IBN TOFAIL UNIVERSITY Level: Master Course:

Phonology

Course Description

This course covers some introductory concepts in phonetics and simple, linear phonology.
The booklet begins with an outline of elementary universal phonetics. Then, it focuses on the
way that native speakers linguistic knowledge allows them to classify particular instances of
sounds into one category or another. This knowledge we refer to as the speakers knowledge
of the phonology of a language; the field of study known as phonology examines the
patterning of human-language sounds into categories and the knowledge underlying this
patterning of sounds. The course also considers some phonological processes, writing of
phonological rules, syllable structure and syllabification and finally stress.

I- Phonetics: Basic Concepts

Phonetics provides objective ways of describing and analysing the range of sounds humans
use in their languages. More specifically, articulatory phonetics identifies precisely which
speech organs and muscles are involved in producing the different sounds of the worlds
languages. Those sounds are then transmitted from the speaker to the hearer, and acoustic and
auditory phonetics focus on the physics of speech as it travels through the air in the form of
sound waves, and the effect those waves have on a hearers ears and brain. It follows that
phonetics has strong associations with anatomy, physiology, physics and neurology.

What is phonetics?
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It consists of three main sub-fields:

1-Articulatory phonetics: How speech sounds are produced (by the tongue, lips, vocal folds,
etc.).

2- Acoustic phonetics: how speech sounds are transmitted from producer to perceiver.

3-Perceptual phonetics: How listeners understand which speech sounds are being produced.

In this review we will focus only on Articulatory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics

The study of how speech sounds are formed in the mouth (or 'articulated') is called
articulatory phonetics. Speech sounds are produced by the vocal tract: the mouth, nose,
throat, and lungs.

Table 1: An overview of the vocal tract showing structures that are important in speech sound
production and speech articulation-clas.mq.edu.au
The alveolar ridge refers to the gums just behind the upper teeth. The palate refers to the 'hard
palate,' i.e. the roof of the mouth. The 'soft palate' is called the velum, and ends in the uvula
(this is the fleshy appendage you can see hanging down in the back of your throat). If the
velum is raised, this closes the velo-pharyngeal port, preventing airflow between the nasal
passages and the rest of the vocal tract. The tongue is a mass of muscle, which we can divide
into tip (the only part you usually see), body, and root. The epiglottis is a flap below the
pharynx (the back of the throat): it covers the trachea (or 'windpipe') when you swallow, so
that food goes down the oesophagus instead. Lastly, the larynx is a sort of valve, encased in
cartilage (the 'Adam's apple,' more prominent in males, but present in all humans), at the top
of the trachea. It opens wide during breathing; closes when you swallow; and when you say a
vowel, the two sides draw together, so that they vibrate as air passes through. This voicing
(pulsing of air in the glottis as it passes through the vibrating larynx) is what creates the
sound of your voice.

A- Consonants. Speech sounds are the result of movements of parts of the vocal tract,
particularly the lips, tongue tip, tongue body, and larynx (the major articulators)
which affect the flow of air as you exhale. Consonants are formed with significant
obstruction of this airflow by one or more of the articulators; whereas in vowels, the
mouth remains relatively open. We can describe particular types of consonants in
terms of how much obstruction is involved (manner of articulation).

-Stops ([p,t,k,b,d,g]) involve a complete blockage of airflow, due to full closure at some
point in the mouth.
-Nasals ([m,n,]) involve complete closure in the mouth, but the back of the velum is
lowered, allowing the airflow to pass through the velo-pharyngeal port, and out the nose.
-Fricatives ([f,v,,,s,z,,,h]) involve a partial constriction in the mouth, such that air flow is
forced through a narrow channel, creating a hissing sound.
-Affricates is a term sometimes used for stop + fricative sequences made with the same
articulator, including ([t,d]).
-Approximants ([l,,j,w]) involve less obstruction than a fricative, but more than a vowel. In
an [l], the tip of the tongue often makes full contact with the alveolar ridge, but one side of
the tongue is lowered: [l] is therefore called a lateral approximant; the others are central.
We can also classify consonants in terms of the state of the larynx (phonation) during their
pronunciation.
Voiced consonants are accompanied by voicing. In voiceless consonants the glottis is more
open, so that air passes through without vibrating. Finally, consonants can be described in
terms of where the obstruction occurs in the vocal tract (place of articulation).

