Phonemes Distinctive Features Syllables Sapa6

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What is Phonology?

The study of phonology is the study of the patterned interaction of speech sounds. A fairly

obvious observation about human language is that different languages have different sets of

possible sounds that can be used to create words. For example, the sound is found in

languages like Navajo, Coushatta, and Secwepemc, but not in English, Spanish, or French.

When one language borrows sounds from another language, the borrowing language must often

adapt the words to fit the set of possible sounds in its inventory. For example, observe thefollowing data, which illustrate borrowings into Hawaiian from English:

English Hawaiian

rice

wine

brush

ticket

Albert

The data in the table above show that Hawaiian alters the English words in order to fit them into

the possible inventory of sounds. For example, Hawaiian does not have the sounds , , or .

Whenever the English word contains one of these sounds, it is replaced with the sound (eg.

> ). Also, Hawaiian does not have the sound . Whenever the English word

contains this sound, it is replaced with the sound (eg. > ). Similarly, the sounds

and are replaced with and , respectively.

The following chart shows the sound inventory of Hawaiian:

However, besides the replacement of one sound for another, there are other differences between

the English and Hawaiian words. In the Hawaiian forms, vowels are inserted that do not exist in

the English forms. For example, you may note that in all the examples, a final vowel is added in

the Hawaiian forms (eg. > ). Also, a vowel is inserted whenever there are two

consonants side-by-side in the English forms ( > ). Finally, in the nameAlbert, thereis a consonant added at the beginning of the word ( > ).
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This suggests that Hawaiian not only has restrictions on what sounds can occur in the language,

but also conditions on how those sounds can be used in the formation of words. Based on the

data above, we can propose three conditions on the interaction of sounds in Hawaiian:

Words in Hawaiian must not end in a consonant

Words in Hawaiian must not have two consonants in a row

Words in Hawaiian must begin with a consonant

A thorough study of Hawaiian words would show that these restrictions are not just restrictions

on borrowed words, but also on all words in Hawaiian.

One of the goals of phonology is to describe the rules or conditions on sounds and sound

structures that are possible in particular languages.

Tohono O'odham

Another major goal of phonology is to account for the similarities among human languages. That

is, even though the different languages have different sets of sounds and different ways ofarranging and patterning those sounds, there are a number of similarities across human

languages. The following are a few of these similarities, often called universals:

All consonant inventories have voiceless stops

All languages have syllables

All inventories can be split into vowels and consonants

There are also some near-universals, such as the following:

Only two languages in the University of California Segment Inventory Database

(UPSID), Rotokas and Mura, have no sonorant consonants

All languages in UPSID have some kind of , except Hawaiian

91.5% of the languages in UPSID have

One of the goals of phonology is to define the space of possible sounds and sound structures that

all human languages draw from.

Lessons

What are Phonemes?

What are Distinctive Features? What are Syllables?

What are Rules?

What is Optimality Theory?

The exercises on the following pages are designed to illustrate characteristics of phonological

analysis.

Exercises: Vowel Length in Standard English
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African-American English

American Indian English

Chicano English

New England English

Southern States English

Other Exercises

Introduction

This exercise is designed to give you practice in solving phonology problems. In this exercise,you will be shown some data from English and then you are to answer the questions that follow.

If you are unsure how to solve this problem, you may want to consult the lessons on Phonemes

and Distinctive Features.

Data

The following are data from English:

bead seem seep

creek piece reave

read breeze meek

meal reef creep

beep reek bean

Questions

1. Look at the instances of long vowels and the instances of short vowels. List the

environments for long vowels and for short vowels (for example, the word bead has a

long vowel, with b on one side and d on the other, giving it an environment like ).

2. Observe the environments that you listed in (1). Do the sounds to the left of the longvowels have anything in common that makes them unique as opposed to the sounds to the

left of the short vowels? How about the sounds to the right of the long and short vowels?

