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Syllable
*** Shopping-Tip: Syllable
:''This article discusses the unit of speech. For the computer operating system, see
Syllable (operating system).''
A '''syllable''' (
Ancient Greek: {{polytonic|συλλαβή}}) 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
phonology phonological "building blocks" of
words. They can influence the rhythm of a
language, its
prosody, its
poetry poetic meter, its
lexical stress stress patterns, etc.
A word that consists of a single syllable (like
English language English ''cat'') 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.
Syllable structure
The general structure of a syllable consists of the following segments:
*
Syllable onset Onset (obligatory in some languages, optional in others)
*
Syllable rime Rime
**
Syllable nucleus Nucleus (obligatory in all languages)
**
Syllable coda Coda (optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others)
Image:Syllable structure.png 200px|thumb|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).
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 {{IPA|[l]}} or {{IPA|[r]}}. The syllable ''onset'' is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus, and the 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.) A coda-less syllable of the form V, CV, CCV, etc. is called an '''open syllable''', while a syllable that has a coda (VC, CVC, CVCC, etc.) is called a '''closed syllable''' (or ''checked syllable).'' All languages allow open syllables, but some such as
Hawaiian language Hawaiian do not have closed syllables.
A '''
syllable weight heavy syllable''' is one with a ''branching rime'' or a ''branching nucleus'' — this is a metaphor, based on the nucleus or coda having lines that branch in a tree diagram. In some languages, heavy syllables include both CVV (branching nucleus) and CVC (branching rime) syllables, contrasted with CV, which is a '''light syllable'''. In other languages, only CVV syllables (ones with a long vowel or
diphthong) are heavy, while both CVC and CV syllables are light. The difference between heavy and light frequently determines which syllables receive
stress (linguistics) stress—this is the case in
Latin and
Arabic language Arabic, for example. In
mora (linguistics) moraic theory, heavy syllables are said to have two moras, while light syllables are said to have one.
Japanese language Japanese is generally described this way.
In other languages, including
English language English, a consonant may be analyzed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, a phenomenon known as
ambisyllabicity.
Syllables and suprasegmentals
The domain of
suprasegmental features is the syllable and not a specific sound, that is to say, they affect all the segments of a syllable:
*
Lexical stress Stress
*
Tone (linguistics) Tone
Sometimes
syllable length is also counted as a suprasegmental feature; for example, in most Germanic languages, long vowels may only exist with short consonants and vice versa. However, syllables can be analyzed as compositions of long and short phonemes, as in Finnish and Japanese, where consonant gemination and vowel length are independent.
Syllables and phonotactic constraints
phonotactics Phonotactic rules determine which sounds are allowed or disallowed in each part of the syllable.
English language English allows very complicated syllables; 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 language Japanese, for example, only allows /n/ and a
chroneme in a coda, and has no consonant clusters at all, as the onset is composed of at most one consonant.
There are languages that forbid empty onsets,
Hebrew language Hebrew,
Arabic language Arabic, and many varieties of
German language German (the names transliterated as "Israel", "Abraham", "Omar", "Ali" and "Abdullah", among many others, actually begin with semiconsonantic glides or with glottal or pharyngeal consonants).
Syllabification
{{sectstub}}
Syllables and stress
Syllable structure often interacts with stress. In
Latin, for example, stress is regularly determined by
syllable weight, a syllable counting as heavy if has at least one of the following:
* a long vowel in its nucleus
* a diphthong in its nucleus
* one or more coda(e)
In each case the syllable is considered to have two
mora (linguistics) moras.
Syllables and vowel tenseness
In most
Germanic languages,
tenseness lax vowels can only occur in closed syllables. Therefore, these vowels are also called ''checked vowels'', as opposed to the tense vowels that are called ''free vowels'' because they can occur in open syllables.
