Ahmed Qadoury Abed Ph D Candidate University of Baghdad,college of Arts English Dept

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2.  The concept of syllable is a unit at a higher
level than that of the phoneme or sound
segment, yet distinct from that of the word or
morpheme (Gimson,1975:51) .
 A syllable is plainly a unit of sound that is
larger than a single segment and usually
smaller than a word, but it is not always easy to
define the number of syllables in a word or to
identify where one ends and the next begins
(Crystal,2006:71).
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3.  Phonetically syllables “are
usually described as  Phonologically, this involves
consisting of a centre which the possible combinations of
has little or no obstruction English phonemes (or
to airflow and which phonotactics). Laver (1994:
sounds comparatively loud; 114) defines the
before and after that centre phonological syllable as “a
(…) there will be greater complex unit made up of
obstruction to airflow nuclear and marginal
and/or less loud sound” elements”. Nuclear
(Roach, 2000: 70). In the elements are the vowels or
monosyllable (one-syllable syllabic segments; marginal
word) cat /kæt/, the vowel elements are the consonants
/æ/ is the “centre” at which or non-syllabic segments. In
little obstruction takes the syllable paint /peɪnt/,
place, whereas we have the diphthong /eɪ/ is the
complete obstruction to the nuclear element, while
airflow for the surrounding initial consonant /p/ and the
plosives /k/ and /t/. final cluster /nt/ are
marginal elements.
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4.  Attempts have been made to provide
physiological, acoustic or auditory
explanations and definitions of the syllable.
According to the prominence theory, for
example, which is based mainly on auditory
judgements, the number of syllables in a
word is determined by the number of peaks
of prominence. In the word entertaining
/ˌentəˌ teɪnɪŋ/ the peaks of prominence are
represented by the vowels /e ə eɪ ɪ/.
However, this theory does not help much in
discussions of syllable division.
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5.  The chest pulse theory discusses the syllable in the
context of muscular activities and lung movements in
the process of speech. Experiments have shown that
the number of chest pulses, accompanied by increase
of air pressure can determine the number of syllables
produced (Gimson, 1975: 56), thus allowing to
associate the number of syllables with the number of
chest pulses. This approach, however, cannot account
for cases when two vowels occur one after the other –
for example in words like being /ˌ bi:ɪŋ/ or playing
/ˌ pleɪɪŋ/ the second chest pulse might be almost
irrelevant and thus lead erroneously to the conclusion
that such English words consist of one syllable only.
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6.  Another approach is presented by sonority theory according to
which the pulses of pulmonic air stream in speech “correspond
to peaks in sonority” (Collins & Meer,2008:283). The sonority of
a speech sound is discussed as “its relative loudness compared
to other sounds” and each syllable corresponds to a peak in the
flow rate of pulmonic air. Thus nuclear elements, or syllabic
segments can be described as intrinsically more sonorous than
marginal, or non-syllabic elements.
 Speech sounds can be ranked in terms of their intrinsic sonority
according to a sonority scale. According to the sonority hierarchy
sounds are organized as follows, from the least to the greatest:
voiceless obstruents, voiced obstruents, nasals, liquids, glides,
and vowels.
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7.  The syllable (conventionally marked as
small Greek sigma: σ) has two immediate
constituents (it “branches” into two
elements, to put it in another way) – the
Onset (O), which includes any consonants
that precede the nuclear element (the vowel),
and the Rhyme (R), which subsumes the
nuclear element (the vowel) as well as any
marginal elements (consonants) that might
follow it. The Rhyme (R), in turn, further
branches into Peak (P), also known as
Nucleus (N), and Coda (Co). The Peak
(Nucleus), as the designation suggests,
represents the “nuclear” or most sonorous
element in a syllable. The Coda includes all
consonants that follow the Peak in a
syllable. Syllable structure may be
represented graphically by means of a “tree
diagram” or “immediate constituent
structure”.
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8.  In the case of cat /kæt/, the Onset, Peak and Coda each consists
of one segment: the consonant (C) /k/ occupies the Onset, the
vowel (V) /æ/ – the Peak, and the consonant /t/ is the Coda of
this syllable. However, there are syllables in English where
either or both marginal elements (i.e. O and/or Co) are absent –
only the Peak is an obligatory element in all languages, and in
English both the Onset and the Coda are optional.
