Topic :

Syllable

Submitted To: Dr. Tayyaba Yasmin

Submitted By: Group 3

Course : BS English ( 2nd semester)

Class: Morning B

UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION LAHORE,

LOWER MALL CAMPUS
Syllable definition:
Syllable is a unit of sound that creates meaning in language.
Consonants join vowels to create syllables.
A syllable is a unit of sound. More specifically, it is a single segment
of uninterrupted sound that is typically produced with a single pulse
of air from the lungs.

What is a Syllable?
A syllable is one unit of sound in English. Syllables join consonants
and vowels to form words. Syllables can have more than one letter;
however, a syllable cannot have more than one sound. Syllables can
have more than one consonant and more than one vowel, as well.
However, the consonant(s) and vowel(s) that create the syllable
cannot make more than one sound.

Examples of Syllables in English:

Syllables are formed when a vowel pairs with a consonant to create a
unit of sound.
Some words have one syllable (monosyllabic), and some words have
many syllables (polysyllabic).
New vowels sounds create new syllables.

 Long
This word has one syllable. There is only one vowel sound, created by
the “o.”

 Shame
This word has one syllable. Even though there are two vowels, only
one vowel makes a sound. The long “a” sound is the vowel sound; the
“e” is a silent “e.”

 Silent
This word has two vowels sounds; therefore it has two syllables. The
first syllable is “si” with the long “i” sound. The second syllable
includes the letters “lent.”

Easy Examples of Syllables:

 Here is a list of one-syllable words:
Ace, big, black, blonde, blue, board, calm, clean, cool, cross etc.

These words are described as “monosyllabic.”

 Here is a list of two-syllable words:

Able, alive, apple, away, better, broken, city, country, daily, early etc.

These words are described as “disyllabic” or “dissyllabic” (avoid

“bisyllabic”).

 Here is a list of three-syllable words:

Abducting, accurate, adjective, animal, buffalo, cabinet, certainly, companion
etc.

These words are described as “trisyllabic.”

 Here is a list of four-syllable words:

Admirable, adorable, aggravated, alligator, alternative, ambitious, derivative,
annoying, anonymous, appreciate etc.

These words are described as “quadrisyllabic.”

The 7 Syllable Types:

There are 7 types of syllable. Every word can be broken down into
these syllable types.

(1) Closed Syllables:

A closed syllable has a single vowel and ends with a consonant. The
vowel has a short sound.
Examples:
At, bat, hen, plant, kitchen, napkin, puppet, rabbit, fantastic etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are closed syllables:
Frozen, pilot, candy.

(2) Open Syllables:

An open syllable ends with a single vowel. The vowel has a long
sound.
Examples:
Be, flu, go, hi, she, hero, potato etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are open syllables:
Music, paper, tiger, bingo.

(3) Magic “E” Syllables:

The magic “e” syllable ends with a consonant and a silent “e.”. It has
a long vowel sound.
Examples:
Bake, bone, life, pine, lifetime etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are magic “e”
syllables:
Valentine, baseball, explode.

(4) Vowel Teams Syllables:

A vowel team syllable contains two vowels that make one vowel
sound.
Examples:
Boat, cheek, eat, free, glue, green, pie, seed, team, tray etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are vowel team
syllables:
Floating, rainfall, whitethroat

(5) Diphthong Syllables:

A diphthong syllable contains two vowels that make a special sound.
Examples:
Blue, boil, cloud, look, mood, scout etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are diphthong
syllables:
Audio, annoy, seatrout
Note: Some curriculums classify diphthong syllables as vowel-team
syllables. As a result, some schools work with 6 vowel types not 7.

(6) R-controlled Syllables:

An r-controlled syllable has a syllable followed by a single letter “r.”
The sound is controlled by the “r.”
Examples:
Bird, car, cart, corn, first, for, fur, her, star, yard etc.
In the following words, only the bolded syllables are diphthong
syllables:
Farming, varnish, caterpillar.
 (7) Consonant LE Syllables:
A consonant-LE syllable is an unaccented final syllable with a
consonant followed by “le.”
Examples:
Bubble, candle, circle, uncle etc.
(Only the bolded syllables are consonant-LE syllables.)

Importance of Syllable:
Teaching Syllable types is often one of the most overlooked tools for
teaching children to read. But it can also be one of the most effective!
This type of phonetic instruction is beneficial for all students. It is
especially helpful for children that have persistent reading difficulties,
such as dyslexia.
Teaching syllable types provides students with knowledge of patterns
in words. These patterns help them to know how words are
pronounced when they are reading and writing.
This is essential when students are reading longer, multi-syllable
words. If students don’t know how to pronounce a long word, they
may guess or skip the word when reading. Guessing hurts their
reading comprehension of the text.

FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYLLABLE

The syllable as a phonological unit performs three functions:
constitutive, distinctive, identificatory. They are closely connected.
 1. Constitutive Function:
Syllables constitute words, phrases and sentences through the com-
bination of their prosodic features: loudness — stress, pitch — tone,
duration — length and tempo. Syllables may be stressed, unstressed,,
high, mid, low, rising, falling, long, short. All these prosodic features
constitute the stress pattern of words, tonal and rhythmic structure of
an utterance, help to perform distinctive variations on the syllabic
level.

2. Distinctive and Differentiator Function:

There are rather many combinations in English distinguished from
each other by means of the difference in the place ol the syllabic
boundary: a name—an aim, ice cream—/ scream, we loan— we’ll
own: /ataeim/—/an leim/, /iais’kri:m/—/ai iskrhm/, /wi- Uaun/— ,/wil
isun/.
The distinctive, differentiator function of the syllabic boundary makes
it possible to introduce the term “juncture”. Close juncture or
conjuncture occurs between sounds within one syllable, e.g. a name, I
scream: in the first example the close juncture is between In! and /ei/,
in the second — between /s/ and /k/. Open juncture, disjuncture, or
internal open juncture occurs between two syllables.

3. Identificatory Function:
This function is conditioned by the pronunciation of the speaker. The
listener can understand the exact meaning of the utterance only if he
perceives the correct syllabic boundary — “syllabodisjuncture”.
The existence of such pairs demands special attention to teaching not
only the correct pronunciation of sounds but also the observation of
the correct place for syllabodisjuncture.

Summary:
Every language manifests a particular way of combining its sounds to
form meaningful words or parts of words, called syllables. Each
language puts certain restrictions on these possible combinations. For
example, in English we can’t have a word which begins with a
consonant sequence bfj, zbf or tzp. When we analyse what restrictions
(and regularities) are found in the language under study, we are
studying the syllable structure of that language. We can divide words
into one or more syllables. For example, tin has one syllable, brother
has two, important has three and computer has four syllables each.

A syllable is a group of one or more sounds. The essential part of a

syllable is a vowel sound (V) which may be preceded and/or followed
by a consonant © or a cluster of consonants (CC or CCC) (see below).
Some syllables consist of just one vowel sound (V) as in I and eye/ai/,
owe/ə/. 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/. The vowel
of the syllable may also be followed by one consonant (VC) as in
at/æt/, or by two consonants (VCC) as in its/its/, or by three
consonants (CVCCC) as in text/tekst/or by four consonants
(CVCCCC) as in texts/teksts/.