Baraa

Al Turath university
College of Arts
Department of English
Fourth Stage
The Syllable
prepared for
Dhuha Sami Raheem
prepared by
Baraa Khalid Fadil
Taqwa Emad Tayeh
Tabark Ghareeb Ismael
Tabark Ali Hassan
Ahmed Raad Hamid
2023/12/24
The Syllable
The concept of syllables is one of the central concepts in modern
linguistics, but I think that few people in the Arab world know the
meaning of this concept except for students of
linguistics.
The concept of syllables is unknown in Arabic linguistics. It apparently

first appeared in medieval Europe.
Greek origin of the word syllable is συλλαβή syllabḗ, which literally

means “what is taken together” (from the verb συλλαμβάνω
syllambánō “I take together”). The meaning is “sounds taken together”,
i.e. sounds treated as a single unit. The correct translation of the word
syllable is therefore “verbal unit” and not “syllable”.
Translating the word syllable into “syllable” may create the illusion
that human speech comes out choppy, but that is not the case. When a
person speaks, he makes continuous sounds without any interruption.
There is no interruption in the pronunciation of words, not even
sentences. When a person pronounces a sentence, he pronounces its
words in a continuous manner without any interruption in the sound
between the different words, let alone the interruption within each
word.
What is a syllable?
A syllable is a rhythmic unit of speech. Syllables.
exist to make the speech stream easier for the human mind toprocess.
A syllable comprises one or more segments, segments are the building
blocks for syllables.
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.
For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter.
What is syllabification?
It is the process of breaking up words into syllables.
Syllables as part of a word.
In linguistics, words can be defined by the number of syllables they

contain. Single syllable words, like 'man' are referred to monosyllabic
words and with two syllables, they are called bisyllabic or disyllabic
words and with more than two syllables, they are called polysyllabic
words.
Ex:-
photographic= pho_to_graph_ic (polysyllabic)
*Syllables can be illustrated or represented heart beat sounds.The
beats are representations of the syllables in a word.Each syllables
involves one burst of muscular energy.
Ex/ the word 'Entertaining' /en.tə.teI.nID/ contains 4 beats.
Type of Syllables
1- Onset
2- Rhym: this type divide into groups
• Nucleus
• Coda
a- Onset
One or more consonant sounds at the beginning of the syllable.Onsets
in English can consist of zero,one, two or three consonants.
Ex:-
eye /ɑɪ/ zero onset
spray /spreɪ/ three onset
b- Rhyme ( rime )
The part of the syllable containing a
vowel sound and everything after it.
*The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda.
•Nucleus
In English the nucleus is usually a single vowel sound, wether that is
(short, long)vowel sound or diphthong, and it's usually the vowel in the
middle of a syllable.
Ex:-
pray /pre ɪ/
sin /s ɪ n/
Nucleus may be consonant in the syllabic cases only. So, it doesn't
come as a normal consonant.
•Coda
is the sound or sounds that follow the nucleus, consonant sound at the
end of syllable.
In English the coda can consist of (zero,one,two,three or four)
consonant sounds.
lee / li:/ zero coda

link / lɪŋk/ one coda
Syllables patterns in words
1- Open syllable:
is a syllable that ends with a vowel sound (with the V in the CV
pattern) Such as (she, me, see, and I)are all open syllables.
An open syllable word is any word that has an open syllable in it
(meaning long vowel sounds)
Ex:-
• Bacon
• Apricot
• Draining
2- Closed Syllable:
is a vowel followed by a consonant.
Such as (cap, sit, and up)
It's called a closed syllable because the vowel is closed in by a
consonant.
*In closed syllables, the vowel usually says its short sound, More than
one consonant can be used to close in a syllable, as in (dish and
stretch) And many multisyllable words contain closed syllables.
as in (insect, rabbit and napkin)
Remember, only the sound is coded with a C or V; not each letter. For
example, these words have these CVC patterns:
Dog. /CVC/ close syllable
At. /VC / close syllable
High. /CV/ open syllable
It is not always easy to define the number of syllables in a word or to
identify where one ends and the next begins.
Humans seem to need syllables as a way of segmenting the stream of

speech and giving it a rhythm of strong and weak beats.
Syllables exist only to make speech easier for the run of process.
The number of vowel sounds in a word equals to the number of

syllables. Every syllable has to have vowel sound.
When we combine vowels, diphthongs and consonants, we have

different syllables.
A word contains at least one syllables. A word is not considered a

word with no syllables.
The power of any word is in the syllable of that word, and we call that
power 'a center of that word.
References
The introduction:
https://hanisblog.com/2016/11/27/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%B9-
%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%81%D8%B8%D9%8A%D8%A9-syllables/
What is a syllable:
https://academics.su.edu.krd/public/profiles/alaa.aula/teaching/teaching-2858-35655-16656896
11-1.pdf
Types of Syllable:
https://ammaralabedi.blogspot.com/2021/02/syllables.html?m=1
Syllable patterns in words:

https://study.com/academy/lesson/open-syllable-words-examples.html
Conclusion:
https://academics.su.edu.krd/public/profiles/alaa.aula/teaching/teaching-2858-35655-16656896
11-1.pdf

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Al Turath university

The concept of syllables is unknown in Arabic linguistics. It apparently

Greek origin of the word syllable is συλλαβή syllabḗ, which literally

In linguistics, words can be defined by the number of syllables they

lee / li:/ zero coda

Humans seem to need syllables as a way of segmenting the stream of

The number of vowel sounds in a word equals to the number of

When we combine vowels, diphthongs and consonants, we have

A word contains at least one syllables. A word is not considered a

Syllable patterns in words:

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