3. Based on your answer to (2), are the long and short vowels separate phonemes, or are

they allophones of the same phoneme?

4. If you conclude that they are separate phonemes, explain why and give an example of a

minimal pair that gives evidence for your answer. If you conclude that they are

allophones of the same phoneme, what environment determines which allophone

surfaces?
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Introduction

In this lesson, the goal is to learn about the motivations for distribution, allophonic variation, and

the concept of the phoneme.

Major Terms complementary distribution

phoneme

allophone

overlapping distribution

contrastiveness

The English Stops

Observe the following English words:

Is the boldfaced letter pronounced the same in all of the words above?

English Stops Continued

When you looked at the actual transcriptions, you should have seen that the transcriptions of thesounds represented by the letterp in the words were not the same. Take a look at the words with

their transcriptions:

As you can see in the chart above, the letterp is transcribed in three ways: , , .

You can demonstrate how these sounds are different on your own. Take your hand and place it infront of your mouth. Now saypat.

Did you feel the air against your hand? Now sayspat.

When you say pat, you should feel more air against your hand than when you say spat. That

extra puff of air is known as aspiration, and is represented in the transcription by the superscript

"h".

Now, often, when one says tap, tip or top, there is no release of the "p" sound, and no air is

present when the sound is articulated. This is known as an unreleased sound, represented by the "

" next to the sound.

Spectrograms
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English Stops Continued

So now we know that the sound that English speakers hear as "p" can be pronounced in three

different ways: regular, aspirated, and unreleased.

Let's look at those transcriptions again:

Look at the distribution of the different pronunciations across these data. The distribution is not

random. That is, we can predict where each pronunciation can occur. These facts can be shown

as the following:

The "p" sound is pronounced as when it occurs at the beginning of the word.

The "p" sound is pronounced as when it occurs at the end of the word.

The "p" sound is pronounced as everywhere else.

How would you transcribe the "p" sound in each of the following words? Ex.: park, grip, speak.

The facts thus far about the data that we've been looking at are the following:

1. The "p" sound in the data is pronounced in three different ways.

2. This difference in pronunciation is not random, but predictable, depending upon where

the "p" sound occurs in the word:

o Beginning of the word

o End of the word

o Anywhere except at the beginning or the end

It is important to note that the places in which the different pronunciations occur are unique, and

do not overlap. That is, you never find at the end of the word, or at the beginning of the

word, or in either place.

Since these different pronunciations never appear at the same place in words, they are said to be

in complementary distribution.

The Phoneme

This brings us to the concept of thephoneme. A phoneme is a mental representation of a sound

that has predictable variants. Each of the variants of that sound is called an allophone.

For example, in the case of the English stops, the sounds , , and are all predictable

variants of one sound. They are in complementary distribution, as discussed above. Therefore,they must all be allophones of aphoneme.
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How do we represent this phoneme? For reasons which will become clearer in later lessons, the

phoneme is represented by the sound which has the broadest distribution, or occurs in the most

places. Since and can only appear at the beginning or end, and appears everywhere else,

has the widest distribution.

Therefore, the phoneme is . The // indicates that the representation is a phoneme, not a single

sound.

Truth, Justice and the Linguistic Way

Still confused? Ok, imagine Clark Kent and Superman. We know that Clark Kent and Superman

are the same person, right? Each persona is a variant of a single person, even though they look

and act differently.

Even if we didn't know they were the same person, we could figure it out (because we're smarter

than Lois and Jimmy) by looking at the different contexts in which we see Clark Kent and

Superman. Here are the contexts we find Clark Kent:

On the trail of a story

In the supermarket

Buying a new suit for a date with Lois

etc.

Clark Kent shows up during contexts of being a reporter, being the owner of a refrigerator, being

a suitor for Lois, etc. Now what about Superman:

The world is going to explode in 5 seconds

Jimmy is being held captive by Braniac etc.

So Superman appears only in the context of being a hero.

In other words, Clark Kent and Superman never appear at the same in the same place in the same

context. This means that they are in complementary distribution.

