UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA

DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS

COURSE TITLE : PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

COURSE CODE : 712

LECTURER : DR. REBECCA AKPANGLO NARTEY

NAME : MAHAMA SAANI GAZALI

ID NUMBER : 1807650

DATE : 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2019

TOPIC QUESTION

I. DISCUSS THE SYLLABLE STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

II. EXPLAIN THE RULES THAT GOVERN THE OCCURRENCE OF VOWELS

AND CONSONANT IN THE SYLLABLES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

 INTRODUCTION

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.

Definition of Syllable

In its broadest sense, the term ‘syllable’ is looked at from the phonetic and phonological point of

view. In his turn, Crystal defines the syllable as: “A unit of pronunciation typically larger than a

single sound and smaller than a word.”

“It should be born in mind that the syllable is found in languages all over the world and can be put

into units, i.e., syllables. Humans seem to need syllables as a “way of segmenting the stream of

speech...”.

To recapitulate, two different approaches are used in dealing with the syllable, i.e., the phonetic

approach and the phonological approach.

The first and for the while the most popular, phonetic definition of the syllable was given by

“Stetson (1928) who argued that each syllable corresponds to an increase in air pressure... the pulse

or motor theory of syllable production”. A number of phoneticians like among others, look at the

syllable from articulatory, acoustic and auditory points of view) i.e., the phonetic approach.

Abercrombie (1967: 39) points out that:

1
 The basis of the syllable is a sudden brief contraction of the respiratory
muscles and this construction expels a small amount of air from the lungs.
This air so expelled needs for its escape to the outer air a relatively free
and unrestricted passage through the vocal tract, and it is this movement
of lead restriction in the sequence of movements that makes up the
syllable.

Gimson (1989: 52) takes the same view when he states that the syllable is a “Unit that is defined

by counting peaks of activity of the breathing muscles”. Viewing the ‘syllable’ acoustically,

O’Connor & Arnold (1973: 200) mention that “the highly inter-related acoustic activity within

short stretches of syllable length...” The syllable is also defined auditorily. Jones (1972: 134), for

instance, explains that “in every word made up from more than a single sound; at least one of the

sounds is heard to be more ‘prominent’ than the other(s). If there is only one such ‘prominent’

sound, the sequence is said to consist of a single syllable”. Schane (1973, 9) argues that “the

vowels... are more capable of being heard than consonants...”.

1. On the other hand, discuss the syllable from the phonological point of view. In this respect,

Crystal (2003: 374) observes that “the phonological approach the of Hyman (1975: 188)

illustrates that “the most discussed suprasegmental features is the syllable”. Katambas’ (1989: 153)

words are worth quoting where he believes that “The syllable is at the heart of the phonological

representation. It is the unit in terms of which phonological systems are organized”. Some writers

believe that there is still no sufficient or adequate definition to the term ‘syllable’. In this regard,

Abercrombie (1976: 34) expresses that “It is believed that a syllable is unit which can be

apprehended but cannot be easily defined”.

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 (C) or a cluster of consonants (CC or
CCC) (see below). Some syllables consist of just one vowel sound (V) as in I and eye /aɪ/, owe

2
/əʊ/. In English, a syllable can consist of a vowel preceded by one consonant (CV) as in pie /paɪ/,
or by two consonants (CCV) as in try /traiɪ/, or by three consonants (CCCV) as in spry /spraɪ/. The
vowel of the syllable may also be followed by one consonant (VC) as in at /ӕt/, or by two
consonants (VCC) as in its /ɪts/, or by three consonants (CVCCC) as in text /tekst/or by four
consonants (CVCCCC) as in texts /teksts/. The different combinations ran be depicted as V, CV,
CCV, CCCV, VC, VCC and VCCC and so on. The following table shows the structure of some
more single syllable words.

CV VC CVC
be /bi:/ ill / ɪl/ bill /bɪl/
tie /taɪ/ egg /еɡ/ beg /bеɡɡ/
no /aəʊ/ on /ɒn/ ton /tʌn/
weigh /weɪ/ ice /aɪs/ nose /nəʊz/
how /haʊ/ out /aʊt/ mouth /maʊθ/
The following words have more than one consonant before and/or after the vowel (V):

CVCC CCV
Range /reɪndӡ/ Snow /snəʊ/
Change /tʃeɪndӡ/ Fly /flaɪ/
Help /help/ Play /pleɪ/
Learnt /lз:nt/ Floor /flͻ:/
Wolf /wʊlf/ Swear /sweə/
Even very heavy syllables are also possible in English: scrimped and splints have CCCVCCC

pattern.

