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Theory of English Phonetics

Theme. THE SYLLABLE
Outline
 1. The syllable as an integral part of the word. Types of syllables in English.
 2. Basic rules of syllabification in English.
 3. Division into syllables in writing.

1. THE SYLLABLE AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE WORD.

TYPES OF SYLLABLES IN ENGLISH
The central element in the language mechanism is a word. From the point of view of the theory of
phonetics, it is important to investigate how words are produced. It has been established that words are
articulated in syllables.
In phonetics, the syllable is a group of sounds that are pronounced together [Wells 2000:758].
According to John Kenyon, the syllable is one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted
unit of utterance which may be a commonly recognized subdivision of a word or the whole of the
word.
The problem of the syllabic structure of words has two aspects:
1) syllable formation (складоутворення) 2) syllable division/separation (складоподіл).
Articulatorily, the syllable is the minimal articulatory unit of the utterance.
Auditorily, the syllable is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the
syllable and after that the sounds which it contains.
Phonologically it is a structural unit which consists of a sequence of one or some phonemes of a
language in numbers and arrangements permitted by the given language.
Phonologically it performs three functions:
1. The constitutive function (конститутивна функція): syllables constitute words through the
combination of their stress- loudness, duration-length, pitch-tone.
2. The distinctive function (смислорозрізнювальна/дистинктивна функція) : the difference in
the place of a syllabic boundary differentiates the meanings of the words and phrases:
e.g. a name - anaim ; kids kin - kid skin; my train - might rain
3. The identificatory function (ідентифікативна функція): the listener can understand the exact
meaning of the utterance only when the correct syllabic boundary is perceived: e.g. peace talks - pea stalks
Different languages have different kinds of syllable structure. In English the syllable is formed:
1) by any vowel alone or in combination with one or more consonants - not more than 3 preceding
and not more than 4 following it, e.g. are /a:/ , we /wi:/, it /t/, sixths /sikss/.
2) by a word final sonorants /n/, /l/, /m/ immediately preceded by a consonant: e.g. rhythm
 , garden  .


The English sonorants /w/, /j/ are never syllabic as they are always syllable-initial.
Thus vowels and sonorants are syllable-forming elements and every word, phrase or sentence has
as many syllables as it has syllabic elements.
Every English syllable has a center or peak - a vowel or a sonorant. The peak may be preceded by
one or more non-syllabic elements which constitute the onset of the syllable, and it maybe followed by one
or more non-syllabic elements which constitute the coda, e.g. cat , tree, ice
Every language has its own common patterns in which the phonemes are arranged to form
syllables.
According to the placement of vowels and consonants the following types of syllables are
distinguished:
Placement of VOWELS Placement of CONSONANTS
open: the V is at the end , such a S is articulated with the covered at the beginning:: the C is at
opening of the mouth by the end: e.g. they, wri-ter the beginning of the syllable: e.g. tie
closed: which end in C, at the end of such a S the mouth covered at the end:
is closed: e.g. hun-dred, hat the C is at the end of a S: e.g. on
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The presentation of a syllable structure in terms of C and V (canonical forms) gives rather
numerous combinations which can be grouped into 4 structural types of syllables:
1. Fully open V ore, or
2. Fully closed CVC fat CCVC place
(V between C) CVCC fact CCCVCC street
CVCCC facts CVCCCC sixths /siks0s/
3. Covered at the beginning CV too CCV spy
(one C or a sequence of C precede a CCCV straw
vowel)
4. Covered at the end (one C or more VC on VCC act
complete the syllable) VCCC acts
Structurally , the commonest types of the syllable in English are VC; CVC.
CV is considered to be the universal structure. CV syllabic types constitute more than half of all
structural types in Russian and Ukrainian.
The characteristic feature of English is monosyllabism: it contains between four and five thousand
monosyllabic words. Most of the words of old English origin is of one syllable. The limit for the number
of syllables in a word in English is 8, e.g. incomprehensibility.
Syllables can be also designated
1) by the position in the word:
from the beginning- INITIAL (початковий), MEDIAL (серединний), FINAL
(фінальний/кінцевий) or from the end - ULTIMATE (останній), PENULTIMATE
(передостанній/другий від кінця), ANTEPENULTIMATE (третій від кінця);
2) by the position in relation to stress:
PRETONIC (переднаголошений), TONIC (наголошений), POSTTONIC (післянаголошений)
( Any syllable which is not tonic is ATONIC/ненаголошений).
e.g. tre - men - dous
initial medial final
antepenultimate penultimate ultimate
pretonic tonic posttonic

