Syllable

Structure

Prof. Nadhim Aldubai

summary
•This chapter provides definition of syllable, ways to split
words into syllables, kinds of syllables, syllable structure,
clusters and phonotactic constraints, types of syllable, syllabic
consonants, syllable weight and Moraic Theory, and
comparison of Arabic and English syllable
 Definition • A syllable is a sequence of
speech sounds, typically made
up of a syllable nucleus (a
vowel) with optional initial and
final margins (consonants).
Syllables are often considered
the phonological "building
blocks" of words. They can
influence the stress of a
language, its rhythm and
prosody, its poetic meter, its
patterns, etc.

Words can be
 Phonetic transcription helps
effectively in counting how many
vowels a word may contain as we
write in phonetic transcription exactly
what we pronounce. However, in case
a learner does not have access to the
phonetic transcription, there are four
ways to split up a word into its
syllables:

splitting ways examples exceptions

split two middle hap-pen, bas-ket th ,ph, sh, ch

consonants and wh

split a single middle o-pen and i-tem

consonant

split syllabic a-ble and rub-ble tickle, pickle

consonants

split compound words sports–car, un–happy,

farm-er
 To find the number of
syllables in a word
,use the following
steps :

N syllable examples

1 closed syllables end in a c in ,ask, sock

2 open syllables have a vowel at the end of no, she

syllable

• Kinds of Syllables
3 silent [e] syllable ends in [e]. ate ,ice ,these

4 long vowels and diphthongs rain, day, see, toy,

5 vowel–r syllable includes one vowel followed car, or, care, air
by [ r].

6 consonant –le syllable. (syllabic) ble, cle, dle, fle

Syllable structure

The general structure of a syllable consists of

theNfollowing segments:
structure segment notes

1 onset c in (cat) (obligatory in Ar., optional in

Eng.

2 rime nucleus a in (cat) (obligatory in A & E).

coda t in (cat) (optional Ar & E).

Syllable structure
syllable onset

•The syllable onset is the

sound or sounds
occurring before the
nucleus.

Syllable nucleus

•Syllable nucleus is typically

a sonorant, a vowel sound,
in the form of a
monophthong, diphthong,
or triphthong, but
sometimes sonorant
consonants like [l] or [r].
Syllable coda

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 not obligatory in Arabic, but optional in English.

Clusters and
Phonotactic
constraints
 Syllable Examples

Types of Syllables 1
2
-V-
-VC
I a
an at

This is the analysis 3 -VCC ask

of types of syllable
4 -VCCC pre – empts
5 CV- no so

that we have in 6 CVC can hat

English
7 CVCC tent desk
8 CVCCC thanks sixth
9 CCVC speak green
10 CVCCCC tempts
11 CCV- play sky
12 CCVCC snacks
13 CCVCCCC twelfths
14 CCVCCC stands twelfth
15 CCCV- spray
16 CCCVC stream street
17 CCCVCC strange script
18 CCCVCCC strands

•Is it possible to have a syllable without a nucleus vowel?

It is customarily agreed upon that a nucleus of a syllabus
is always a vowel. However, it is possible to have a
Syllabic syllable without a nucleus vowel only in the case of
consonants syllabic consonants. Syllabic consonants occur when the
sonorants [m, n, or l], either at the end or in the middle of
a syllable, are preceded by a schwa [ə], and the schwa is
preceded by one of the obstruent sounds (plosives,
fricatives or affricates).
•In this case, the weak schwa is trapped between two
strong consonants, and therefore, it can be dropped out
and [m, n, or l] take over and do the job of syllabicity.
This diacritic [ˌ] is put between the two consonants as a
trace of the dropped schwa. The frequency of use of
syllabic consonants is speaker-dependent. Words below
would therefore normally be transcribed without a schwa
(ə).
Syllabic consonants Broad transcription narrow transcription spelling
[bʌtən] [bʌtˌn] button
[sædən] [sædˌn] sadden
[dʌzən] [dʌzˌn] dozen
[kætəl] [kætˌl] cattle
[mɪdəl] [mɪdˌl] middle
[kɑ:səl] [kɑ:sˌl] castle
[mʌzəl] [mʌzˌl] muzzle
[faɪnəl] [faɪnˌl] final

Tree
representation of
syllable structure
Syllable Weight
 Light, heavy & super heavy
syllable
• Heavy syllables: short vowels + a coda
consonant or long vowels only. Super
heavy syllables: short vowels + 2 , 3 or 4
consonants or a heavy syllable + a/codas.
• Monomoraic syllables have one mora,
[µ], bimoraic syllables have two, [µ µ],
and trimoraic syllables have three [µ µ
µ].

onsets zero [µ]

codas one [µ] for each consonant

nucleus short vowels = one [µ]; long vowels
and diphthongs = [µ µ] morae;
triphthongs= three morae
 Syllabification of the word important [ɪm.pɔ:.tənt] shows that it contains three syllables: two heavy and one super heavy syllables

Syllabification of Arabic syllables

Comparison of
Syllable
Structure of A
& E.

Syllabic structures of Arabic and English, though basically quite similar, differ in some ways. In both languages the syllables are marked out by the relative prominence of the peaks. We can consider the syllabic systems of the two languages as syllable systems of the peak type. That is to say that there are as many syllables as there are peaks of prominence in these languages.

A&E Syllable Structure

• In both Arabic and English, syllable systems

have syllable onsets and codas more or less of
similar types but differing in their structures.
Syllables with peaks only do not exist in
Arabic, but they do in English. We may
classify basically the syllable structure of both
Arabic and English as follows:
E&A Syllable
Structure
English Example Arabic

1 C0-3 V C0-4 - C1 V C0-2

2 V (zero onset and zero coda) a (article) (does not exist)

3 VC (with zero onset) out, in, end, awful, ooze No syllable starts with V

4 CV (with zero coda) tea, sea CV (with zero coda) [laa] ‘no'
[maʔ] 'water'

5 CVC (with onset and coda) pin, sun, man CVC (with onset and coda)
[nam] 'sleep' imperative

•In Arabic the non-zero onsets and

E&A codas syllable allows only one
Syllable consonant in the onset and two
Structure successive consonants in the coda
maximally, in contrast with English
in which non-zero onsets include
from one to three successive
consonants and non-zero codas from
one to four consonants. This area is
of major difficulty for Arab learners.
Clusters in A&E • It should be noted that both languages have
clusters, i.e., intervocalic consonants and
consonant sequences in a micro segment.
English is said to have final consonant
cluster of one to four consonants. Arabic
differs in this respect; it has final cluster of
one to two consonants only. Across a word
boundary where a word ends in four
consonants coda and a following word begins
with three consonants onset, a combination
of seven consonants, though rare, is possible
in English, e.g., The texts stretched over the
theme. In Arabic, across word boundaries, a
maximum of three consonants sequence is
possible. Contrastively, the English