The two main constituents within the syllable are the onset and the rhyme. For example, in the

word tip /tɪp/, the first segment is /t/ followed by the vowel /ɪ/ and then another segment /p/. The

segment /t/ constitutes the onset of the syllable, while the last two segments together /ɪp/ constitute

the rhyme. It is important to note here that in English, the placement of word stress depends on the

structure of the rhyme in the syllables which make up a word.

The rhyme may be divided further into two constituents, the nucleus and the coda. In the above

word, the rhyme is /ɪp/. Its constituents are /ɪ/ which is the nucleus and /p/ which is the coda.

Schematically, this can be represented as shown below:

3
 /tɪp/

ONSET RHYME
/t/ /ɪp/

NUCLEUS CODA
/ɪ/ /p/

A syllable such as the one described above, which contains one or more consonants in the coda

position is called a closed syllable, and a syllable which does not contain any consonants in the

coda position is called an open syllable. For example, tea /ti:/ does not contain any consonant after

the nucleus /i:/, as shown in the diagram below.

/ti:/

ONSET RHYME
/t/ /i:/

NUCLEUS
/i:/

English also has syllables which do not have an onset but only the nucleus and the coda as in

it /ɪt/. /ɪt:/

NUCLEUS
/ɪt/

NUCLEUS CODA
/ɪ/ /t/

4
Whether or not there is an onset and coda, a syllable cannot exist without the nucleus. The usual

way of representing a syllable is with the Greek letter Sigma (ϭ); the onset is represented by (O),

the rhyme by (R), the nucleus by (N) and the coda by (C). So, schematically the syllable structure

may be represented as shown below:

O R

N C

It is important to note that in English, the onset may contain more than one consonant, as in trip,

stick, praise, etc. In such cases the onset is referred to as a branching onset (see the diagram for

trip). Like the onsets, the codas may also branch as in words like sent, pelt and so on (see the

diagram below). σ σ

O R O R

N C

r ɪ p e n t
t s
It is on the basis of the number of syllables that the words are classified into monosyllabic,

disyllabic and polysyllabic words. We have also seen that English permit initial consonant clusters

of more than one C element in words such as sky/skai/ (CCV), and of three consonants in words

such as script/skript (CCCVCC). English also permits consonant clusters in the final position.

Looks/luks/CVCC) has a cluster of two consonants; sixth/siks θs / (CVCCC) has a consonant

cluster of three consonants, and sixths/siks θs / (CVCCCC) has a cluster of four consonants in the

5
final position. In the monosyllabic word comb—koum/, the structure of the syllable is CVC,

because the final /b/ is silent and therefore it does not exist in the structure of the syllable.

Sometimes two syllables in a word may be fused into one by suppressing a vowel sound

in pronunciation, e.g. wa—t (e) ry, lit (e) ral. This process is known as Elison or Slurring.

Monosyllabic, Disyllabic and Polysyllabic

Trask (1996: 226) defines monosyllabic as “A word consisting of a single syllable e.g. cat, dog,

is, try, black, when, strength.” While the longest complex monosyllabic English words are:

scratched, stretched, scrunched, straights, strengths (the Free Encyclopedia, 2005: a lnt.). In one

syllable lexical word, the primary stress is actually unmarked because it is predictable (Tathem,

1998:1). Disyllabic is a word consisting of two syllables e.g. money, delay, trouble, happy, believe,

teacher etc. Polysyllabic is a word consisting of three or more syllables, e.g.:

generous /gen ∂ r ∂ s/
ambassador / ∂ mbas ∂ d/
opportunity /op ∂ tjumn ∂ ti/
particular / p ∂ tikj ∂ l ∂ /
Roach (2000).
The Nature of the Syllable

When we looked at the nature of vowels and consonants in Previous units it was shown that one

could decide whether a particular sound was a vowel or a consonant on phonetic grounds (in

relation to how much they obstructed the airflow) or on phonological grounds (vowels and

consonants having different distributions). We find a similar situation with the syllable, in that it

may be defined both phonetically and phonologically. Phonetically (i.e., in relation to the way we

produce them and the way they sound), syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre

which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and

6
after this centre (ie.,e at the beginning and end of the syllable), there will be greater obstruction

to airflow and/or less loud sound. We will now look at some examples:

1. What we will call a minimum syllable is a single vowel in isolation (e.g. the words ‘are’a+,

‘or’ c+, err’ +). These are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds such as

m, which we sometimes produce to indicate agreement, or ∫, to ask for silence, must

also be regarded as syllables.