Since they are in complementary distribution, if they were sounds, they would be allophones of

the same phoneme.

Which is the phoneme, Clark Kent or Superman? Well, since Superman only appears in thecontext of being a hero, Clark Kent has the wider distribution. Therefore, the phoneme is /Clark

Kent/.

Overlapping Distribution

Earlier, we discussed the term complementary distribution. Again, sounds are in complementary

distribution if they never appear in the same contexts.

Sometimes, sounds do appear in at least some of the same contexts. When this happens, the

sounds are in overlapping distribution.

For example, observe the following data:


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Note in particular the sounds , , and . In each form, one of those sounds appears at the

beginning of the word. Therefore, each one of the sounds can appear in the context of the

beginning of the word.

Based on that fact, the sounds , , and cannot be in complementary distribution, because

they can appear in the same context.

This leads to the conclusion that , , and are in overlapping distribution, since in the

context of the beginning of the word, each of those sounds can appear.

Furthermore, if these sounds are in overlapping distribution, they must be variants ofseparate

phonemes. That's an important relationship. Say the following to yourself as a mantra:

complementary distribution = allophones of the same phoneme

overlapping distribution = allophones of separate phonemes

Repeat this to yourself as needed.

Holy Aspiration, Batman!

Let's go back to the superhero analogy for a moment. We'll now add Bruce Wayne and Batman

into our data set. As with Superman, Batman appears in the context of being a hero, while Bruce

Wayne appears everywhere else (i. e. they are in complementary distribution).

Hence [Bruce Wayne] and [Batman] are allophones.

Now, consider just Superman and Batman. Are they allophones of a single phoneme?

Contrastiveness

So, to answer the last question, Batman and Superman must belong to different phonemes,

because they can both appear in the context of being a hero, and are therefore in overlapping

distribution.

Another useful term to know is contrastiveness. When sounds are in overlapping distribution,

they are contrastive. This is to indicate that the sounds can create lexical contrasts.

What does that mean?

Basically, it means that you can change the meaning of a word simply by changing one of the

sounds to another. For example, if you have the word pat , you can change the meaning of

the word to something else by changing the to a , giving you the word bat . Therefore,

the sounds and are contrastive.


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Take the word pat again. If you change the to , is the result a different word? Not in

English, it isn't. It sounds a little strange, but it's still recognizable. Therefore, these sounds are

not contrastive.

Summary of Phonology Lesson 1: What are Phonemes?

In this lesson, we looked at concepts of sound distribution. If sounds are in complementary

distribution, they cannot appear in the same contexts. If sounds are in overlapping distribution.

Furthermore, if sounds are in complementary distribution, they are allophones of the same

phoneme. If sounds are in overlapping distribution, they are allophones of different phonemes.

If sounds are allophones of different phonemes, they are contrastive.

Introduction

In this lesson, the goal is to learn about the motivations for distinctive features in phonological

theory.

Major Terms

natural class

distinctive features

o [ consonantal]

o [ sonorant]

o [ approximant]

o [ voice]

o [ spread glottis]

o [ constricted glottis]

o [ continuant]o [ nasal]

o [ lateral]

o [LABIAL]

[ round]

o [CORONAL]

[ distributed]

[ anterior]

[ strident]

o [DORSAL]

[ high]

[ low] [ back]

[ tense]


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o [RADICAL]

In the first section, you will be introduced to the idea of a natural class.

Natural Classes

Recall the previous lesson, which discussed the distribution of aspiration in English. In that

lesson, it was shown that certain consonants are aspirated at the beginnings of words. However,

observe the following data, remembering that a * refers to an ungrammatical form.

The data above illustrate that the consonants that are aspirated at the beginnings of words forms

a subset of the English consonants.

The sounds , , aspirate at the beginnings of words, but consonants such as , , do not

aspirate at the beginning of words.

