Phonology: Syllables

Basic of syllables

“Syllable is a unit of spoken language consisting of a single

uninterrupted sound formed generally by a Vowel and preceded or
followed by one or more consonants.”

 Vowels are the heart of a syllable (Most Sonorous Element) (svayam

raajate iti svaraH)
 Consonants act as sounds attached to vowels.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Syllable structure

 A syllable consists of 3 major parts:-

 Onset (C)
 Nucleus (V)
 Coda (C)
 Vowels sit in the Nucleus of a syllable
 Consonants may get attached as Onset or Coda.
 Basic structure - CV

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Onset (O)

• Onset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the
nucleus. These are always consonants in English. The nucleus is  a
vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l ], [ m ], [ n ], and
the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Rhyme (R)

• Rhyme (or rime): the rest of the syllable, after the onset (the

underlined portions of the words above). The rhyme can also be
divided up:

Rhyme = nucleus + coda

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Nucleus (N)
• is the core or essential part of a syllable. A nucleus must be present in order for a syllable to be
present.
• In English and most other languages, most syllable nuclei are vowels.
• The English liquids [ r  l ] and the nasals [ m  n ] can be the nuclei of syllables under certain
conditions. [ r ] can be a nucleus as easily as a vowel, in any position: the words 'bird', have [ r ] as
the nucleus; in other words, there is no vowel in the pronunciation of these syllables, even though
they have one in the spelling.
  [brd]
• [ l ] and the nasals [ m n ] become syllable nuclei when they follow an alveolar consonant in the last
syllable of a word. This happens in the relaxed or casual rather than very formal articulation of the
word. Compare casual vs. formal pronunciations of 'button', 'bottle', 'bottom'.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
• Linguists often use tree diagrams to illustrate syllable structure. 'Flop', for example, would look
like this (the word appears in IPA symbols, not English spelling). 's' = 'syllable'; 'O' = 'onset'; 'R'
= 'rhyme'; 'N' = 'nucleus'; 'C' = 'coda'. 
• The syllable node at the top of the tree branches into Onset and Rhyme; the Onset node
branches because it contains two consonants, [ f ] and [ l ]. The Rhyme node branches
because this syllable has both a nucleus and a coda.
•           σ
        /     \ 
      O     R 
      / \    /  \ 
     |   |   N C 
     |   |    |    | 
  [ f   l    a  p ]

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Steps to determine the diagram:

a. Determine the nucleus (N)

b. Add Rhyme ( R ) on the ordinate of the nucleus
c. Determine the onset (O) and the coda (C).

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Possible syllable structures

 The Nucleus is
always present
 Onset and Coda
may be absent
 Possible structures
V
 CV
 VC
 CVC

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 syllable theories

 Prominence Theory
 E.g. entertaining /entəteɪnɪŋ/
 The peaks of prominence: vowels /e ə eɪ ɪ/
 Number of syllables: 4
 Chest Pulse Theory
 Based on muscular activities
 Sonority Theory
 Based on relative soundness of segment within words

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Introduction to sonority theory

“The Sonority of a sound is its loudness relative to other sounds with

the same length, stress and speech.”

 Some sounds are more sonorous

 Words in a language can be divided into syllables
 Sonority theory distinguishes syllables on the basis of sounds.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority hierarchy

 Defined on the basis of amount of sound associated

 The sonority hierarchy is as follows:-
 Vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
 Liquids (y, r, l, v)
 Nasals (n, m)
 Fricatives (s, z, f,…..sh, th etc.)
 Affricates (ch, j)
 Stops (b, d, g, p, t, k)

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Sonority scale

 Obstruents can be
further classified
into:-
 Fricatives
 Affricates
 Stops

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority theory & syllables

“A Syllable is a cluster of sonority, defined by a sonority peak acting as a

structural magnet to the surrounding lower sonority elements.”

Represented as waves of sonority or Sonority Profile of

that syllable
Nucleus

Onset Coda
Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority sequencing principle

“The Sonority Profile of a syllable must rise until its Peak(Nucleus), and
then fall.”

