The document discusses the functions and evidence for the syllable as a fundamental unit in phonology. It provides evidence from phonotactic distributions, phonological processes, and languages that show the syllable regulates permissible sound combinations and is the domain of many rules. The syllable also controls the structure of complex segments and allows abstract or "ghost" elements to influence rule application even if unpronounced.

1. Functions of the syllable
• In early generative phonology, It was assumed that segments,
boundaries and rules stating permissible combinations of segments in
morphemes and words were sufficient to describe the sound systems
of languages.
• That is the stance taken in SPE. But subsequent work (e.g. Hooper
1972; Vennemann 1972; Bell and Hooper 1978; Kiparsky 1979; Selkirk
1980) showed that there are good reasons for rejecting that position.

2. Phonological Evidence
• These evidences will try to provide the perspective necessary to
approach a general theory of segment organization and the syllable
• These evidences concern the most basic and most available
phonological evidence, the phonotactic distribution of segments.

3. Segment Sequences and the Internal
Structure of Segments
• There is an assumption that syllables of the form CV have a special
status. This distributional status shows that categorizing the CV
syllable type as "unmarked" is a misleading simplification of a number
of more significant generalizations.
• The fundamental pattern of segment sequencing is an alternation of
consonant and vowel. The following generalizations from 1 to 4 show
that in general sequences of consonant and vowel are not
constrained, whereas any sequence of either class may well be
constrained.

4. • 1) Within the section (which is roughly the phonological word (Pulgram,
1970)), VV sequences ("hiatus") are not permitted by about one-half of
the world's languages, e.g. Berber.
• 2) CC sequences are not permitted by about 10 to 15 percent of the
world's languages, e.g. Fijian.
• 3) No languages require that all sections with two or more vowels contain
a hiatus, nor that those with two or more consonants contain a sequence
of consonants.
• 4) About 10 to 15 percent of the world's languages that permit consonant
sequences within the section, permit none initially nor finally. Almost all
of these are limited to no more than two consonants, with Kannada,
which possesses medial -CCC- but no initial clusters nor final consonants,
being the best known exception.

5. • These generalizations form the basis for the representation of
canonical forms as iterations of vowel-consonant combinations, for
example (𝐶0
1
𝑉)𝑛, (𝐶0
1
𝑉𝐶0
1
)𝑛, etc.
• The possible iterative elements are CV, V, VC, or CVC. This expression
of the distribution of C and V captures the important fact that the
syllabic portion is obligatory while the C portion is not.

6. • 14) Segments of a syllable must be arranged in such a way that their
sonority increases from the onset to the nuclear peak, and decreases
thereafter.
• This principle relies on a ranking of segment types on a scale of
sonority (or its converse, consonant strength), and predicts not just
the organization of the consonantal onset and coda, but also predicts
that the nuclear peak will contain the segment-' with the highest
degree of sonority.
• It is well known that syllable peaks are not limited to vocoids.
Resonants, obstruents, even stops, are reported as syllabic peaks in a
number of languages. In fact, syllabic peaks need not even be
necessarily voiced.

7. • To recapitulate at this point, a good deal is known about the internal
organization of syllables, and from what is known a definite pattern
emerges, such that there is a general harmony between the
alternation of syllabic and non-syllabic segments and the alternation
of segments with more or less inherent sonority.

8. Phonological Processes Determined by
Position
• Another interpretation of the generalizations such as the sonority
hypothesis (14), is that the properties of segments and their positions
serve as active determiners of phonological processes which shape
the syllabic structure of a language.
• For example, state (7 there are virtually no languages whose sections
obligatorily begin with a vowel or end with a consonant) is best
understood in terms of the equilibrium between the diachronic
processes responsible for it. These are mainly vowel and consonant
loss.

9. • The syllable as a unit finds independent justification in a large number
of phonological processes which depend on the segment's position in
the syllable for application. Some examples that have been discussed
are Spanish nasal assimilation in syllable-final position, and glide
obstruentization in syllable-initial position (Hooper, 1972), and
German syllable-final de-voicing (Vennemann, 1972).
• These processes provide evidence concerning the inherent properties
of syllables, since we find weakening, realized as assimilation,
sonorization or deletion, to be common in syllable-final position,
while strengthening, although never a common process, seems to be
restricted to syllable-initial position.

10. The syllable as the basic phonotactic unit
• One of the most basic functions of the syllable is to regulate the ways
in which lower level units of the phonological hierarchy can combine.
• Knowledge of the phonological system which speakers of a language
have consists in part of a knowledge of the phonemes of that
language and their allophones.

11. • [9.12] Illustrates the importance of constraints on the combination of
sounds. But, the sequences in [9.12] are not potential English words.
• The rules which reflect speakers' knowledge of what combinations of
sounds are allowed in their language are variously referred to as
PHONOTACTIC RULES or MORPHEME STRUCTURE CONDITIONS.

12. • The syllable is the unit in terms of which phonotactic rules are best
stated.
• Thus, for instance, in English the sequence [tl] is allowed so long as
the t and the l belong to different syllables as in boot-leg [but-leg],
at-las [set-Is], part-ly [pat-ly] or litt-le [lit-l].
• Another English example of a phonotactic constraint is the rule which
only allows vowels to follow syllable-initial affricates: while cheap,
judge and adjust are English words, *chleep, *jpudge and *adjpudge
are neither real nor potential words in English.