2. Some syllables have an onset—that is, instead of silence, they have one or more

consonants preceding the centre of the syllable: ‘bar ba:’ key’ ki: more’ m c:

3. Syllables may have no onset but have a coda—that is, they end with one or more

consonants: ‘ease’ i:z

4. Some syllables have both onset and coda: ‘ran’ ræn ‘sat’ sæt ‘fill’ fil

This is one way of looking at syllables. Looking at them from the phonological point of view is

quite different. What this involves is looking at the possible combinations of English phonemes;

the study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics. It is simplest

to start by looking at what can occur in initial position - in other words, what can occur at the

beginning of the first word when we begin to speak after a pause. We find that the word can begin

with a vowel, or with one, two or three consonants. No word begins with more than three

consonants. In the same way, we can look at how a word ends when it is the last word spoken

before a pause; it can end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or (in a small number of cases)

four consonants. No current word ends with more than four consonants.

Syllable Division

On syllable division, Kreidler (2003:84-6) stresses the fact that the English language has stress

timing, i.e., certain syllables are louder and longer; others are softer and shorter and usually have

7
a reduced vowel. It is easy to indicate and clarify the beginning of the strong syllable, but it is too

difficult to tell where a weak syllable begins unless it is an initial syllable. It is possible to get

information about how a written word should be syllabified from a dictionary, the dictionary

indicates syllable division according to certain conversation that are based on two principles (1)

recognition of certain prefixes and suffixes which are not divided (mis. treat, un.able, free, dom,

work, ing), and (2) different treatment according to whether the vowel letter A, E, I (or Y), if the

vowel is ‘long’, it ends with a syllable and the next letter goes in the following syllable, but if the

vowel is ‘short’ the next letter goes with a preceding vowel letter. Thus as in writing:

ra. dical. Sa.vor but rad. ic. al

le. gal, me. di. um but leg. a. cy, med.i.cine
fi. nal, ri. val but fin. ish, riv. er
co. pi. ous, so. lo but op.er.a, sol.id
pu. ny, stu. di. ous but punish, stud. y
Generally speaking, the rules for syllabifying spoken English words are:

1. If two vowels occur in a sequence, the syllable break is between the vowel (v,v): ne. on,

cha. os, cru.el (ty), bi.o (logy), re.a(lity).

2. If one consonant occurs between vowels and the second is strong, the consonant is part of

the second syllable whether the second vowel is stressed or not. e.g, re’.pent, va’ ca (tion).

If two vowels are separated by a consonant cluster, syllable division depends on the consonant in

the cluster. If the cluster is of the type (sc-, cr-, cl- , cw-, scr-, etc.) that can occur word initially

and followed by a vowel which is strong, the whole cluster is part of the syllable with the strong

vowel: pa. tri (cia), de. ‘c’line, re. ‘q’uire, s’u. ‘spect etc. 4. The consonants are divided in such a

way that the second syllable begins with a single consonant or cluster that can occur initially if the

8
consonant cluster is one that cannot occur in initial position e.g. can. dy.lat, shel. ter, a. car. pen.

ter (lbid.).

The Structure of the English Syllable

Let us now look in more detail at syllable onsets. If the first syllable of the word in question begins

with a vowel (any vowel may occur, though υ is rare) we say that this initial syllable has a zero

onset. If the syllable begins with one consonant, that initial consonant may be any consonant

phoneme except ŋ; ¥ is rare.

We now look at syllables beginning with two consonants. When we have two or more consonants

together we call them a consonant cluster. Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English.

One sort is composed of s followed by one of a small set of consonants; examples of such clusters

are found in words such as ‘sting’ st1 …, ‘sway’ swe1, ‘smoke’ sm e υ k. The s in these clusters

is called the pre-initial consonant and the other consonant (t, w, m in the above examples) the

initial consonant. The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed by

one of the set l, r, w, j as in, for example, ‘play’ pleI, ‘quick’ kwIk, ‘few’ fju:. We call the first

consonant of these clusters the initial consonant and the second the post-initial. There are some

restrictions on which consonants can occur together. This can best be shown in table form, as in

Table 9.2. When we look at three consonant clusters we can recognise a clear relationship between

them and the two sorts of two consonant cluster described above; examples of three-consonant

initial clusters are: ‘split’ spl1t, ‘stream’ stri;m, ‘square’ skwe e . The s is the pre-initial consonant,

the p, t, k

that follow s

in the three

example

9
words are the initial consonant and the l, r, w are post-initial. In fact, the number of possible initial

three-consonant clusters is quite small and they can be set out in full (words given in spelling

form):

