Prof.

Kalin LIN 201 Spring 2018

Syllable walk-through

What’s a syllable, and what’s in it?

• A syllable is a phonological unit comprised of one or more speech sounds.
– Every word contains at least one syllable.

(1) a. a.pa.la.chi.co.la → 6 syllables

b. cat → 1 syllable

– We will be symbolizing syllables with σ.

• Every syllable has a center, the nucleus, which is the loudest (most sonorous) part of the
syllable. The nucleus is a part of a higher level of structure (which we’ll talk about more
below), called the rime. (The rime is the part of a syllable that “rhymes” with another, e.g.,
“bee” and “see” rhyme because they have the same rime, [i].)
– Vowels are the most sonorous of all speech sounds, and so they are always syllable nuclei—
syllables revolve around vowels.

(2) The word “a” (English indefinite article, pronounced [2]):

Rime

Nuc

⋄ This syllable is of type V, where V stands for “vowel”.

– If a language has diphthongs, the diphthongs also serve as syllable nuclei.

(3) The word “oh”:

Rime

Nuc

oU

⋄ This syllable is of type V.

– Highly sonorous consonants like approximants and nasals can also be syllable nuclei (we
won’t discuss this further in this course).

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Prof. Kalin LIN 201 Spring 2018

• Consonants that join onto a syllable and precede the nucleus are called the onset of the
syllable.

– Foolproof place to look for onsets: At the beginning of a word! (Because all consonants
at the beginning of a word MUST be an onset to whatever the first vowel/nucleus is.)

(4) The word “play”:

σ

Onset Rime

Nuc
p l
eI

⋄ This syllable is of type CCV.

– Anthropomorphizing consonants for a moment... whenever a consonant has a choice, it
wants to be (part of) an onset, NOT a coda.
⋄ This is the “maximize the onset” principle, and it’s the reason n is in the onset of
the second syllable in (5), rather than in the coda of the first.

(5) The word “bunny”:

σ σ

Onset Rime Onset Rime

Nuc Nuc
b 2 n i

⋄ There are two syllables in this word. The first is of type CV, and so is the second.

• Consonants that join onto a syllable and follow the nucleus are called the coda of the
syllable. The coda (if there is one) joins the nucleus in the rime. (Again, identical rimes give
us rhyming, e.g., pimps and limps rhyme because they have the same rime.)

– Foolproof place to look for codas: At the end of a word! (Because all consonants at the
end of a word MUST be a coda to whatever the last vowel/nucleus is.)

(6) The word “imps”:

σ

Rime

Nuc Coda

I m p s

⋄ This syllable is of type VCCC.

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Prof. Kalin LIN 201 Spring 2018

– Returning to maximizing the onset, it’s important to recognize that you only maximize
the onset up what a language allows in terms of onsets.
⋄ E.g., In English, [N] is not allowed to be in an onset (which we can tell because native
English speakers flinch at the idea of a word starting with it). Thus, an intervocalic
[N] will NOT be in the onset of the following syllable; it has to be a coda.

(7) The word “singing”:

σ σ

Onset Rime Rime

Nuc Coda Nuc Coda

s I N I N

⋄ E.g., In English, we allow [spl] as an onset, but not [kspl]. So when considering the
word-medial consonant sequence [kspl], we split it into [k] for the coda of the prior
syllable and [spl] for the onset of the latter syllable; this makes the onset as big as
possible, while respecting the phonotactic constraints of English.

(8) The word “explain”:

σ σ

Rime Onset Rime

Nuc Coda Nuc Coda
E k s p l eI n
Some more examples:

(9) The word “mom”:

σ

Onset Rime

Nuc Coda
m A m
• This syllable is of type CVC.
(10) The word “laughs”:
σ

Onset Rime

Nuc Coda
l æ f s
• This syllable is of type CVCC.

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Prof. Kalin LIN 201 Spring 2018

(11) The word “latch”:

σ

Onset Rime

Nuc Coda
l æ tS

• This syllable is of type CVC. **NOTE: An affricate counts as a single consonant.**

(12) The word “splash”:

σ

Onset Rime

Nuc Coda
s p l æ S

• This syllable is of type CCCVC.

(13) The word “splashes”:

σ σ

Onset Rime Onset Rime

Nuc Nuc Coda
s p l S
æ @ z

• This word consists of two syllables. The first syllable is of type CCCV, the second CVC.

(14) The word “sprints”:

σ

Onset Rime

Nuc Coda
s p ô n t s
I

• This syllable is of type CCCVCCC.