13. • Constraints on syllable structure serve as a filter allowing only certain
sound sequences to occur.
• These constraints are specific to a particular language.
• What is a well-formed syllable in Swahili may not be in English. In
Swahili (and in many other African languages) for instance, NC
sequences like [nd] as in [ndugu] 'brother' or [ɳg] as in [ɳguruwe] 'pig'
are allowed in syllable- (and word-) initial position but they are
outlawed in that position in English: *[ndu], *[mpig] and *[ɳget] are
not potential words in English.

14. The syllable as the domain of phonological
rules
• Syllable structure often plays an important role in conditioning the
application of phonological rules internal to a language.
• A frequently cited example of the relevance of the syllable in
determining whether a phonological rule applies is some form of
obstruent devoicing rule which is found in many languages including
Russian, German and Turkish.

15. • In Turkish it is responsible for alternations like [rengi], (possessive),
[renkten] (ablative) and [renk] (nominative) 'colour'; in German for
the alternation between [tᾹk] 'day' and [tᾹgə] 'days'; in Russian for
the alternation between [gorat] 'town' and [garada] 'towns’.
• The rule can be written as follows:
• This rules misses the point that the environments 'word-finally' and
'before another consonant' are not accidentally related contexts. The
two environments share the property of being syllable final.

16. • The nasalisation rule of French (which is similar to a nasalisation rule
found in numerous languages):
• The same nasalisation rule applies even where on the surface the
nasal is not syllable-final in words like sentiment [sᾹtimᾹ]
(sentimental [sᾹtimᾹtal] 'sentimental'); and grand [grᾹ] (grande
(feminine) [grᾹd]).

17. • A derivation is worked out for grand:
• UR: /grand/
• Rule a
• Vowel nasalisation before syllable-final NC:
grand —> grᾹnd
• Rule b
• Consonant deletion:
grᾹnd —» grᾹ
• PR [grᾹ]
• (Note: rules a and b may apply simultaneously as the underlying
representation satisfies the structural descriptions of both rules.)

18. • If the relevance of the syllable is not recognised, the fact that the
same environment turns up in various rules in different languages
remains a puzzling mystery.
• If, however, the syllable is recognised, it becomes obvious that these
processes are conditioned by the presence of a syllable boundary.

19. The syllable and the structure of complex
segments
• The syllable not only regulates the combination of segments, it also
controls the combination of features which make up segments.
• One of the main functions of the syllable is to provide an analysis of
the internal structure of segments and to indicate the number of
rhythmic units present in a syllable.
• This depends on the way C and V elements present on the CV-tier are
linked with consonant and vowel segments on the segmental tier
(Hyman 1985).

20. Three patterns of internal segmental
structure are possible:

21. • (b) Simultaneous association of one segment with two C or V slots.
• That is the case when consonants are GEMINATED or when a vowel is
lengthened. For example in [9.20]. The word ttaala [t:a:la] 'lamp', begins with
a geminate t followed by a geminate vowel.

22. • (c) The third possibility is the simultaneous association of a single C
slot with two segmental distinctive feature matrices.

23. Compensatory lengthening
• In many languages, if an underlying syllabic segment is deleted or is
released as non-syllabic, an adjacent syllabic gets lengthened 'in
compensation’. Data from Luganda.
• The rule is that a high vowel is realised as a non-syllabic glide if it appears
followed by another vowel; it is delinked from a V slot and re-associated
with a C slot. But a non-high vowel is deleted altogether if it appears
followed by another vowel.

24. • The number of V-elements on the CV-tier remains stable regardless of
the fate of the first vowel.
• Let us assume that in the underlying representation each C and each
V element of the CV-tier has a certain amount of potential duration.
This can be represented as a BEAT or TIMING UNIT (or WEIGHT UNIT).
Normally only those timing units which are associated with vowels
survive in the phonetic representation.
• Timing units tend to reflect syllabic peaks because the syllabification
rules ensure that only the timing unit of the more sonorous segment
is retained when segments are grouped together in a syllable.

25. • When The first vowel is deleted or realised as a non-syllabic glide, its
V-slot (and timing unit) is inherited by the second vowel which
becomes simultaneously associated with two V slots and hence has
virtually the duration of two vowels in the phonetic representation:

26. Abstract segments
• In many languages phonologists have discovered that 'ghost
segments' which do not appear in the phonetic representation may
affect the way in which phonological rules apply.

27. • A rule deletes the vowel of the definite article when the next word
begins with a vowel:

28. • The theory allows C and V elements to exist at the CV-tier without
being linked to consonant or vowel segments.
• In that event, they do not surface in the phonetic representation —
they are not pronounced. But phonological rules affecting the CV-tier
would have access to them.
• In the case of h-aspire words, there is an unattached C which inhibits
the application of the vowel truncation (deletion) rule although it is
not linked to any concrete sound on the segmental tier.

29. Extrasyllabicity
• A segment can be phonetically fully specified without being linked by
association lines to a C or V. Such a 'floating' segment is not part of
any syllable: it is EXTRASYLLABIC.
• We can attribute the failure of such consonants to surface in the
phonetic representation to their being extrasyllabic.

30. • Where the next word begins with a consonant as in petit prince
[9.50a], the floating underlying final /t/ of petit remains unattached
at the end of the derivation and consequently fails to surface.
• But where the next word begins with a vowel as in petit enfant
[9.50b], a C-element is inserted at the CV-tier and the floating
underlying /t/ is attached to it.

31. Reference
• Katamba, F. (2011). Chapter 9 The Syllable. In An introduction to
phonology (pp. 153–185). Longman.