We now have a similar task to do in studying final consonant clusters. Here we find the possibility

of up to four consonants at the end of a word. If there is no final consonant we say that there is a

zero coda. When there is one consonant only, this is called the final consonant. Any consonant

may be a final consonant except h, w, j. The consonant r is a special case: it doesn’t occur as a

final consonant in BBC pronunciation, but there are many rhotic accents of English in which

syllables may end with this consonant. There are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster, one

being a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other a final consonant followed

by a post-final consonant. The prefinal consonants form a small set: m, n, ŋ, l, s. We can see these

in ‘bump’ b•mp, ‘bent’ bent, ‘bank’ bæŋk, ‘belt’ belt, ‘ask’ a:sk. The post-final consonants also

form a small set: s,z,t,d,θ; example words are: ‘bets’ bets, ‘beds’ bedz, ‘backed’ bækt, ‘bagged’

bægd, ‘eighth’ e1tθ. These post-final consonants can foten be identified as separate morphemes

(although not always—‘axe’ æks, for example, is a single morpheme and its final s has no separate

meaning). A point of pronunciation can be pointed out here: the release of the first plosive of a

plosive-plus-plosive cluster such as the g (of gd) in bægd or the k (of kt) in bækt is usually without

plosion and is therefore practically inaudiable.

10
 Table: Two -consonant clusters with pre -initial s
Pre -initial s followed by:

Initial

p t k b d g f  s + h v ð z 3 m n t

sp wn st wk sk wn — — — sf1 e — — — — — — — — smel sne  —

Note: Two -consonant clusters of s plus l, w, j are also possible (e .g . sl wp, sw1 ŋ , sju:), and even perhaps sr in ‘ syrin sr1nd3 for many speakers . These clusters
can be analysed either as pre -initial s plus initial s plus initial l, w, j, r or initial s plus post -initial l, w, j, ge’
r. There is no clear answer to the question of which
analysis is better; here they are treated in the latter way, and appear in Table:

11
Table: Two -consonant clusters with post -initial l, r, w, j

p t k b d g f  s + h v ð z 3 m n t l r w j

l ple w — ble w blæk — glu; fla w — sl wp — — — — — — — — — — — — —

r pre w tre w kra w br wt dr wp gr wn fra w qr  ? 1

e +ru: — — — — — — — — — — — —

w — tw wn kw wk — dwel ?2 —  w :t sw1m ?3 — — — — — — — — — — — —

j pj : tju:n kju: bju:ti dju: ?4 fju: ?5 sju: — hju:d ¥ vju: — — — mju:d nju:z — lju:d — — —
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is pre-final plus final plus post-final,

as set out in the following table:

The second type shows how more than one post-final consonant can occur in a final cluster: final

plus post-final 1 plus post-final 2. Post-final 2 is again one of s, z, t, d, θ.

Most four-consonant clusters can be analysed as consisting of a final consonant preceded by a

prefinal and followed by post-final 1 and post-final 2, as shown below:

A small number of cases seem to require a different analysis, as consisting of a final consonant

with no pre-final but three post-final xonsonant:

To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum phonological

structure:

12
In the above structure there must be a vowel in the centre of the syllable. There is, however, a

special case, that of syllabic consonants; we do not, for example, analyse the word ‘students’ st

ju:dnts as consisting of one syllable with the three-consonant cluster stj for its onset and a four-

consonant final cluster dnts. To fit in with what English speakers feel, we say that the word

contains two syllables, with the second syllable ending with the cluster nts; in other words, we

treat the word as though there was a vowel between d and n, although a vowel only occurs here in

very slow, careful pronunciation.

Much present-day work in phonology makes use of a rather more refind analysis of the syllable in

which the vowel and the coda (if there is one) are known as the rhyme; if you think of rhyming

English verse yu will see that the rhyming works by matching just that part of the last syllable of

a line. The rhyme is divided into the peak (normally the vowel) and the coda (but note that this is

optional: the rhyme may have no coda, as in a word like ‘me’). As we have seen, the syllable may

also have an onset, but this is not obligatory. The structure is thus the following

syllable

rhyme

peak coda
onset

13
Simple and Complex Syllables

Syllables are classified in terms of complexity. Singh and Singh (1977:170) differentiate between

a simple syllable and a complex one saying that a simple syllable is “one with a vowel or vowel

accompanied by a single consonant or a vowel preceded and followed by a single consonant. All

other syllable types are called complex syllables i.e., one with consonant clusters in the onset and/

or the coda” the symbol ‘c’ is used to refer to consonant whereas the symbol ‘V’ stands for a vowel

e.g. see/si:/, the letter s is represented by the symbol ‘C’ and the double letter ee are represented

by the symbol ‘V’ (Stetson , 2003:1).

