Other Definitions
syllable (dict)
|
Syllable - This article discusses the unit of speech. For the computer operating system, see Syllable (operating system).
A syllable (ancient Greek: συλλαβή) is a unit of speech that is made up of nucleus (most often a vowel) with one or more optional phones (single sounds or "phonetic segments"). 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. 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)
In addition, syllables are also determined by suprasegmental features that affect all the segments of a syllable: The syllable nucleus is typically a sonorant, usually a vowel sound, in the form of a monophthong, diphthong, or triphthong, but sometimes including consonants like and . The syllable onset is the sound(s) occurring before the nucleus, and the syllable coda is the sound(s) occurring after the nucleus. A rime consists of a nucleus and a coda. Generally, every syllable requires a nucleus. A coda-less syllable of the form V, CV, CCV, etc. (i.e. a sequence of any number of consonants + a vowel) is called an open syllable, while a syllable that has a coda (VC, CVC, CVCC, etc.) is called a closed (or checked) syllable. Almost all languages allow syllables with empty codas (open syllables). In some theories of phonology, syllable structures can be displayed as tree diagrams similar to the trees found in some types of syntax. In some languages, including English, a consonant may be analyzed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the next, a phenomenon known as ambisyllabicity. Syllables and phonotactic constraints Phonotactic rules determine which sounds are allowed or disallowed in each part of the syllable. English has relatively few phonotactic restrictions; syllables may begin with up to three consonants (as in string or splash), and occasionally end with as many as four (as in prompts or sixths). Many other languages are much more restricted; Japanese, for example, only allows /n/ and a generic "lengthening segment" in a coda, and has no consonant clusters at all (the onset is composed of at most one consonant). Hebrew and Arabic forbid empty onsets (the names transliterated as "Israel", "Abraham", "Omar", "Ali" and "Abdullah", among many others, actually begin with semiconsonantic glides or with glottal or pharyngeal consonants). Syllables and stress Syllable structure often interacts with stress. In Latin, for example, stress is regularly determined by the presence or absence of a coda in the syllable before the last. Syllable-less languages The notion of syllable is challenged by languages that allow long strings of consonants without any intervening vowel or sonorant. Salishan languages are famous for this. For instance, this Nuxlk (Bella Coola) word contains only obstruents: - 'he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant.' (Bagemihl 1991:16)
Thus, it is not clear that the syllable need be a linguistic universal. See also External links References and recommended reading - Bagemihl, Bruce. (1991). Syllable structure in Bella Coola. Proceedings of the New England Linguistics Society, 21, 16-30.
- Ladefoged, Peter. (2001). A course in phonetics (4th ed.). Heile & Heinle, Thompson Learning.
|
 |