Syllable-less languages
The notion of syllable is challenged by languages that allow long strings of consonants without any intervening vowel or sonorant. Languages of the Northwest coast of North America, including
Salishan languages Salishan and
Wakashan languages Wakashan languages, are famous for this. For instance, these
Nuxálk language Nuxálk (Bella Coola) words contain only
obstruents:
: {{IPA|[ɬχʷtɬʦxʷ]}} 'you spat on me'
: {{IPA|[ʦ’ktskʷʦ’]}} 'he arrived'
: {{IPA|[xɬp’χʷɬtɬpɬɬs]}} 'he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant'
(Bagemihl 1991:589, 593, 627)
: {{IPA|[sxs]}} 'seal blubber'
In Bagemihl's survey of previous analyses, he finds that the word {{IPA|[ʦ’ktskʷʦ’]}} would have been parsed into 0, 2, 3, 5, or 6 syllables depending which analysis is used. One analysis would consider all vowel and consonants segments as syllable nuclei, another would consider only a small subset as nuclei candidates, and another would simply deny the existence of syllables completely.
This type of phenomenon has also been reported in
Berber languages (such as
Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber) and
Mon-Khmer languages (such as
Semai,
Temiar,
Kammu language Kammu).
''Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber:''
: {{IPA|[tftktst tfktstt]}} 'you sprained it and then gave it'
: {{IPA|[rkkm]}} 'rot' (imperf.)
(Dell & Elmedlaoui 1985, 1988)
''Semai:''
: {{IPA|[kckmrʔɛË?c]}} 'short, fat arms'
(Sloan 1988)
See also
*
Syllabification
*
Mora (linguistics)
*
Phonology
*
Stress (linguistics)
*
Pitch accent
*
Timing (linguistics)
*
List of the longest English words with one syllable
*
Syllabary syllabary (writing system)
External links
-
What is a ''syllable''? (SIL)
-
What is a ''syllabic consonant''? (SIL)
-
What is an ''onset''? (SIL)
-
What is a ''rime''? (SIL)
-
Syllable (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Onset (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Rime (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Nucleus (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Coda (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
What is ''metrical phonology''? (SIL)
-
Syllable Weight (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Mora (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Foot (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Quantity-(in)sensitivity (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Extrametrical (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
Maximal Onset Principle (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
What is ''syllabification''? (SIL)
-
Syllabification (Lexicon of Linguistics)
-
What is a ''nuclear syllable''? (SIL)
-
Syllables Quiz
References and recommended reading
* {{cite journal
| authorlink = Bruce Bagemihl
| last = Bagemihl | first = Bruce
| title = Syllable structure in Bella Coola
| journal = Linguistic Inquiry
| year=1991 | volume=22 | pages=589–646
}}
* {{cite journal
| author = Dell, F.; Elmedlaoui, M.
| title = Syllabic consonants and syllabification in Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber
| journal = Journal of African Languages and Linguistics
| year = 1985 | volume = 7 | pages = 105-130
}} (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).
* {{cite journal
| author = Dell, F.; Elmedlaoui, M.
| title = Syllabic consonants in Berber: Some new evidence
| journal =Journal of African Languages and Linguistics
| year = 1988 | volume = 10 | pages = 1-17
}} (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).
* {{cite book
| authorlink = Peter Ladefoged
| last = Ladefoged | first = Peter
| title=A course in phonetics
| edition = 4
th edition
| location =
Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth
| publisher= Harcourt College Publishers
| year=2001
| id=ISBN 0-15-507319-2
}}
* Sloan, K. (1988). Bare-consonant reduplication: Implications for a prosodic theory of reduplication. In H. Borer (Ed.), ''Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 7''. Stanford, CA: Stanford Linguistics Association. (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).
Category:Phonology
Category:Phonotactics
af:Lettergreep
br:Silabenn
de:Silbe
es:SÃlaba
eo:Silabo
fr:Syllabe
ko:ì?Œì ˆ
io:Silabo
it:Sillaba
he:הברה
lt:Skiemuo
mr:विकिपीडिआ साहाय�य:संपादन
nl:Lettergreep
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no:Stavelse
nn:Staving
pl:Sylaba
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simple:Syllable
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