-Bilabials ([p,b,m,w]) involve closure or constriction of the two lips.

-Labiodentals ([f,v]) involve constriction of the upper teeth and lower lip.
-Dentals ([T,D]) involve constriction of the tongue tip and the upper teeth.
-Alveolars ([t,d,n,s,z,,l]) involve constriction of the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge.
-Post-alveolars (or palato-alveolars) ([,]) involve constriction of the tongue tip and the
palate, just behind the alveolar ridge.
-Palatals ([j]) involve constriction of the tongue body and the palate.
-Velars ([k,g,,(w)]) involve constriction of the tongue body and the velum. ([w] is onsidered
a velar as well as a bilabial because it involves constrictions both at the lips and velum.)
-Glottals ([h]) involve constriction of the glottis (in this case, sufficient constriction to create
a fricative, but not enough to cause voicing).

These classifications of consonants are summarized in the following chart:

Consonant & Vowel Charts: North American English - Teaching Pronunciation Skills
teachingpronunciation.weebly.com

We can thus articulatorily describe [s] as a voiceless alveolar fricative; [] as a (voiced) velar
stop, etc. Likewise, we can refer to the set [b,d,g] as the class of voiced stops. A natural
class of sounds is a set such as this, which can be defined in terms of some shared phonetic
property or properties.

B. Vowels. Unlike consonants, the various vowels are distinguished by the way the shape of
the mouth in particular, the position of the tongue body affects the sound of your voice
in particular, the position of the tongue body.

Note that the term 'mid' refers to vowel height, while 'central' refers to the front/back
dimension.
In addition to tongue-body position, vowels are affected by rounding of the lips. We can thus
describe [u] as a high back rounded vowel; [] is an open-mid front unrounded vowel; [a] is a
low central unrounded vowel.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Transcription Tips
Here are a couple of tips for students who are learning how to write broad phonemic
transcription of English. As well as give positive suggestions, these will draw your attention
to a number of pitfalls to be avoided:

First of all, use a coherent set of symbols, obviously that used by your lecturer and make
sure that your dictionary uses the same set (phonetic symbols are usually listed at the start of
dictionaries). There is a rather large difference between the American and British schools in
this sense, and even British material varies according to its date. The set that I recommend
and use is that used by such authors as John Wells and Peter Roach in their respective
Pronouncing Dictionaries.

Some of the characters in the set will be new to you: observe them carefully and practice
writing them. Some of the main pitfalls are below:

Remember that the tops of the // symbol point outwards, make sure you are distinguishing
it from /u/

The schwa, //, is an 'e' that has been rotated 180?, make sure it will not be confused with
/a/

Remember that there is an important distinction between /a/ and //, the first is a front and
the second a back vowel. Diphthongs use the former e.g. /a/, /a/

Similarly, English diphthongs use // rather than /i/, e.g. /a/, //, /e/, and // rather than /u/
e.g. //, /a/, //

The // symbol is a stretched 's', it reaches from the height of the top of a capital letter to
the bottom of a 'p', for example.

Also:
 Remember to use /k/ instead of 'c' for the voiceless velar stop and /j/ rather than 'y' for the
palatal approximant

Orthographic 'x' is usually transcribed as /ks/, e.g. 'fax' => /fks/. The phonetic symbol [x]
does exist but it is rarely used in English (only for foreign words).

An orthographic 'n' before a velar, i.e. /k/ or /g/ should be transcribed as a velar nasal stop
with the // symbol, e.g. 'thanks' => /ks/

Remember to put the length marks on long vowels e.g. /i:/, /:/, /:/, /:/ and /u:/

In Standard British English the post-vocalic 'r' is not pronounced (hence not transcribed)
unless followed by a vowel, e.g. 'there' => /e/ v. 'there on the table' => /er n tebl /

Many are confused by the use of /i/ and /u/ without length marks, their use is, in fact , limited
to:

for /i/, words that end with 'y' e.g. happy /hpi/ and pronouns e.g. she /i/

for /u/, basically for 'you' and 'to', 'into'.

