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Structure of The English Syllable

The document discusses the structure of syllables in English. Some key points: 1) A syllable contains a vowel sound and may contain surrounding consonants. It is the smallest unit of pronunciation. 2) Syllables have parts including the onset, rhyme, nucleus and coda. The nucleus is the obligatory vowel sound. 3) Syllables can be open, closed, light, heavy or contain syllabic consonants depending on their structure. 4) Stress patterns distinguish strong from weak syllables in English words.

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1K views

Structure of The English Syllable

The document discusses the structure of syllables in English. Some key points: 1) A syllable contains a vowel sound and may contain surrounding consonants. It is the smallest unit of pronunciation. 2) Syllables have parts including the onset, rhyme, nucleus and coda. The nucleus is the obligatory vowel sound. 3) Syllables can be open, closed, light, heavy or contain syllabic consonants depending on their structure. 4) Stress patterns distinguish strong from weak syllables in English words.

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hawwa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH

SYLLABLE
WEEK 8
8 MARCH 2021
• In English, a syllable can consist of a vowel
preceded by one consonant (CV) as in
pie/pai/, or by two consonants (CCV) as in
try/trai/, or by three consonants (CCCV) as in
spry/sprai/.
WHAT IS A SYLLABLE?
• A unit of pronunciation having one vowel
sound, with or without surrounding
consonants, forming the whole or a part of a
word.
• It is larger than a phoneme.
• It may contain a phoneme or more.
• It may contain a vowel: syllabic consonants
• A word can be: monosyllabic, disyllabic,
trisyllabic
• A syllable is possible without consonant sound
but it is not possible without a vowel sound.
• It is necessary to have at least one vowel
sound to have one syllable.
• There are 20 vowels sounds
• Eg: A. pot, bat
• The number of times you hear a vowel sound
is equal to the number of syllables a word has
syllable
A syllable is a unit of sound composed of
• a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel), and
• the consonants that cluster around this central
peak.
• syllable structure, which is the combination of
allowable segments and typical sound
sequences
• Syllables are referred to as beats in spoken
language.
Structure of syllable
• Phoneme
• Onset
• Rhyme
• Nucleus/peak/vowel
• coda
Parts of syllable
Parts Description Optionality

Onset Initial segment of a Optional


syllable
Rhyme Core of a syllable, Obligatory
consisting of a nucleus
and coda (see below)
Nucleus/peak/vowel Central segment of a Obligatory
syllable

Coda Closing segment of a Optional


syllable
PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
OF A SYLLABLE
• The (maximum) possibilities
ONSET

Pre-initial initial Post-initial CODA

VOWEL Pre-final final Post-final 1 Post-final 2 Post final 3


Strengths
Strɛŋθs
Apple ˈæpl
Kinds of Syllable
Kind Description Example

Heavy/ Has a branching rhyme. All syllables with a branching CV:C, CVCC,
strong nucleus (long vowels) are considered heavy. Some CVC
languages treat syllables with a short vowel (nucleus
followed by a consonant (coda) as heavy.

Light Has a non-branching rhyme (short vowel). Some CV, CVC


weak languages treat syllables with a short vowel(nucleus)
followed by a consonant (coda) as light.

Closed Ends with a consonant coda. CVC, CVCC,


VC

Open Has no final consonant CV


• You can have syllables without a coda or
without an onset. You can have more than one
onset or more than one coda.
• Diphthong is considered as ONE unit
• PLAYED = pleɪd
RHYME
ONSET NUCLEAS CODA

pl eɪ d
• https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=JPPhYnqhjxc
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE
WEAK & STRONG SYLLABLES
• Strong syllables have vowels the differ in
quality from the vowels of weak syllables. The
differences between strong and weak
syllables:
• NOTE: It is always the vowel that makes
the syllable longer, louder, or different in
quality. The syllable is weak when it has the
short vowel /ə/ (Schwa).
The general rules about strong
(= stressable) and weak vowels in
English
• 1. in a stressed syllable you can
only have a strong vowel;
2. in an unstressed syllable you
can have any vowel.
• It would be nice if vowels were always weak in
unstressed syllables. But clearly that is not the case
in English, as shown below:
• modest ˈmɒdɪst (last vowel weak)
but gymnast ˈdʒɪmnæst (last vowel strong);
• informant ɪnˈfɔːmənt but torment (n.)
ˈtɔːment;
• Thomasˈtɒməs but commerce ˈkɒmɜːs, etc.
Syllabic Consonant
• A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is
a consonant that forms a syllable on its own,
like the m, n and l in the English words
rhythm, button and bottle, or is the nucleus of
a syllable, like the r sound in the American
pronunciation of work.
• Polysyllabic words are words which have two
or more syllables, for example: children.
melting. shampoo. chicken.
Ship ʃɪp
Sheep ʃiːp

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