Since there are rules of language that apply to only certain sets of words, it is useful to refer to

such sets as being composed of a certain feature or features that are not shared by other

consonants in the larger set. These subsets are known as natural classes.

Further, the features that define natural classes are known as distinctive features. The next

sections will further elaborate the idea of distinctive features and introduce many of the specific

features that have been proposed for human language.

Distinctive Features

So, we have the concept of distinctive features. These distinctive features allow us to define

natural classes of sounds. But how do we define these features?

Well, first of all, the features we define should be adequate to define some natural class of

sounds. But remember that a natural class is composed of sounds that share a certain feature or

group of features. Clearly, different sounds should not share all of the same features. So, if the

proposed set of distinctive features in human language is adequate, every sound should have a

unique set of features.

In the phonetics lessons, it was discussed that different sounds are classified by the features

associated with their specific articulations. For example, consonants are classfied in terms of

their place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. Each sound was represented by a

unique combination of these features.

So, a good place to approach distinctive features might be those used in the phonetic

classifications discussed in the phonetics lessons. Are these features adequate? If they are, they

should be able to define all natural classes of sounds, and every sound should be definable in

terms of those features.


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To test all the natural classes of human language is a long drawn out process, and such features

are still being tested. However, we don't have to go too far afield to discover that places of

articulation, manners of articulation, and voicing are not adequate. Observe the following data

from Scottish English:

Data from Aitken

(1981; 1984)

Question: Based on the above data, before which consonants do the vowels

appear, and before which consonants do the vowels appear?

The previous section presented you with some data from Scots English. In that data, it was

shown that the vowels and the vowels appeared before the

following sets of consonants

Question: In looking at these two sets of environments (environments are those sounds that

follow or come before a particular sound), are the vowels and the vowels

in complementary or overlapping distribution? If you're not sure, review the

section on phonemes (hint: remember Superman and Clark Kent?).

Based on the data shown in the previous section, it is clear that the vowels and

the vowels are in complementary distribution.

Let's run through the argumentation.

The vowels can appear before the following set of consonants:

.
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The vowels can appear before the following set of consonants:

.

The two sets of consonants are not the same.

Therefore, the vowels do not appear in the same contexts as the vowels

.

Therefore, the two sets of vowels are in complementary distribution.

Now that we know that the two sets of vowels are in complementary distribution, we can

theorize that they are allophones of the same phoneme.

Question: if they are allophones of the same phoneme, which set represents the phoneme?

(Which one is Clark Kent?)

Remember from the section on phonemes that the phoneme is represented by the allophone that

has the broadest environment. In this case, the vowels from the set wouldrepresent the phonemes , , , , , , .

The other set of vowels represent allophones of those phonemes. When we discussed English

stops, we defined the contexts in which the aspirated stops appear and when the unreleased stops

appear. We want to do the same here for the vowels .

This is where natural classes come in handy. In order to define where the vowels

appear, we simply have to define the features of the natural class of

consonants that can follow those vowels. These features should define this class uniquely; that is,

the features that define that natural class should not also define the class of consonants that

follow the short vowels, as that would defeat the purpose.

So, to begin with let's look at the set of consonants in question in terms of the phonetic

classifications that we determined before.

Here's the set of consonants: .

Let's start with Place of Articulation. Do all these consonants share the same Place of

Articulation?

So, the question is: do all of the consonants in the set share the same place ofarticulation?

The answer is no. The consonant is a labiodental consonant, the consonant is an interdental

consonant, the consonants and are alveolar consonants, and the consonant is an

alveopalatal consonant.

Therefore, we cannot define the natural class in terms of Place of Articulation. Now, let's see if

we can define this set in terms of Manner of Articulation. Do the consonants in the set

share the same manner of articulation?

So, the question is: do all of the consonants in the set share the same manner ofarticulation?


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The answer is almost, but no. The consonants , , , and are all fricatives. However, the

consonant is a trill, not a fricative.

