The syllable is a very important
unit. Speakers can naturally count syllables in a sentence even though they are
not linguists and tapping at syllables shows the syllable's importance in the
rhythm of speech. Syllables are very important for rhymes since rhyming works
by matching the last syllable of a line.
In relation to the way we produce
syllables as sounds, syllables are described as consisting of a central vowel
which has little or no obstruction to airflow and whose sound is comparatively
loud, while at the beginning and the end of the syllable there will be greater
obstruction to airflow and less loud sound in consonants.
Minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation.
are /a:/ or /o:/
Some syllables have an onset
= one or more consonants preceding the centre of the syllable.
more /mo:/ bar /ba:/
Other syllables have a coda
= they end with consonants.
ought /o:t/ ease /i:z/
Some syllables have both onset and coda.
ran /ræn/ sat
/sæt/
If the first syllable of the word
begins with a vowel, this initial syllable has a zero onset. When there are two
or more consonants together at the beginning of the syllable, it is called a consonant
cluster (stay, sting, smoke,
play, try, swim). Clusters occur even in words which are only pronounced
with clusters but not written with them like in quick, few, huge, news. The first consonant is the initial
consonant and the second the post-initial consonant. In three consonant
clusters, "S" acts as the pre-initial
consonant that occurs before p, t, k (spray, string, stew, screen).
At the end of a syllable, there can
be up to four consonants. If there is no final consonant, it is called zero coda.
If there is only one consonant, it is called the final consonant and except for
h, w, j any consonant can be final. R is a special case as it does not appear
in pronunciation of the RP.
The pre-final consonants are m, n,
l, s like in bump, bank, belt,
ask. The post-final
consonants are s, z, t, d, 0
as in bets /bets/, beds /bedz/, packed,
bagged, eighth. A special case are clusters with no pre-final consonants
but three post-final consonants as in texts.
pre-initial initial
post-initial
VOWEL pre-initial final
post-final
ONSET
CODA
Normally, a syllable must have a
vowel in the centre but there is a special case of syllabic consonants. In very
long syllables likes in the word "students,"
we naturally divide the word into two syllables as we feel it is right, even
though there is only one vowel.
The problem of syllable description happens
in connected speech where consonants from the end of one word combine with the
beginning of the following word. Also, when dividing a word consisting of more
syllables, we are often not sure which consonants belong to which vowel so we
have to employ maximal onsets principle which
states that if two syllables are to be divided, any consonants between them
should be attached to the right-hand syllable. Thus "morning" would be divided into two as /mo: niɳ/. However, it is very peculiar to divide
some words even with this principle. Sometimes one consonants can even belong
to both syllables and is, therefore, ambisyllabic.
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