Finally, a word on two special cases:

Words like 'bottle', 'handle', 'simple' etc. end with a syllabic 'l', transcribed as a small tick
under the letter e.g. /btl /, /hndl /, /smpl /, respectively.

A similar case is that of the final 'n' in words like 'garden', 'widen' and 'fatten' that can be
transcribed as /g:dn/, /wadn/, /ftn / . N.b. the fonts for this mark are imperfect: you may
well see an 'n' with a longer 'leg' rather than with a short vertical line beneath. Note that some
authors use a superscript schwa instead.
IPA is a notation system dedicated to the description of sounds. See chart below:

Exercises
1. Give the IPA symbols for the sounds with the following articulatory descriptions:
a. voiceless glottal fricative _______ b. voiced bilabial nasal _______
c. open-high back rounded vowel _______ d. voiced palatal approx. _______
e. voiced post-alveolar fricative _______
3. Give the articulatory description for the following sounds:
a. [N] ________________________ b. [j] ________________________
c. [T] ________________________ d. [v] ________________________
e. [e] ________________________
4. The following sets of sounds are natural classes, characterized by shared articulatory
properties. For each of the sets, identify these properties. Examples: [t,d] are the set of
alveolar stops. [m,n,N] are the set of nasals; they are also voiced, but the voiced set
includes other sounds as well, so only nasals is correct.
a. [i,I,e,,] _____________________________
b. [p,b] _____________________________
c. [,l,j,w] _____________________________
d. [v,,z,] _____________________________
e. [i,I,u,] _____________________________

Distinctive Features

English Consonants and Vowels

Exercise: Distinctive Features

An alternate way to analyze sounds makes use of the concept of binary or paired features (a
concept that we will encounter again in semantics in Chapter 6) where there is an opposition
between the presence or absence of a feature in a particular sound. A notation is used for
features in which the name of the feature is capitalized and enclosed in square brackets, the
presence of the feature is indicated by a plus sign and its absence by a minus sign. For
example, if we consider the features of voicing and nasality:

/t/ is [VOICE] [NASAL]

/d/ is [+VOICE] [NASAL]
/n/ is [+VOICE] [+NASAL]

Sometimes, a sound may or may not have a particular feature and is hence , e.g.:

/d/ is [SYLLABIC]
// is [+SYLLABIC]
/n/ is [SYLLABIC]

Sounds are analyzed in terms of a unique set, or bundle, of features. Each sound is
distinguished from every other sound by a least one feature, e.g.:
 /b/ /m/
[+VOICE] [+VOICE]
[+LABIAL] [+LABIAL]
[NASAL] [+NASAL]

The sounds of a language can be arranged in a grid or matrix, in which the features are listed
along one axis and the sounds along the other, as we shall see below. Phonological features
are assumed to be universal; that is, there exists only a limited number of features, and
languages select among the possible features and combine them in language-specific ways.
The distinctiveness of the features lies in the fact that they combine both articulatory and
acoustic information. In the speech situation, there is a balance between the needs of the
hearer, who perceives only those features necessary for deciphering the sounds (overlooking
many other features), and the needs of the speaker, who for ease of articulation often omits
features of sounds. Distinctive features are, thus, those features required by both speaker and
hearer.

While the inventory of features is continually undergoing revision, we may identify the
following features of consonants, many of which we have encountered before:

[CONSONANTAL] made with closure in the vocal tract greater than that necessary
for glides, resulting in an impediment in the flow of air
[SONORANT] involving a regular pattern of vibration and lack of "noise",
musical sounds that can be sung or held on pitch
[SYLLABIC] functioning as the nucleus of a syllable and potentially carrying
stress
[CONTINUANT] made with incomplete closure in the oral cavity
[NASAL] made with the velum lowered
[LATERAL] made with the lateral flow of air
[VOICE] made with vibration of the vocal cords
[SIBILANT] made with a groove or trough along the center line of the
tongue, resulting in a strong hissing sound
[DELAYED RELEASE] made with the slow release of a stop
For place of articulation, in order to establish a binary opposition, we must introduce some
distinctions that differ from the traditional places such as alveolar or velar:

[ANTERIOR] made on or in front of the alveolar ridge

[CORONAL] made with the tip or blade of the tongue raised
[HIGH] made with the tongue raised in the palatal or velar regions
[BACK] articulated behind the palatal region

See the feature grid for English consonants below.

p b m t d n k g f v s z t d l r y w h

[SYLLABIC]

[CONSONANTAL] +++ +++++++++++++++ + ++

[SONORANT] + + + ++++

[NASAL] + + +

[ANTERIOR] +++ +++ ++++++ ++

[CORONAL] +++ +++++++ + ++

[HIGH] +++ ++

[BACK] +++ +

[CONTINUANT] ++++++++ ++++ +

[DELAYED RELEASE] + +

[SIBILANT] ++ +++ +

[VOICE] ++ ++ ++ + + + + + ++++

[LATERAL] +

Note that all consonants except the glides and /h/ are [+CONSONANTAL]. Nasals, liquids,
and approximants are [+SONORANT], while fricatives, liquids, and approximants are
[+CONTINUANT]. The four major classes of consonants can be differentiated as follows:
stops [CONTINUANT] nasals [CONTINUANT]
[SONORANT] [+SONORANT]

fricatives [+CONTINUANT] approximants [+CONTINUANT]

[SONORANT] [+SONORANT]

In respect to place of articulation, labials, labiodentals, dentals, and alveolars are

[+ANTERIOR]; and dentals, alveolars, alveolopalatals are [+CORONAL]. A way of
grouping consonants according to features is as follows:

For vowels, the following features may be identified, which are used along with the place
features [HIGH] and [BACK]:

[LOW] made with the tongue lowered from the neutral, central position
[ROUND] produced with lip rounding
[TENSE] articulated with increased tension in the tongue
[REDUCED] //

See the feature grid for the basic English vowels below:

i e u o

[HIGH] ++ ++

[LOW] + +

[BACK] +++++++

[ROUND] +++++

[TENSE] + + + ++

[REDUCED] +

Note that vowels are all [+VOCALIC] (an open oral cavity with voicing) as well as [
CONSONANTAL, +SONORANT, +VOICE, +CONTINUANT]. The diphthongs /e, u, a,
a, o, / cannot be distinguished by these features but must be treated as a combination of
vowel + glide. A way of grouping vowels according to features is as follows:
Now try to do the following exercises:

1. What distinctive feature(s) do the sounds in each set have in common?

(a) /k/, /u/, //, // (d) /l/, //, /t/, /n/

(b) /b/, //, //, // (e) /j/, /k/, /i/, /w/
(c) /f/, //, //, /j/ (f) /r/, //, //, //

2. What feature or features distinguish each of the following sets of sounds?

(a) /v/, // (f) /i/, /j/

(b) /f/, /v/ (g) /u/, //
(c) /r/, /j/ (h) /z/, //
(d) /f/, // (i) /g/, //
(e) /e/, /o/ (j) /t/, /s/

3. Give a list of distinctive features for each of the following sounds. Which are necessary to
distinguish the sound from all other sounds?

(a) /w/ (c) /l/

(b) /d/ (d) //

4. What sound or sounds have the following sets of distinctive features?

(a) [+CONSONANTAL, +HIGH, +SONORANT, +BACK]

(b) [CONSONANTAL, +HIGH, BACK, VOCALIC]
(c) [ROUND, +LOW, BACK]
(d) [+ANTERIOR, SIBILANT, +CORONAL, VOICE]

5. It could be argued that [NASAL] is a redundant feature since it is not required to

distinguish /m, n, / from other sounds. Explain.