The following table illustrates the distinction between simple and complex syllables by Singh and

Singh (1979: 38)

Roach (200:20-1) argues that: simple syllables are of the following categories:

14
 1. A minimum syllable would be a single vowel in isolation, e.g. the words ‘are’ (strong form)

a::, ‘or’ o: , ‘err’ 3: these are preceded and followed by silence. Isolated sounds such as m,

which is some times produced to indicate agreement, or ∫ to ask for silence, must also be

regarded as syllables.

2. 2. Some syllables have an onset (i.e., they have more than just silence preceding the centre

of the syllable (CV) e.g.:

‘bar’ ba: ‘key’ ki: ‘more’ mo:.

3. Syllables may have no onset but have a coda (VC) e.g.: ‘æ m’ am ‘ought’ o:t ‘ease’ i:z.

4. Some syllables have onset and coda (CVC) e. g.: ‘rn’ r∧ n ‘sat’ ‘fill’ fil(lbid.).

Cox, Harrington and Mannel (2000: 6) affirm that the open syllable has the structure CV as in ‘die’

/dai/. On the other hand, closed syllables are those which end with the ‘coda’, the most common

closed syllable has the structure (CVC) as in ‘died’ /daid/. The different structures of the open and

closed syllables are:

15
Strong and Weak Syllable

In English, as in several other languages, some syllables are strongly stressed and some are weakly

stressed. By weak, we mean that the syllable is shorter, of a lower intensity and is different in

quality compared to other syllables in the word or sentence. In look at them //'lʊk ət ðəm//, only

look is stressed and in at a shop, only shop is stressed //ət ðə 'ʃɒp//. In Her name is Elizabeth //hз:

'neɪm ɪz ɪ'lɪz.ə.bəθ//, only name /neɪm/ and the second syllable in Elizabeth are stressed.

Similarly, in words having more than one syllable, there is only one syllable which is more

prominent, i.e. more stressed than the others which are unstressed. For instance, in mother

/'mʌ.ðə/, the second syllable is very short and less tense and is therefore unstressed (the stress falls

on the first syllable). In cassette /kə'set/, the first syllable contains the weak vowel schwa /ə/, and

the stress falls on the second syllable.

Usually, strong syllables end with a coda, whereas weak syllables have no coda and end in one of

the shorter vowels like /ə/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/. Among them, schwa /ə/ is the most commonly occurring

vowel that is associated with weak syllables. It is a short, lax vowel and is not pronounced with

much energy or force. A few examples would give you an idea of how weak it is in English.

1. As initial syllable
(A) around /əlraʊnd/
above /əlbʌv/
ago /əlgəʊ/
attend /əltend/
(B) potato /pəlteɪ.təʊ/
correct /kəlrekt/
gazette /gəlzet/

2. As final syllable
(A) father /lfa:ðə/
motor /lməʊ.tə/

16
 reaper /lri:.pə/
(B) govern /lgʌv.ən/
satan /lseɪ.tən/
accurate /lӕ.jə.rət/
Syllabic Consonant

In many of the world languages, a vowel forms the core of a syllable, and the syllables may have

one or more consonants preceding and/or following the vowel as mentioned above. However, in a

few cases we find syllables which contain nothing that could conventionally be called a vowel.

For instance, in BBC English, words such as bottle and button would not sound acceptable if

pronounced */ bɒtəl/ and */bʌtən/ (in other variants of English, these pronunciations are

acceptable), and must be pronounced / bɒtl/ and / bʌtn/, respectively. Such consonants, which

sometimes function as the nucleus of a syllable in the place of a vowel, are referred to as syllabic

consonants. A syllabic consonant is indicated by putting a small vertical diacritic [‫ ]׀‬under the

required symbol as shown under /l/ and /n/ above. In English, some syllabic consonants appear to

have become obligatory in present-day speech. The two most common syllabic consonants in

English are /l/and /n/. Some examples of the syllabic consonant /l/ are bottle /'bɒt.l/, cattle /'kӕt.l/,

/ꞌhʌs.l/, struggle /'strʌg.l/ and trouble /'trʌb.l/. Some examples of syllabic /n/ are button /'bʌt.n/,

threaten /'θret.n/ and sudden /'sʌd.n/.

Consonant Clusters

We had mentioned earlier that there can be a group of consonants either before a vowel or after it,

within the same syllable. When two or more consonants precede or follow the nucleus (i.e. the

vowel) in the syllable, it is called a consonant cluster. For instance, in plane /pl-/ is a cluster, and

so is /-st/ in fast. Clusters can occur word-initially as in plane or word finally as in fast. They could

also be in the middle of the word as in, eastern.

