds of Syllables

7.3. Syllable structure

Syllable nucleus

syllable onset

Syllable coda

7.4. Syllables and Phonotactic constraints

.4.1. Types of Syllables

7.5. Syllabic consonants

Syllabic /n/ and /l/

7.6. Comparison of Syllabic Structure of Arabic and English


Exercises


    1. Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).

Syllables are often considered the phonological "building blocks" of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter, its stress patterns, etc.

A word that consists of a single syllable (like ‘cat’ in English) is called a monosyllable (such a word is monosyllabic), while a word consisting of two syllables (like monkey) is called a disyllable (such a word is disyllabic). A word consisting of three syllables (such as indigent) is called a trisyllable (the adjective form is trisyllabic). A word consisting of more than three syllables (such as intelligence) is called a polysyllable (and could be described as polysyllabic), although this term is often used to describe words of two syllables or more.



There are four ways to split up a word into its syllables :

1- Divide between two middle consonants .For example : hap-pen and bas-ket .

The exceptions are th ,ph, sh, ch and wh .

2- Usually divide before a single middle consonant .When there is only one syllable, you usually

divide in front of it , as in : o-pen and i-tem .

3-Divide before the consonant before le syllable .For example : a-ble and rub-ble . The only

exception is ckle words such as tickle .

4-Divid off any compound words , prefixes , suffixes and roots which have vowel sounds . Spilt off the parts of the compound words such as sports–car . Divide off prefix such as un–happy. Also divide off suffixes as in farm-er .
To find the number of syllables in a word ,use the following steps :

1- Count the vowels in the word.

2- Subtract any silent vowels ,(like the silent e at the end of the a word , or the second vowel

when two vowels are together in a syllable ).

3- Subtract one vowel from every diphthong (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound).

4- The number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.
7.2. Kinds of Syllables

There are six different kinds of syllables in English:

1- Closed Syllables has one and only one vowel, and it ends in a consonant (in ,ask, sock)

2- Open Syllables has one and only one vowel, and that vowel occurs at the end of the syllable

(no, she)

3- Silent e Syllable ends in e , and has one and only one consonant before that e , and has one and only one vowel before that consonant (ate ,ice ,these).

4- Vowel combination Syllables has a cluster of two vowels (rain, day, see, toy, true).

5- Vowel –r syllable is one which includes one and only one vowel followed by r ,or one vowel followed by /r/ which is followed by a silent e or a vowel combination followed by /r/ (car, or, care, air).

6- Consonant – le Syllable : In these syllables , a consonant is followed by le . The vowel sound in these syllables is schwa l (ble, cle, dle, fle) (see syllabic consonant)
7.3. Syllable structure

The general structure of a syllable consists of the following segments:

  • Onset (obligatory in some languages, optional in others)

  • Rime

    • Nucleus (obligatory in all languages)

    • Coda (optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others)

tree representation of a cvc syllable
tree representation of a CVC syllable

In some theories of phonology, these syllable structures are displayed as tree diagrams (similar to the trees found in some types of syntax).



  1. Syllable nucleus

The syllable nucleus is typically a sonorant, usually a vowel sound, in the form of a monophthong, diphthong, or triphthong, but sometimes sonorant consonants like [l] or [r].

  1. syllable onset

The syllable onset is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus.

  1. Syllable coda

(literally 'tail') is the sound or sounds that follow the nucleus. The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda. In the one-syllable English word cat, the nucleus is a, the onset c, the coda t, and the rime at. This syllable can be abstracted as a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, abbreviated CVC.

Generally, every syllable requires a nucleus. Onsets are extremely common, and some languages require all syllables to have an onset. (That is, a CVC syllable like cat is possible, but a VC syllable such as at is not.)

We may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum phonological structure.

Pre- initial post-initial vowel pre- final post- post- post-

Initial final final1 final2 final3

Onset nucleus Coda

This is an analysis of the word ‘cramped’

initial post-initial vowel pre-final final post-final

k r æ m p t

Onset nucleus Coda




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