2.  BASIC RULES OF SYLLABIFICATION IN ENGLISH

Read the following material and answer the given questions.
1 What is the division of a word into syllables called ?
2. What can be said about the question of syllabification in English ?
3. What do phoneticians agree about in general?
4. What is the phonotactic constraint on syllabification?
5. How is syllable divisions shown in The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) and in the Cambridge
English Pronouncing Dictionary (CEPD)?
6. What are basic rules of phonetic (spoken) syllable division :
- is there any coincidence between a syllabic and a morphological boundary?
- how are consonants syllabified?
- how are diphthongs syllabified?
- are affricates unisyllabic?
The division of a word into syllables is called syllabification [Wells 2000:xix]. The question of
syllabification in English is controversial: different phoneticians hold different views about it. It is
generally agreed that phonetic syllable divisions must be such as to avoid (as far as possible) creating
consonant clusters which are not found in words in isolation [Wells 2000]. Thus it may be argued that
candy should be or  but not   since /nd/ is not a possible initial consonant
cluster in English. This principle is called the phonotactic constraint (фонотактичне обмеження) on
syllabification.
Syllable divisions in The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) by J.C. Wells [2008] are
shown by spacing (пропуск), e.g. playtime l .
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In The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (CEPD) by Daniel Jones-Alfred Ch. Gimson-
Peter Roach (18th edition), syllable division is marked with a dot - /  / as recommended by the
International Phonetic Association (the IPA), e.g. admirable l .
The following rules of phonetic (spoken) syllable division are adopted in LPD-2000:
1. A syllable boundary is found wherever there is a word boundary, and also coincides with
the morphological boundary between elements in a compound:
displace  l become   countless  l hardware  
CVC-CSVC CV-CVS CVSC-SVC CVC-SV
2. Consonants are syllabified with whichever of the two adjacent vowels is more strongly
stressed, e.g. farmer , agenda  .
It they are both unstressed, it goes with the leftward one: e.g. cinema ,
delicious  l, deliberate l.
3. The English diphthongs are unisyllabic, they make one vowel phoneme, while the so-called
triphthongs are disyllabic, because they consist of a diphthong + the neutral vowel/schwa:
table science flower
CV-CS CV- VSC CSV –V
4. The English affricates cannot be split: catching .

3. DIVISION INTO SYLLABLES IN WRITING

1. What is an orthographic syllable? What is another term to designate orthographic syllables?
2. Do parts of phonetic and orthographic syllables always coincide? Exemplify.
3. What is a most general principle the division of words into syllables in writing is based on ?
4. Where is the syllabic boundary in writing if there are two or three consonants before -ING, e.g.
grasping, puzzling?
5. How can compound words be divided, e.g. :hotdog; spotlight?
6. Is it possible to divide a word within a phonetic syllable?
7. What is the rule of syllable division of suffixes in writing?
8. Is it possible to divide a word so that an ending of two letters such as -ED,-ER, -IC begins the next line?
Are there any exceptions to this rule?
9. Is it possible to divide a word of ONE phonetic syllable?
- a word of less than FIVE letters?

Phonetic (spoken) syllables must not be confused with orthographic (written) syllables. An
orthgraphic syllable is a group of letters in spelling [Wells 2000:758]. Syllables in writing are also called
syllabographs.
When a word is split across two lines of writing, it should be broken at an orthographic syllable
boundary. Parts of phonetic and orthographic syllables do not always coincide:
worker  CV-CV = two phonetic syllables and one syllabograph
1 A most GENERAL RULE claims that division of words into syllables in writing is based on
the morphological principle which demands that the part of a word which is separated should be either a
prefix, or a suffix or a root (morphograph), e.g. pic- ture .
2 Compound words can be divided according to their meaning:hot -dog; spot-light
3 It is not possible to divide a word within a phonetic syllable:
A suffix of TWO syllables such as -ABLE, -ABLY, -FULLY cannot be divided in writing, e.g. reli-
able, lov-ably, beauti-fully. If there are two or three consonants before -ING, these consonants may be
separated in writing: gras-ping, puz-zling.
With the exception of -LY, a word cannot be divided so that an ending of two letters such as -ED,-
ER, -IC begins the next line, e.g. worked, teacher, hectic, BUT: cold-ly, bold-ly .
4 A word of ONE phonetic syllable, a word of less than FIVE letters cannot be divided into
syllabographgs, e.g. piece , time .