Syllables

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Syllables

• Most of us have an intuitive feeling about
  syllables
• No doubt about the number of syllables in the
  majority of words.
• However, there is no agreed upon definition for
  the term syllable.
• It is difficult to state an objective phonetic
  procedure for locating the number of syllables in
  a word or a phrase.

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Syllables

• So what can we agree on?
• We can agree that a syllable is made up of three
  parts
• One The Nucleus - which is the core of the
  syllable.
• Its the vowel if there is one. Otherwise, the
  nucleus is made up of a syllabic consonant.

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Syllables

• All syllables have a nucleus, but may or may not
  have other constituents.
• Two The Onset - which is made up of all of the
  consonants before the nucleus.
• Three The Coda - which is everything after the
  nucleus.

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Syllables

• Another thing that we can agree on is the
  difference between open vs. closed syllables.
• Closed syllables end in a consonant.
• Open syllables end in vowel.

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Syllables

• Currently, the most popular approach to defining
  the syllable is in terms of the Phonological
  Approach, which appeals to the notion of
  Phonotactic Constraints.

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Syllables

• In every language, there are restrictions on the
  kinds of sounds and sound sequences possible in
  different positions in words (particularly at the
  beginning and the end of words).

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Syllables

• These restrictions can be formulated in terms of
  rules stating which sound sequences are possible
  in a language and which are not.
• Languages generally prefer CV (consonant-vowel),
  but some languages allow a syllable to begin with
  more than one consonant.

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Syllables

• English has a wide variety of syllable types
•  V oh
• VC at
• VCC ask
• VCCC asked

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Syllables

• CV no
• CVC not
• CVCC ramp
• CVCCC ramps

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Syllables

• CCV flew
• CCVC flute
• CCVCC flutes
• CCVCCC crafts

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Syllables

• CCCV spree
• CCCVC spleen
• CCCVCC strength
• CCCVCCC strengths

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Syllables

• Other languages dont have such a large number of
  syllable structures.

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Syllables

• Hebrew
• CV
• CVC
• CVCC (only at end of word)

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Syllables

• Japanese
• V
• CV
• CVC

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Syllables

• Hawaiian
• V
• CV

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Syllables

• Indonesian
• V
• VC
• CV
• CVC

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Syllables

• English allows any consonant to occur
  word-initial, except for ž and ? (except in
  borrowed words, such as Jacques or Nguyen no
  native English word begins with them).
• A large number of two consonant combinations
  occur, with a stop or a fricative being followed
  by a liquid or glide

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Syllables

• br bring
• gl glean
• mj music
• kw quick

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Syllables

• ?r three
• fl fly
• hj humor
• sw sweet

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Syllables

• In addition, s can also be followed by
  voiceless and nasal stops (stay, small) and by
  f and v in a small number of borrowed words
  (sphere, svelte).
• š can be followed by a nasal stop or a liquid,
  but only šr is a cluster native to English
  (shrink).

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Suprasegmental Features

• So far we have studied the characteristics of the
  segments of speech
• But speech sounds may also have suprasegmental
  features
• Riding on the top of other segmental features

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Suprasegmental Features

• These are different from segmental features.
• Not only may they belong to a single phonetic
  segment,
• They may instead extend across numerous segments
  in an utterance.

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Suprasegmental Features

• Intonation
• Pattern of rises and falls in pitch across a
  stretch of speech such as a sentence.
• Meaning can depend in part on the sentences
  intonation contour.

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Suprasegmental Features

• For example
• You got an A on the test
• You can make this sentence sound like a statement
  -
• Or a question.

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Suprasegmental Features

• Intonation also helps mark the boundaries of a
  syntactic unit.
• For example
• You got an A on the test, a C on the homework,
  and a B on the quiz

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Suprasegmental Features

• Tone
• In many languages, the pitch at which the
  syllables in a word are pronounced can make a
  difference in the words meaning.
• Such languages are called tone languages.

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Suprasegmental Features

• Languages include Thai, Chinese dialects,
  Vietnamese, the Bantu languages of Africa such as
  Zulu, Luganda, and Shona, other African languages
  like Yoruba and Igbo, and North and South
  American Indian languages like Apache, Navajo,
  Kiowa, and Mazotec.

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Suprasegmental Features

• So, in Chinese
• ma (high level) mother
• má (low rising) hemp
• ma (low falling rising) horse
• mà (high falling) scold

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Suprasegmental Features

• Two types of tonal languages
• Register tone languages
• Contain only register, or level, tones such as
  high, mid, low.
• Contour tone languages
• Contain gliding tones as well as register tones.

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Suprasegmental Features

• Stress
• Stress is a property of syllables, not individual
  segments.
• Stressed syllable more prominent than an
  unstressed syllable.
• But this is relative.

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Suprasegmental Features

• What is important is that the stressed syllable
  is perceived to be produced with greater effort.
• English uses several stress levels, as
  illustrated by the word photography.

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Suprasegmental Features

• In this word, the second syllable is most
  prominent primary stress.
• The final syllable is next most prominent
  secondary stress.
• The other syllables are unstressed tertiary
  stress.

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Suprasegmental Features

• Suprasegmental features are difficult to
  transcribe because they are superimposed on the
  other features.