Therefore, we cannot define the natural class in terms of Manner of Articulation. Now, let's see if

we can define this set in terms of voicing. Do the consonants in the set share the

same voicing?

Try to determine this for yourself and then go for the answer.

So, the question is: do all of the consonants in the set share the same voicing?

The answer is yes. All of the consonants are voiced.

Therefore, we can define the natural class at least partially in terms of Voicing. However, the

classification of voicing doesn't uniquely define this set of consonants as opposed to the

consonants that define the other environment. That is, if we were to define the consonants

as voiced consonants, we would have to say that the vowels

appear only before voiced consonants. However, the vowels appear before theconsonants and four of those consonants are voiced.

Therefore we need some other feature besides place of articulation, manner of articulation and

voicing to define the set as a natural class of consonants. This is where distinctive

feature theory comes in.

One can think of distinctive features as a set of binary "switches" that all sounds have as part of

their mental representation. Every sound has a unique configuration of these "switches". For

each sound, some of the switches may be turned on, while others are turned off. Which switches

are turned on and which are turned off determine what kind of sound is produced.

To represent these switches, every switch is given a name, such as [voice], [distributed], etc.

(See the last section of this lesson for a more complete list of the features)

To represent whether the switch is turned on or off, either a + or - is placed before the name. For

example, if the switch [voice] is on, it is represented as [+voice]. If it is off, it is represented as [-

voice].

We noted that the consonants in the set are all voiced. Therefore, each of the sounds

has the feature [+voice], which indicates that the switch [voice] is turned on.

The only real exceptional features are the place features [LABIAL], [CORONAL], [DORSAL],

and [RADICAL]. For a number of linguists, these features do not have an on-off switch like

other features. Instead, some sounds have the feature, and some don't. The reasons for this, and

the implications of this will not be discussed here. You need only remember that these particular

features act a little differently.

In the case of Scots English, what we need is to define a feature that is shared by all of the

consonants in the set that is separate from voicing. One such feature that has been

proposed is the feature [continuant]. Sounds that are [+continuant], that is, that they are

characterized has having this feature, are produced with continual airflow through the oral

cavity. Sounds such as fricatives and some approximants have this feature, but stops and nasalsdo not. Thus this feature divides speech sounds into two sets that are not part of the classification

system learned in the phonetics section.


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Now if we look at the set again, we see that they are all fricatives or approximants.

So now we have two ways of defining this set as a natural class. These consonants are all both

[+voice] and [+continuant]. Can any of the consonants in the set be defined by

both of these features?

Well, the consonants are [+continuant], being fricatives, but they are not [+voice]. The

consonants are [+voice], but not [+continuant].

What about ? The consonant is often discussed as being ambiguous. In some languages, is

[+continuant], and in some languages it is [-continuant]. It would appear that in Scots English,

the consonant is [-continuant].

Therefore, the features [+continuant] and [+voice] do, indeed, define the set as a

unique natural class.

In the lesson What are Rules?, you will learn about how to use phonemes and distinctive features

to create phonological rules. In the next lesson, What are Syllables?, you will learn about the

concept of the syllable, and the evidence to support this phonological entity.

The next part of the lesson gives a list of distinctive features that have been proposed for human

language.

The following is a list of proposed distinctive features, compiled in Gussenhoven and Jacobs

(1998):

[ consonantal]

Sounds which are [+ consonantal] are those which have some kind of constriction along

the center of the vocal tract. This constriction must be at least as narrow as that required

for a fricative.

[ sonorant]

Sounds which are [+sonorant] are those which are produced with a constriction in the

vocal tract that allows the air pressure both behind and in front of the constriction to be

relatively equal. This feature generally divides the sound system into sonorants

([+sonorant] sounds), which are nasals, approximants, glides, and vowels, and obstruents

([-sonorant] sounds), which are oral stops, fricatives, and affricates.

[ approximant]

Sounds which are [+approximant] are those sounds whose constriction allows for a

frictionless escape of air.