Phonology

What is Phonology? Phonology can be described as an aspect of language that deals with
rules for the structure and sequencing of speech sounds. Every language has a wide variety of
speech sounds (phonemes). For example in English, the ng sound, as in ring, will never
appear at the beginning of a word. Phonology rules also determine which sounds may be
combined. For example, the combination of dn will not appear in sequence in the same
syllable. The key difference between phonetics and phonology is that phonology is more
focused on how speech sounds change and behave when in a syllable, word, or sentence, as
opposed to when spoken in isolation.

Discussion

The phonological system of a language includes

an inventory of sounds and their features, and

rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such
as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting hierarchy of

levels in linguistics:
Comparison: Phonology and phonetics

Phonetics Phonology
Is the basis for phonological Is the basis for further work
analysis. in morphology, syntax,
discourse, and orthography
design.
Analyzes the production of Analyzes the sound patterns
all human speech sounds, of a particular language by
regardless of language.
determining which
phonetic sounds are
significant, and
explaining how these
sounds are
interpreted by the
native speaker.

What is phonological awareness? Phonological awareness can be described as an

understanding of the ways in which speech can be manipulated and divided into smaller
parts. This includes: rhyming; segmenting words and syllables; along with blending sounds
and syllables. Improving phonological awareness skills has been shown to help with reading
readiness skills and improve literacy development.

Phonemes and Allophones

If two sounds CONTRAST in a particular language (e.g. [t] and [d]

in English)...
(a)
Te sounds are separate phonemes in that language.Example: /t/ and /d/ are separate phonemes
of English.
(b)
Speakers of that language pay attention to the difference between the sounds, and have an
easy time perceiving the contrast between them.
(c)
Te sounds are in contrastive (or overlapping) distribution, meaning there are at least some
contexts where either sound is possible.
Example: In English, either [t] and [d] can fill in the blank in[ejn ]
.
(d)
There are minimal pairs distinguishing the two sounds.
Example
: In English, we have a minimal pair [tejn] vs. [dejn] (train vs.drain)
.
(e)
Its unpredictable which of the sounds you get in at least some contexts. Example: Given the
context [ejn ], there is no way of predicting which of the two sounds will be used.

If two sounds DO NOT CONTRAST in a particular language (e.g. light [l] and dark [] in
English)...

(a)
the sounds are allophones of a single phoneme in that language.Example: [l] and
[] are allophones of the English phoneme /l/.

(b)
Speakers of that language ignore the difference between the sounds, and often have a hard
time perceiving the contrast, even when its brought to their attention.
(c)
Te sounds are in complementary (or non-overlapping) distribution, meaning the places one
shows up, the other never shows up.
Example: In English, [l] only shows up before vowels, and [] never shows up before vowels.
(d)
There are no minimal pairs distinguishing the two sounds.Example:
In English it would be impossible to have two words [lmp] and
[mp] that mean different things. Similarly, pronouncing hill [h]
with a light L like [hl] sounds funny but cant change the meaning of the word.
(e)
Its predictable which of the sounds will be used in a given context.
Example: Given the context [ mp ] , we know that if the phoneme /L/ is used, the
pronunciation will be [lmp], and not [mp]. Similarly, in the context [ h] , its predictable
that the allophone
[] will be used rather than [l].

Introduction to phonological rules

We have begun to see situations where the surface representation (SR) of a morpheme,
word, or phrase (essentially, its actual pronunciation)1 is different from the underlying
representation (UR) of that morpheme, word, or phrase (the way in which it is stored in the
mental lexicon).
When this situation arises, we propose that the phonological grammar includes rules that
modify the relevant aspects of the form in question. We will revisit the concept of rules after
a few more classes, but here are some basic concepts for us to get started working with.