Peak
(Nucleus)

Onset Coda

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 examples

 ABHIJEET
 Sonority Profile 1
A I E E
H J
B T

 Sonority Profile 2
A I E E
H J
B T

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Maximal onset principle

“The Intervocalic consonants are maximally assigned to the Onsets of syllables in

conformity with Universal and Language-Specific Conditions.”
 Determines underlying syllable division
 Example
 DIPLOMA
DIP LO MA & DI PLO MA

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Syllable Structure: amore detailed look

• Count of no. of syllables in a word is roughly/intuitively the

no. of vocalic segments in a word.
• Thus, presence of a vowel is an obligatory element in the
structure of a syllable. This vowel is called “nucleus”.
• Basic Configuration: (C)V(C).
• Part of syllable preceding the nucleus is called the onset.
• Elements coming after the nucleus are called the coda.
• Nucleus and coda together are referred to as the rhyme.

S ≡ Syllable, O ≡ Onset
R ≡ Rhyme, N ≡ Nucleus
Co ≡ Coda

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Syllable Structure: Examples

• ‘word’

• ‘sprint’

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Syllable Structure: Examples

• ‘may’

 No Coda.

• ‘opt’

 No Onset.

• ‘air’

 No Coda, No
Onset.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Syllable Structure

• Open Syllable: ends in vowel

• Closed syllable: ends in consonant or consonant cluster

• Light Syllable: A syllable which is open and ends in a short

vowel
– General Description – CV.
– Example, ‘air’.
• Heavy Syllable: Closed syllables or syllables ending in
diphthong
– Example: ‘opt’
– Example, ‘may’

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Syllabification: Determining Syllable
Boundaries
• Given a string of syllables (word), what is the coda of one
and the onset of another?

• In a sequence such as VCV, where V is any vowel and C is

any consonant, is the medial C the coda of the first syllable
(VC.V) or the onset of the second syllable (V.CV)?

• To determine the correct groupings, there are some rules,

two of them being the most important and significant:
– Maximal Onset Principle,
– Sonority Hierarchy

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Draw, the syllable structure of the following
words:
apron
basic
began
begin
depend
even
hotel

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority Hierarchy
• A more plausible account, however, is offered by the “Sonority Hierarchy”:
4 Vowels Most Sonorous
3 Liquids
2 Nasals
1 Obstruents Least Sonorous
• The Syllable Sonority Profile:
i - rises
ii - reaches a peak
iii - falls

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority Hierarchy
[sli:p]
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
Sonority
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
s l i: p

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority Hierarchy
*[lsi:p]
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
Sonority
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
l s i: p

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority Sequencing

• The sonority profile of the syllable is regulated by a universal principle:

The Sonority Sequencing
The sonority profile of the syllable must rise until it peaks, and then fall.
• So, an onset such as ls, the converse of existing sl, would violate the
Sonority Sequencing Principle.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Gaps

• Although they are consistent with the Sonority Sequencing, (stop +

fricative) or (stop + nasal) clusters do not occur in English onsets.
• Is their absence from English arbitrary?

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Sonority Distance
• Sonority Distance may vary:
(stop + fricative) 1 - 1 = 0
(stop + nasal) 2 - 1 = 1
(stop + liquid) 3 - 1 = 2
• In many languages, the segments of complex subsyllabic constituents need to satisfy a minimum of
sonority distance.
• This requirement is formalized through the Minimal Sonority Distance parameter.
• For English, this parameter is set as follows:
Minimal Sonority Distance in English Onsets
The minimal sonority distance between the two elements of an English complex onset is 2.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
 Summing up
• Syllables are abstract structures which cannot themselves be pronounced.
• Children’s utterances consist principally of CV syllables.
• There are no languages where CV syllables are not attested.
• Syllable structure is richer than the core syllable.
• Syllable complexity can be measured against the optimal CV configuration.
• Syllable structure is built on the timing tier.
• The distribution of vowels and consonants within a syllable is a consequence of sonority differences
between these two classes of sounds.
• The constraints on possible branching onsets in English are also explained by the principle of
Sonority Sequencing and the Minimal Sonority Distance.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya
Discussion on the assignment