WHAT ARE SYLLABLES, AND WHAT IS THEIR INTERNAL STRUCTURE?

Let us look at how the syllable is produced before we go in depth understanding the meaning and its internal structure. Articulators act as the medium to modify the flow of air in order to produce sounds. They simultaneously function and let out a sequence of vowels and consonants that make up syllables. It is curiously difficult to state an objective phonetic procedure for locating the number of syllables in a word or a phrase in any language, and the interesting part is most people cannot say how many syllables there are in a phrase theyve just heard without first saying that phrase themselves. The definitions of syllables are surging two vast areas of studies, phonetic and phonology. There have been arguments on the definition of syllables as both phoneticians and phonologists provide variety of perspectives pertaining to syllables according to the user of languages around the world. According to Peter Roach (2002); a syllable is the smallest possible unit of speech. Every utterance must contain at least one syllable. The syllable is a basic unit of speech studied on both the phonetic and phonological levels of analysis. John Clark and Colin Yallop (1992) define a syllable commonly consists of a vocalic peak, which may be accompanied by a consonantal onset or coda. In some languages, every syllabic peak is indeed a vowel. But other sounds can also form the nucleus of a syllable. Syllables usually contain a vowel, and may start and end with one or more consonants. For instance, if you say What is that, you are alternately obstructing the flow of air from the lungs (when the consonants are produced) and then allowing the air to escape rather easily (in the vowels). Another thing that contributes to the variety among languages is the way in which the sound can be combined together. This comes under the studies of syllable structures. If ones able to describe the form of syllables may take in a particular language, it enables him to describe the possible combinations of phonemes. English syllables may have three consonants at the beginning ( in words like straight / /, screen / /, and up to four at the end ( in

a word like texts /

/ ). It is crucial to bear in mind that the choice of

which consonants and vowels can occur in syllables is not free as each language has quite firm restriction of what is a real syllable and what is not. English syllables may end with no consonant ( as in he / / ), but this does not

represent the exact rule that covers in the language since most short vowels cannot occur in a syllable with no final consonant. It is not possible to have an English word such as /te/, / / /, / /, or / /, and it is debatable whether / / or / are possible, but it is perfectly possible to have open syllables like this if the

vowel is long: tea /ti:/, too /tu:/ ;Peter Roach (2002). THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF A SYLLABLE According to Peter Roach (1992), phonological treatments of syllable structure usually call the first part of a syllable the onset, the middle part the peak or nucleus and the end part the coda. The combination of peak and coda is called the rhyme. In other words, syllables internal structures can be divided into parts. The parts are onset and rhyme; within the rhyme, we find the nucleus and coda. Not all syllables have all parts. The smallest possible syllable contains a nucleus only. A syllable may or may not have an onset and a coda. 1) THE ONSET Onset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are always consonants in English. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the consonants [ r ], [ l ], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the nucleus of a syllable. In the following words, the onset is in bold; the rest underlined. read flop strap

2) THE RHYME The rhyme can also be divided up: Rhyme = nucleus + coda 2.1) Nucleus The nucleus, as the term suggests, is the core or essential part of a syllable. A nucleus must be present in order for a syllable to be present. Syllable nuclei are most often highly 'sonorant' or resonant sounds, that can be relatively loud and carry a clear pitch level. In English and most other languages, most syllable nuclei are vowels. In English, in certain cases, the liquids [ l r ] and nasals [ m n ] and the velar nasal usually spelled 'ng' can also be syllable nuclei. 2.2) Coda The end of a syllable. The central part of a syllable is almost always a vowel, and if the syllable contains nothing after the vowel it is said to have no coda. Some languages (e.g. Japanese) have no codas in any syllables.

read = one syllable Onset = [ r ] Rhyme = [ id ] Nucleus = [ i ] Coda = [ d ] (within the rhyme:)

flop = one syllable Onset = [ f l ] Rhyme = [ a p ] Nucleus = [ a ] Coda = [ p ]

window = 2 syllables First syllable: [wIn] Onset = [ w ] Rhyme = [ I n ] Nucleus = [ I ] Coda = [ n ]

Second syllable: [ d o ] Onset = [ d ] Rhyme = [ o ] Nucleus = [ o ] (This syllable has no coda)

CONCLUSION As a whole, we can say that there are two types of theories attempting to define syllables. First, there are theories in which the definitions are in terms of properties of sounds, such as sonority (acoustic energy) or prominence. Second, there are theories based on the notion that a syllable is a unit in the organization of the sound of an utterance.