17
Here, we shall concentrate only on the word-initial consonant clusters since it is this kind that

poses a problem to non-native speakers. Non-native speakers tend to break the cluster and insert a

vowel sound between them. English consonant clusters must be uttered together as a unit. Given

below are some word-initial two-and three- consonant clusters which have been found problematic

for non-native speakers:

/st-/
still /stɪl/ stop /stɒp/
store /stͻ:r/ stare /steər/
steep /sti:p/ stand /stӕnd/
/sp-/
spot /spɒt/ spit /spɪt/
spool /spu:l/ spare /speər/
sport /spͻ:t/ speak /spi:k/
/sk-/
skirt /skз:t/ scare /skeər/
skate /skeɪt/ skin /skɪn/
skeleton /skelɪtən/ scooter /sku:tər/
/sm-/
small /smͻ:l/ smith /smɪθ/
smart /smɑ:t/ smudge /smʌdӡ/
smuggle /smʌgl/ smooth /smu:ð/
/sw-/
sweet /swi:t/ sweep /swi:p/
swell /swell/ swift /swɪft/
swim /swɪm/ Swiss /swɪs/
/pl-/
play /pleɪ/ plate /pleɪt/
plus /plʌs/ plead /pli:d/

18
 ply /plaɪ/ please /pli:z/
/str-/
street /stri:t/ stress /stress/
strain /streɪn/ struggle /strʌgl/
strange /streɪndӡ/ strap /strӕp/
/spl-/
splendid /splendɪd/ spleen /spli:n/
splint /splɪnt/ split /splɪt/

Types of syllables and phonotactic rules of English

Around twenty different types of syllables occur in English. There are, for example, CV syllables

such as do and go, which consist of one consonant in the onset position and one vowel in the

nucleus position. Further, there are VC syllables such as in or of with a vowel as nucleus and one

consonant in the coda position. Other types include CVC (dog), CCV (spa), CCVC (tram),

CCCVC (split), and so forth. Syllables that have no consonant in the coda position are called open

syllables. Closed syllables have at least one consonant in the coda position. Sequences of two or

more consonants in the syllable onset and coda, such as /spɹ/ in the onset and /nt/ in the coda of

the word sprint, are referred to as initial and final consonant clusters, respectively. Syllables that

have a rhyme consisting of a long vowel (e.g. bee), a diphthong (e.g. bay) or a short vowel plus

consonant (e.g. beg) are called heavy syllables. Long vowels and diphthongs are sometimes

represented as VV so that the syllable structure of bee or bay can be given as CVV. Light syllables,

by contrast, have only a short vowel or a syllabic consonant in the rhyme (e.g. beloved). The

different syllable types do not occur equally often in English speech. Dauer (1983) found that CVC

(34%) and CV (30%) syllables are most frequent, followed by VC (15%), V (8%) and CVCC

(6%). Gut (2005) found that 43% of all syllables in English are open syllables. Furthermore, their

19
distribution is constrained: stressed syllables are always heavy, light syllables are always

unstressed and light syllables cannot occur on their own.

The number and type of consonants that can occur in both onset and coda position in English is

restricted. The number of consonants in the onset position is limited to three - there are no English

syllables with more than three consonants in the onset position. The maximum number of

consonants in the coda position is limited to four. If there are four coda consonants, the last one is

either an inflectional /s/ as e.g. in texts [teksts] or an inflectional /t/ as in glimpsed [glɪmpst].

Furthermore, the type of consonants that can occur in English syllable onsets and codas and their

order is restricted, which can be formulated in phonotactic rules. There are two types of

phonotactic rules:

- rules of sound distribution

- rules of sound combinations

Rules of distribution describe in which position of the syllable phonemes can occur. For example,

not any kind of vowel can appear in an English syllable without onset and coda: it has to be a long

vowel or a diphthong. This is why when the indefinite article a is pronounced on its own, it is

pronounced /eɪ/. (Only in combination with other words is it pronounced /ə/, where it is often

considered part of a phonological word; see section 3.3 below). Other phonotactic constraints

concern the phoneme /ŋ/, which never occurs in the onset of English syllables. Some phonemes of

English never occur in the coda position: these are /j/, /w/ and /h/. In RP, in contrast to GA, /ɹ/ does

not occur in the syllable coda: syllables like car and bar in barman are pronounced [kɑ:] and [bɑ:].

