Topic-147: Syllable The syllable is a fundamentally important unit both in the fields of phonetics and phonology. Experts normally keep the phonetic notions of the syllable separate from the phonological ones. It is easy to understand but very difficult to define the syllable. Ina simple way of defining the term, syllables are the parts of word (in which a word is further divided into parts, for example, mi-ni-mi-za-tion or sup-re- seg-men-tal. Phonetically, we can observe that the flow of speech typically consists of an alternation between vowel-like states (where the vocal tract is comparatively open and unobstructed) and consonant- like states where some obstruction to the airflow is made (thus altering speech between the two natural kinds of sounds. So, from the speech production point of view, a syllable consists of a movement from a constricted or silent state to a vowel-like state and then back to constricted or silent state. From the acoustic point of view, this means that the speech signal shows a series of peaks of energy corresponding to vowel-like states separated by troughs of lower energy (sonority.