[ voice]

Sounds which are [+voice] are those which are produced with vibration of the vocal

folds.

[ spread glottis]


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Sounds which are [+spread glottis] are those produced with a glottal configuration that

produces audible glottal friction. For example, the aspirated stops in English are [+spread

glottis]

[ constricted glottis]

Sounds which are [+constricted glottis] are those which are produced with the vocal foldsdrawn together and tense.

[continuant]

Sounds which are [+continuant] are those which are produced without a central blockage

in the vocal tract. For example, fricatives have a central constriction, but there is no

complete blockage of the air, and they are therefore, [+continuant].

[nasal]

Sounds which are [+nasal] are produced with nasal airflow.

[lateral]

Sounds which are [+lateral] are produced with airflow passing through one or both sides

of the tongue, which is in contact with the central part of the oral cavity.

Place Features

These features, [LABIAL], [CORONAL], [DORSAL], and [RADICAL] are features that

are often characterized as not being + or -, but rather, either a consonant has the feature or

not.

Introduction

In this lesson, the goal is to learn what syllables are, and the evidence that motivates them.

Major Terms

syllable

nucleus

onset

coda

syllabification Maximum Onset Principle

syllabic resonants


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The Beat Goes On

To begin with, you should be made aware of the fact that you, as a speaker of language, have

some intuitions about what a syllable is. In fact, you may already have learned about syllables in

your previous education.

In rather basic terms, a syllable is a timing unit for language. Words in language take certain

amounts of time to utter. This time can be measured in terms of syllables.

Each of the preceding words had differing lengths, each measureable in terms of syllables. The

first word is composed of one syllable, the second word is composed of two syllables, and the

final word is composed of five syllables.

In the next sections, there will be a discussion of the structure of the syllable, and the motivations

for considering the syllable as a phonological entity.

How do we know that syllables exist?

One reason is that we can count them. On the previous page, we talked about syllables as timing

units. Language users can perceive those units and even count them. If I give you the word

antidisestablishmentarianism, you know that there is more than one syllable involved. You even

know that it's probably more than two or three. So, you have some perception of some wordsbeing perceptually longer than others in terms of syllables.

Here's another reason.

In English, we use an alphabetic system to write sounds. More or less. An strict definition of an

alphabetic system is one in which one symbol refers to one sound. For example, the word mat

has the following phonological representation: . In this word, the symbol m can be said to

refer to , the symbol a can be said to refer to , and the symbol tcan be said to refer to .

Of course, when we get to words like rough,show, and the like, this breaks down a bit. But you

get the idea.
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Other languages use a system in which one symbol refers not to a single sound, but a group of

sounds. Observe the following from Cherokee, and Iroquoian language spoken in Oklahoma and

North Carolina:

ganeli 'married person'

gadu 'bread'

newada 'hominy'

suli 'buzzard'

The wordgadu has one of the same symbols asganeli, the symbol . Bothganeli andgadu have

the 'ga' combination. The words newada and suli also have one of the same symbols as ganeli,

the symbols and . Further, they each have one of the same sound combinations asganeli, 'ne'

and 'li'.

Therefore, one can see that there is a match between a Cherokee symbol and a combination ofconsonants and vowels.

If we separate consonant and vowel sequences into syllables, then we can say that Cherokee uses

a writing system in which one symbol represents a syllable.

In the next section, another piece of evidence regarding the existence of the syllable is discussed.

Other Evidence

Observe the following data from English:

Atlantic

Atlanta

hitlist

potlatch

In each of these examples, there is a sequence in the middle of a word.

However, in English, there is no way to begin a word with the sequence . So, words like *tlap,

*tling, etc. are not possible words of English.

Using the idea of syllables, can you explain why?

The next section will discuss a possible solution.

Why Can't English Words Begin with "tl"?

Well, we could just say that this is a special rule of English, but that would only restate the

problem. We still would want to find out what the underlying reason is.

But, if we have the concept of syllables, then there is a possible solution.