Onset Peak Coda
sea /si:/ /s/ /i:/ Ø
on /ɒn/ Ø /ɒ/ /n/
eye /aɪ/ Ø /aɪ/ Ø
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9. Syllable structure is language specific
(Katamba,1989:155).
Parts Description Optionality
Onset Initial segment of a syllable Optional
Rhyme Core of a syllable, consisting of a Obligatory
nucleus and coda (see below)
Nucleus Central segment of a syllable Obligatory
Coda Closing segment of a syllable Optional
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10.  Some syllables are just vowels. There are
monosyllables that have a much more
complex structure in terms of possible
consonants (C) and vowels (V) that can go
together, such as [twais] twice (CCVC), [list]
list (CVCC), [strikt] strict (CCCVCC),
[twelfθs] twelfths (CCVCCCC) . The last
example, with the maximum number of final
consonants allowed in English, is
morphologically complex: twelve + th + s (see
Lodge,2009:117f).
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11. Many phonologists envisag
BRANCHING ,HIERARCHICAL syllable
structure. Katamba (1989:153f) presented a
revamped version of MULTI-TIERED
PHONOLOGICAL THEORY. The syllable
consists of Onset, Peak and Coda each
may further be branched into two C- or V-
constituents respectively. Then we speak
about branching or complex Onsets etc.
The English syllable drowned /draʊnd/ is
an example in which all three elements
branch.
As can be seen from the diagram, diphthongs
are treated as branching Peaks – each element
of the diphthong occupies a single V-slot. The
case is quite similar with “long vowels”: in
terms of syllable structure, they are
interpreted as sequences of two identical V-
elements – /i:/ is represented as V1 = [i] + V2 =
[i], and /ɑ: ɔ: ɜ: u:/ are [ɑ+ɑ, ɔ+ɔ, ɜ+ɜ, u+u],
respectively.
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12.  Syllables ending in a consonant, e.g. cat /kæt/, it /ɪt/,
eat /i:t/, are traditionally known as closed syllables,
whereas those ending in a vowel, as in sea /si:/ or eye /aɪ/,
are called open. In terms of syllable structure, in closed
syllables the Coda is present, i.e. we have a branching
Rhyme, while open ones have non-branching Rhymes –
the Coda element is absent. Syllable Onset is irrelevant to
this distinction.
 Recent phonological theories move to tackle this issue
under syllable WEIGHT. Syllables are heavy when the
rhyme is branched to contain (1) a long vowel or a
diphthong, optionally followed by one or more
consonants, as in tea or (2)a short vowel followed at least
by one consonant ,as in ten. Light syllables are those with
no branched rhymes containing a short vowel alone or a
coda of no more than short consonant , as in a or pa. Light
syllable are termed in phonological length as a mora
whereas heavy syllables are being greater than one mora.
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13.  Syllabification or syllabication is the separation
of a word into syllables, whether spoken or
written. In some languages, the spoken syllables
are also the basis of syllabification in writing.
However, possibly due to the weak
correspondence between sounds and letters in
the spelling of modern English, written
syllabification in English is based mostly on
etymological or morphological instead of
phonetic principles. For example, it is not
possible to syllabify "learning" as lear--ning
according to the correct syllabification of the
living language.
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14.  There are still problems  Another difficulty can be
seen in „extra‟ /ekstrǝ/.
