The Syllable The syllable may be defined both phonetically and phonologically.

Phonetically, syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this centre, there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound. For example: Minimum syllable(single vowel in isolation) like /:/ or /:/ Some syllables have an onset like bar /ba:/ Syllables may have no onset but have termination like ought /:t/ iv. Some syllables have onset and termination like fill /fIl/
i. ii. iii.

The phonetic description of the syllable is problematic in terms of the division between syllables like going /g./ and extra

/ek.str/
Phonologically, is the possible combination of English phonemes by looking at what can occur in initial position.

The structure of the English syllable

1) Syllable

onset

Zero onset: occurs when the first syllable of the word begins with a vowel. Initial consonant: occurs when the first syllable of the word starts with one consonant.

Consonant cluster: is a syllable beginning with two/three consonant.

Initial two-consonant clusters: they are divided into two sorts in English. One sort is composed of /s/ followed by a set of

11 consonants (see p.60).The /s/ in these clusters is called preinitial and the other consonant is called initial. The other sort begins with one of a set of about 13 consonants, followed by one of the set /l/,/r/,/w/,/j/ like play /ple/.the first consonant of these clusters is called initial and the second is post-initial. 2) Syllable termination

Zero termination: is a syllable with no final consonant.

Final consonant: when there is one consonant only except /h/,/r/,/w/,/j/ Two-Consonant final cluster: there are two sorts of twoconsonant final cluster, one being a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other a final consonant followed a post-final consonant. The pre-final form a small set :/m/,/n/,/l/,// as in bank/bk/ and belt /belt/.The post-final consonant form a small set :/s/,/z/,/t/,/d/,// as in bets /bets/.

Three-consonant final cluster: there are two types of final three consonant cluster. The first is pre-final + final + post final like helped /helpt/. The second type shoes that more than one post-final can occur: final + post final 1+ post final 2 like next /nekst/.

Four-consonant final cluster: consists of pre-final + final + post final1 + post final2 like twelfths /twelfs/

A small number of cases seem to require a different analysis, consisting of a final consonant with no pre-final but three postfinals like texts /teksts/

To sum up, we may describe English syllables as having the following maximum phonological structure:

Pre-initial initial post-initial vowel pre-final final post-final1 postfinal2 post final3

ONSET TERMINATION