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As we noted earlier, is perfectly acceptable in words like atlantic and hitlist. It is also possible

to state that, in each such case, the and are conceivable part of two separate syllables:

Atlantic

hitlist

In a hypothetical word such as [tlap], there is only one syllable, and both and are part of thatone syllable.

So, perhaps the rule is that a combination can't be in the same syllable.

Such an explanation is only possible if syllables exist as phonological entities.

In the next part, there is discussion about the parts of syllables.

What's in a Syllable?

What sorts of things are in a syllable? Let's take a simple example to start with: cat.

Let's take that one step further and use IPA to represent the word cat: .

It's not very hard to determine that has one syllable. In some varieties of English, the word

cat is pronounced with two syllables, but that would have a different IPA representation. The

pronunciation , however, has one syllable.

So, what's in it? Well, there's a , a , and a . If we simplify that a little, there is are two

consonants with a vowel in the middle, or we have a CVC sequence, where C is a consonant, and

V is a vowel.

Based on this, we know that a syllable can be composed of a consonant followed by a vowel,

followed by a consonant.

What other structures can a single syllable have? Think of different single syllable words.


Observe the following monosyllabic words and decide what kind of structure each word has:

tea

a

at

tree

ask

skit

task

stamp

strap

stray

strength strengths


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Since each of these is monosyllable, they should represent a possible syllable.

Thinking in terms of just consonants and vowels for the moment, what are the possible syllable

structures represented above (for example, the word tea represented the structure CV, since it

is composed of a consonant and a vowel . .


In terms of consonants and vowels, the following words represent the following structures:

tea CV

a V

at VC

tree CCV

ask VCC

skit CCVC

task CVCC stamp CCVCC

strap CCCVC

stray CCCV

strength CCCVCC

strengths CCCVCCC

One fact that one may notice from these structures is that they all contain a vowel. This vowel is

known as the nucleus of the syllable.

Another fact is that a syllable may have a consonant or string of consonants before the vowel.

These consonants that are before the vowel are called onsets.

Finally, a syllable may have a consonant or string of consonants after the vowel. These

consonants that are after the vowel are called codas.

The following diagram is an illustration of a syllable such as the one in cat:

In the next section, there will be a discussion on syllabification.

Syllabification

In this section, there will be a discussion on how to separate polysyllabic words into syllables.This is called syllabification.


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Let's take a word like banana :

Now, we can look at the word banana in terms of consonants and vowels: CVCVCV.

The first step is to find the nuclei of the syllables in the word. There are three vowels, and since

vowels are usually nuclei, there are three nuclei, and thus, three syllables.

Therefore, at this point, we have the following structure:

Now, we have to decide which consonants are onsets, and which consonants are codas.

In working with English, it is usually best to give every syllable an onset, where possible. So, if

we give every syllable an onset, we have the following structure:

In the above structure, every segment is syllabified, and thus, we are done.

Let's take another word: racket .

In terms of consonants and vowels, the word racket has the following structure: CVCVC. As

stated above, the first step is to find the nuclei of the syllables in the word. In this case, there aretwo vowels.

Now, we can give both syllables an onset:

Now, we have a consonant that is not associated to some syllable structure. Therefore, we can

associate it to the end of the final syllable:

Since this consonant is at the end of the syllable, it is considered a coda.

Now try the wordfloodon your own. As practice in transcribing words into IPA, which of thefollowing transcriptions offloodwould be correct? To see if you're correct, place your mouse


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pointer over the transcription that you think most closely matches the pronunciation of the word

flood.

If you had trouble with the transcription, you might want to review the section on the

International Phonetic Alphabet.

Once you've determined what you think the syllabification offloodis, go the the next section.

Syllabification II

Well, we know that the consonant-vowel structure offloodis CCVC. Move your mouse pointer

over the structure to see if you chose the right syllable structure.

