English Syllable

1
English Syllable

• Agnieszka Tuszynska

2
Outline

• Two representations of the English three
  consonant onset
• Tree representation
• Table of transitions
• Conclusions about English CCCV
• Other types of English syllable onsets
• English syllable codas

3
l
Tree representation of English CCCV onsets
41
V1
r
42
V2
p
31
r
V3
33
43
t
32
l
s
eI
1
2
5
44
k
V4
33
r
45
C1
V5
w
34
46
V6
j
47
4
from to through meaning
1 2 s - 2 31 p - 2 32 t - 2 33 k - 2 34 C1 p,
t, k 31 41 l - 31 42 r - 32 43 r - 33 44 l -
33 45 r - 33 46 w - 34 47 j - 41 5 V1 I, e,
Q, , , i, E, eI, aI 42 5 V2 I, e, Q, , ,
i, ,u, eI, aI, aU 43 5 V3 I, e, Q, , ,
i, , a, ,u, eI, aI, aU, _at_U _at_44 5 - 45 5 V
4 I, Q, , , i, , u, eI, aI, aU,
_at_U 46 5 V5 I, e, , i, , E, eI, aI, aU,
, e 47 5 V6 u, U
v
A
v
A
c
v
e
A
eI
v
c
A
c
eI
e
A
e
5
Conclusions about three consonant syllable onsets.

• In English only /s/ can occur as the first
  element of CCC clusters, whereas in Polish
  /pStSowa /
• In English a limited number of sounds occurring
  as second elements only three fortis stops / p,
  t, k /
• small number of possible third elements / l, r,
  j, w /
• /spw/, /stl/, and /stw/ never occur in initial
  CCCV, whereas in Polish /spwavits/,
  /stlits/, /stwotSIts/
• there is a single example of the initial sequence
  /smj/ in the word smew
• three is the biggest number of consonants in an
  English syllable onset, whereas in Polish
  /strfonits/

6
Other types of English syllable onsets

• /N/ never occurs initially it is the same in
  Polish
• /hw/ never occurs in initial CCV, whereas in
  Polish /hwopiets/,
  /hweptats/
• /sp/ is the only cluster occurring before all
  vowels in initial CCV

7
English syllable codas

• /r, h, j, w/ do not occur in final VC
• only /d/ occurs after all vowels in final VC
• only /dz/ occurs after all vowels in final VCC
• the biggest number of consonants in a syllable
  coda is 3, whereas in Polish /nastempstf/

8
Vowels in English syllables

• there are ten vowels that can constitute
  monosyllabic words
• /i/, /_at_/, /A/, /o/, /3/, /eI/, /aI/, /_at_U/,
  /I_at_/, /e_at_/
• Polish also has vowels that constitute
  monosyllabic words like a, o, i
• all vowels except /U/ and /U_at_/ can occur
  initially in a syllable
• all vowels except /e, , V, Q/ occur finally in a
  syllable, whereas in Polish all vowels can occur
  finally in a syllable.