When phonemes cannot occur in all positions of the syllable, linguists speak of defective

distribution. Varieties of English that do not pronounce coda /ɹ/ are called non-rhotic varieties (or

accents), whereas those varieties that allow coda /ɹ/ are called rhotic accents. This phonological

20
difference has historical reasons. Until the Early Modern English period, English was a rhotic

language, which is still reflected in the present-day spelling of words like car and barman. This

rhotic accent was spoken by the settlers in the early colonies (e.g. in Northern America). During

the 17th and 18th centuries, Standard English on the British Isles evolved into a non-rhotic accent

and, consequently, many of the settlers of later colonies such as Australia, Singapore and Nigeria,

which were founded at that time, spoke non-rhotic English. Present-day Australian English,

Singapore English and Nigerian English are still non-rhotic accents. There is one phonological

instance when coda /ɹ/ is pronounced even in non-rhotic accents: when a syllable ending in the

spelling <r> is followed by a syllable without onset consonant, the /ɹ/ is pronounced. This process,

which can be observed in pairing /pɛɹɪŋ/ and far away /faɹəweɪ/, is called the 'linking /r/ and

reflects resyllabification, a phonological process that will be explained in section 3.2.2 below.

When speakers of a non-rhotic accent pronounce a /ɹ/ between two vowels although there is no

spelled <r>, the result is called 'intrusive /r/'. It can be observed in phrases such as law and order,

which is pronounced /lɔ:ɹəndɔ:də/ by some RP speakers. It is hypothesized that speakers produce

this inserted (epenthetic) /ɹ/ to avoid a hiatus, i.e. the separate pronunciation of two adjacent

vowels. Phonotactic constraints of distribution describe the order of consonants in English syllable

onsets and codas. In English onsets consisting of a three - consonant cluster, the first phoneme is

always a /s/, the second either /p/, /t/ or /k/ and the third /ɹ/, /j/ or - in some cases - /l/ or /w/. Thus,

we have in English splay, spray, stray, squeal and stew (in RP only), but not *pstay or *wpjay

(impossible forms are marked by the preceding asterisk *). This rule is illustrated in (9). GA does

not allow many onset consonant clusters involving /j/, for example stew is pronounced /stu/.

p (l)
σ [s t ɹ
k (w)
j
21
Permissible two-consonant anset clusters in RP and GA.

RP + GA RP only Example

/pl/ plan
/pɹ/ pram
/pj/ pure
/bl/ blue
/bɹ/ brew
/bj/ beauty
/fl/ flew
/fɹ/ friend
/fj/ few
/vj/ view
/tɹ/ tram
/tw/ twist
/tj/ tune
/dɹ/ drink
/dw/ dwell
/dj/ duel
/θr/ throw
/θw/ thwart
/sm/ smell
/sn/ snake
/sl/ sling
/sw/ swing
/sj/ suit
/zj/ Zeus
/ʃɹ/ shrink
/kl/ claw
/kɹ/ crawl
/kw/ quest
/kj/ cute
/gl/ glow
/gɹ/ grow
/gw/ Gwen
/gj/ Gules
/hj/ Huge
/mj/ Mule
/nj/ New
/lj/ lute

Similarly, not all possible combinations of two consonants in the onset can occur in English. In

general, two consonants that share a place of articulation cannot occur together. Thus, while /p, k,

22
b, g, f, s/ can combine with /l/ as in play, clay, bleak, glimmer, flat and slip, */tl/ and */dl/ do not

exist as onsets in English. Obstruents (plosives and fricatives) cannot combine with nasals (thus

no */bm/or */fn/), and nasals cannot combine with the liquids /l/ and /ɹ/. Some phonemes such as

/ð/, /z/, /ɹ/, /w/ and /j/ cannot appear in the first position of onset clusters at all.

Table 3.9 lists all permissible two-consonant clusters in contemporary RP and GA. Some of the

clusters like /gw/, /gj/, /lj/ and /θw/ are in fact very rare, and only a handful of words exist for each

of them. You can see that GA lacks some two-consonant onset clusters, in particular, /tj/ as in

tuna, /dj/ as in duel, /sj/ as in suit, /zj/ as in Zeus, /nj/ as in new and /lj/ as in lute, which occur

only in RP. The cluster /lj/ seems to be dying out in RP; only few speakers still use it in words like

lute (/lju:t/). Instead, most RP speakers pronounce this word /lu:t/ now. Some words in English

have the onset clusters /ʃw/ (schvartze), /ʃl/ (schlep), /ʃm/ (shmoo) and /ʃn/ (schnapps), but since

all of them occur only in loan words, these onsets are not considered generally permissible in

English.