In this structure, you can see that there is only one syllable, and two onsets. This results because

it is the only way to incorporate all consonants and vowels into the syllable structure. Such

groups of onsets (or codas, in some cases) are called tautosyllabic consonant clusters.

Now, what about a word like cutlass ?

First, we syllabify the vowels:

Then we provide onsets where possible:

Now, the final consonant clearly has to be syllabified as the coda of the final syllable (just like in

racket), since it has no other option:

But, what about the other consonant? There would appear to be two possible syllabifications:

Which of the two possibilities would you choose? Why?
http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Phonology/Syllables/Phonology3h.html


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Go on the next section to see a discussion of which of the two is argued for here.

Decisions, Decisions

Which one did you choose? There is a strong argument for the following structure, an argument

that we discussed earlier.

Remember the discussion of words like atlantic and atlas? The hypothesis put forth in that

section is that the [tl] combination was possible in the middle of these words because they had to

be from different syllables. Otherwise, they would also be possible at the beginnings of words.

This hypothesis basically states that [tl] is not a possible onset cluster. Therefore, a

syllabification in which [tl] is parsed as a consonant cluster should be disallowed.

What about a word like caprice ? Which of the following structures would you choose?

Maximum Onset Principle

In the case of the word caprice, by the rules that we have defined so far, it would seem that both

of the following structures are possible.

(a) (b)

How could both structures be possible in caprice, but not in cutlass?

Remember how structure (b) was disallowed forcutlass. Structure (b) was disallowed, because itwould include a [tl] as a tautosyllabic consonant cluster. We knew that [tl] was not a good onset

cluster in English because of the fact that it could not appear at the beginning of English words.

In the case ofcaprice, structure (b) would have a [pr] as a tautosyllabic consonant cluster. Words

such as price, pride, probably, etc. show us that [pr] is a perfectly acceptable onset cluster,

because each of those words begin with [pr].

Therefore, we could not rule out structure (b) forcaprice, as we did forcutlass.

So, which is it then? One possible answer is that structure (b) is the correct structure, because it

fills up the onset of the second syllable with as much content as is possible, given the restrictionson onset clusters. This is known as the Maximum Onset Principle, which states that as many

consonants as possible will be syllabified into the onset. This principle is an extension of the idea


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that onsets are syllabified before codas. This is generally accepted as a universal concept:

syllables prefer onsets, and disprefer codas.

In the next section, syllabic resonants will be discussed.

Syllabic Resonants

Earlier in this lesson, it was stated that nuclei of syllables were generally vowels. This is not

always the case. In English, it is possible for some types of consonants to serve as nuclei of

syllables.

Say the word babble.

How many syllables does it have?

Hopefully, you said two.

The transcription of the word babble used in this website would be , where is a

consonant.

Let's try to syllabify this. The consonant-vowel sequence would be CVCC. However, we know

that there are two syllables, but only one vowel. So, something has to serve as the nucleus of the

second syllable.

Certain consonants, like [l], [r], [m], and [n] can serve as nuclei for syllables. When they are

used as syllabic nuclei, they are calledsyllabic resonants, and are written as , , , .

Therefore, the syllabification of the word babble would be:

The next section summarizes all that has been discussed in this lesson.

Summary

In this lesson, there was discussion of the timing units of language that are known as syllables.

To begin with, there was discussion of the evidence supporting their existence as phonological

entities. The following are the types of evidence discussed:

Syllables are countable

There are writing systems that are arguably based on the concept of the syllable

The concept of the syllable allows for an elegant explanation for limitations on consonant

clusters in English

There was also discussion of the different parts of the syllable: onset, nucleus, coda. These parts

are schematized below:


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Finally, this lesson provided instruction on the syllabification of words in English. The basic

process is as follows:

find a nucleus for each syllable in the word

give every syllable an onset, and fill up the onset position with as many consonants as are

allowed in the syllable structure

associate any remaining consonants to the coda position of the syllable.

Phonemes Distinctive Features Syllables Sapa6

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