with phonetic description
One problem is that by
. Most speakers of some definitions the /s/ in
English feel that „going‟ the middle , between /k/
/gǝuɪῃ/ consists of two and /t/, would be counted
syllables: Roach (2000:77) as a syllable, which most
states that most speakers English speakers would
could decide on phonetic reject. The most
grounds that the /u/ in the controversial issue relates
middle is the dividing to where the two syllables
point between the two are to be divided:
syllables, since the  i- /e-kstrǝ/
articulation is slightly  ii- /ek-strǝ/
closer to obstructing  iii- /eks-trǝ/
airflow than the vowel next  iv- /ekst-rǝ/
to it.  v- /ekstr- ǝ/
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15.  This principle states that where two syllables are
to be divided , any consonants between them
should be attached to the right-hand syllable, not
the left as far as possible within the restrictions
governing syllable onsets and codes. This
principle will reject the first and fifth options of
„extra‟, leaving us with the other three ones (ii,
iii, and iv). Roach (2000:78) ,under the maximum
onsets rule ,chooses (ii) /ek-strǝ/. Thus, the
syllable is the basic phonotactic unit following
particular phonotactic rules or morpheme structure
conditions (Katamba,1989:164f).
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16.  Any syllable with a vowel (except /ǝ,ɪ,u/)as its
peak or nucleus is strong .If the vowel is short, then
the strong syllable will always have a coda as well ,as
in seat /si:t/ and in /ɪn/. Strong syllables are stressed.
 A weak syllable can only have one of a very small
number of possible peaks as in ‘postman’
/pǝustmǝn/. At the end of a word, we may have a
weak syllable ending with a vowel (i.e., with no coda)
, as in ‘better’/betǝ/, ‘happy’ /hæpɪ/ ,and ‘thank you’
/θæῃk ju/. We also find weak syllables in word-final
position with a coda if the vowel is /ǝ/, as in ‘open’
/ǝupǝn/. Weak syllables are unstressed.
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17.  When one consonant stands between vowels
and it is difficult to assign the consonant to
one syllable or the other ,as in „better‟ /betǝ/
or „carry‟/kæri/. Roach (2000:78) states that the
consonant belongs to both syllables.
Phonologists used the term ambisyllabic for a
consonant in this situation.
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18.  A consonant is syllabic when (l) ,(r ),or a
nasal) stands as the peak of the syllable
instead of the vowel. It is usual to indicate
that a consonant is syllabic by means of a
small vertical mark ( ̩ ), as in :
 Cattle /kætḷ/
 Happen /hæpṇ/ and sometimes /hæpṃ/
 Broken key /brǝukŋ ki:/
 Hungary /hʌŋɡŗɪ/
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19.  Morpheme boundaries such as those between the
elements of a compound normally the /p/ of fee-
paying to remain initial in the second syllable, so that
there is no pre-fortis clipping of the /iˌ/ (compare
deep). The same applies in reprint (n.) /ˌ .prɪnt/
riˌ
(compare reaper /ˌ riˌp.ə/) and presuppose
/ˌ priˌ.sə.ˌpəʊz/ (compare priest). There is pre-fortis
clipping of the /aɪ/ in hyphen /ˌ haɪf.ən/, but not of
that in high-faluting /ˌhaɪ.fə.ˌluˌt .ɪŋ/. We need the
following as a condition on the main principle:
 In polymorphemic words, consonants belong to the
syllable appropriate to the morpheme of which they
form a part. This applies only to synchronic,
psychologically real morphemes.
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20.  The only cases in English where immediately
adjacent syllables have equal grade are those
involving weak vowels. They are governed by
the principle:
 Where adjacent syllables are of equal grade,
consonants are (again subject to stated
conditions) syllabified with the leftward syllable.
 The /t/ allophones in carpeting /ˌ kɑˌp. t.ɪŋ/,
ɪ
covetous /ˌ kʌv.ɪt.əs/ and purity /ˌpjʊər.ət.ɪ/
make this clear.

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21.  The main syllabification principle does not operate in
such a way as to lead to consonant clusters which are
phonotactically ill-formed, according to the
phonotactic constraints (Wells,1990:76):
 Phonotactic constraints on syllable structure (as
established with reference to monosyllables) are not
violated.
 This means, for example, that timber is syllabified as
/ˌ tɪm.bə/, since /mb/ is not a possible final cluster: /b/
cannot be captured into the stressed syllable.
Similarly, anger is /ˌ æŋ.gə/, at least in RP. But tender
is /ˌtend.ə/, /nd/ being a permitted cluster . Notice
how neatly this fits with permitted initial clusters:
tumbler /ˌ tʌm.blə/, English /ˌɪŋ.glɪʃ/.
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