Similar to English syllable onsets, the order of consonants in English syllable codas is restricted

by phonotactic rules. Four-consonant coda clusters such as in texts (/ksts/) and glimpsed (/mpst/)

end either in /s/ or in /t/, which have morphemic status. This means that they, for example, consist

of the inflectional plural morpheme {s} or the past tense morpheme {ed}. The first consonant of

three-consonant coda clusters such as in elms, sprints and friends is always a liquid or a nasal,

i.e. either a /1/, /m/, /n/ or /ŋ/ in RP or further a /ɹ/ in GA (as in carts). The second consonant in

such clusters is one of the obstruents /p, k, t, d, f, θ, s/ or /m/. Three-consonant coda clusters end

in either /t/, /s/, /z/ or /θ/ as in gulped /gʌlpt/, links /lɪŋks/, friends RP: /fɹendz/ GA: /fɹɛndz/ and

twelfth RP: /twelfθ/ GA: /twɛlfθ/. As with the onset clusters, not all phonemes can combine to

23
form two-consonant clusters in English syllable codas. For example, the second consonant of final

two-consonant clusters can be any consonant except /h, w, j/ and /ɹ/ in RP.

The phonotactic constraints that apply to English syllables have undergone some changes in the

history of English. In Old English, onset clusters such as /hl/, /hw/, /hr/, /wl/, /wr/, /kn/ and /gn/

occurred in many words, but they were lost by or during the Middle English period in most English

dialects. Table 3.7 would thus look a bit different if it illustrated the permissible onset clusters of

10th century or 15th century English.

Is there any reason why the order of consonants is restricted in such a way? The phonotactic

structure of syllables is often described with reference to the sonority of the phonemes involved.

The sonority of a phoneme Is defined in acoustic and perceptual terms: it refers to the relative

loudness of one phoneme compared to other phonemes. The sonority of all phonemes of English

can be depicted on a sonority scale (Figure 3.9). It can be seen that vowels have the highest

sonority of all phonemes in English, with low vowels being even more sonorous than high vowels.

The approximants /j/ and /w/ have the closest sonority values to that of the vowels. Voiceless

plosives are the least sonorous phonemes. Compared to them, the sonority increases with the

voiced plosives, followed by the voiceless and the voiced fricatives, the nasals and the liquids.

p,t,k b,d,g f,θ,s,ʃ v,ð,z,ӡ m,n,ŋ l ɹ j,w i,u a,ɒ

sonority
Some phonemes of English on the sonority scale.

When illustrating the sonority of the phonemes of syllables such as print and twist in a diagram

(see Figure 3.10), one can see that the syllables resemble a mountain with a peak. In the onset, the

sonority of the first phoneme is lower than that of the second phoneme; the vowel in the nucleus

has the highest sonority, whereas the first phoneme in the coda has a higher sonority value than

24
the second one. The order of consonant sequences in the onset and coda position can therefore be

explained in the following way: in English onsets, consonants are ordered with increasing sonority,

whereas they are ordered with decreasing sonority in the coda position. Not all English syllabi es

conform to this pattern, though. There is one exception to the rule in both onsets and codas, and

this concerns the phoneme /s/. Despite having a higher sonority than the plosives, onsets in which

a /s/ precedes a plosive, such as in /spl/ and /sU/, are permissible in English. In the coda position,

equally, /s/ can occur in the last position after phonemes with a lower sonority value, e.g. in /ks/

and /ts/. This is why the /s/ is often treated as a special case and its position in the syllable is called

'extra- syllabic' or 'appendix'.

The sonority of the phonemes in print and twist.

Syllabification in English

When words consist of more than one syllable, when they are multisyllabic or polysyllabic, the

problem of syllabification arises. Should the consonants /kstɹ/ in the word extreme /ɪkstɹi:m/ be

analysed as coda consonants of the first syllable, as onset consonants of the second syllable or

should they be split up somehow to fill both positions? Phonologists have proposed that these

consonants are distributed according to the maximum onset principle. This principle states that

intervocalic consonants are syllabified as the onset of the following syllable as far as the

25
phonotactic constraints of the language allow it. This means that the two syllables of extreme are

split up into /ɪk.stɹi:m/ as illustrated in Figure 3.11. /stɹ/ is syllabified as the onset of the second

syllable, since this conforms to the phonotactic rules of onset clusters. /kstɹ/ violates these rules,

so that /k/ has to be syllabified as the coda of the first syllable.

Conclusions

Based on the above in-depth presentation of the theory syllables and structure, students will be

able to understand comprehensively the concept without any hindrance.

26