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