I. The structure of a phonological rule

A phonological rule takes the following form:
target change / environment

The target is the natural class of sounds that the rule applies to. It must always be stated in
terms of features even if the natural class that the rule applies to consists of only one
segment! If the rule is an insertion rule, the target is written (null, zero). We want to show
that some segment gets inserted where at first there was nothing present.
The change is a list of only those features that are changed by the rule.
- We dont conceive of a rule as something that replaces one segment with an entirely
different segment instead, we see a rule as making adjustments to a segment. Being
careful to state the change imposed by a rule only in terms of those features that actually
change is a way of focusing our attention on this aspect of the way we propose that the
phonology functions.
- If the rule is a deletion rule, the change is written (null, zero).
The environment restricts the rule to applying only in certain contexts. (If there are no
restrictions on the context where the rule applies, no environment is stated.)
- Environments often refer to segments or natural classes; use features for this
- Use an underscore __ to show the position of the target with respect to the environment:
[+nas] __ after nasal segments __ son +cont before fricatives
[+cons] __ [+cons] between consonants
In other words, a rule has the following general format:

II. Writing rules: Some points to watch out for.

Phonological rules never add morphemes

- If (for example) a plural morpheme appears on some forms but not on others, that is because
it is added by the morphological component of the mental grammar
- Rule of thumb: If segments are added to a form in order to change meaning, that is not
something that the phonology is responsible for The target of a rule is almost never a
sequence of multiple segments - If more than one segment of a form shows differences
between the UR and the SR, there is probably more than one rule applying (unless the same
change is occurring at more than one location in the form, that is) Rules should be stated as
generally as possible - Using features and natural classes helps with this- Are several similar
segments undergoing a similar kind of change? If so, can one general rule be used to cover all
cases?

Phonological Processes
I- Assimilation

Assimilation is when a sound becomes more like a neighbouring sound with respect to some
phonetic property. A sound can be pronounced in a way that is more similar to its neighbours,
especially in rapid, casual speech.
How? (in the case of consonants)

- voice

- place

- manner

a- Voicing Assimilation
the /s/ /z/ alternation in the suffix s and the /t/ /d/ alternation in ed can be considered
as cases of progressive assimilation of voicing.

person singular, present tense

1) sips [ps] grabs [bz]

lets [ts] rids [dz]

2) listened [nd] talked [kt]

In the first set of data /s/ becomes /z/. This is a case of progressive assimilation, since [b]
causes [s] to become voiced. The rule for this change is given below:

Voicing assimilation

[-voice] [+voice] / [+voice] -------

Exercise1: Copainal Zoque

Propose phonological rules to account for the allomorphy shown below (two rules are
needed).80 The stems of these nouns all begin with stops. Nouns which begin with other
sounds are purposely omitted. The rules
you write should be as simple as reasonably possible.

Unpossessed my ... Gloss

1. pama bama clothing
2. potso mbotso younger sibling

Exercise2: Amazigh

a) /n + lalla/ [llalla] of my eldest sister

/ad + t + ddu +d/ [atteddu ] you will go
b) /t + i d + t/ [ i ett] she-goat

b) Place Assimilation
Place Assimilation: A nasal consonant assimilates to the place of articulation of an
immediately following consonant.

An important claim of generative phonology (among other theories) is that the basic building
blocks of phonology are not the consonants and vowels (such as p and e), but the features. A
symbol such as p is an abbreviation for a configuration of features, including some
specification that the features [labial] and [-voice] are present. If the feature specification for
voice is changed, the resulting sound will be different (it will be a b rather than a p).

Key Concepts
major place features [Labial] [Coronal] [Dorsal]

The negative prefix in English has two allomorphs in the following data. Which one is the
result of the environment in which it occurs and which one is best chosen as the underlying
form?
1. [in]edible
2. [in]alienable
3. [im]possible
4. [im]partial
5. [in]flexible
6. [in]variable

Place assimilation rule

[+nasal [+nasal]/-------- [+labial]
+coronal] +labial
Exercise: Min Nan Chinese
The word for very has three allomorphs in the following data. Choose an underlying form and
give reasons for your choice.

1. tsim pe very white

2. tsim bai very ugly
3. tsin ta very dry

2- Insertion/epenthesis
Consider the derivation of the Nisba adjective in Moroccan Arabic. The suffix is an /i/.

a)
rbat rbati someone from Rabat
Beni Mellal mellali someone from Beni Mellal

b) tadla tadlawi someone from Tadla

casa casawi someone fromCasablanca

In a) the Nisba morpheme is added to the consonant- final stem with no problems. However,
in b) the suffixation of /i/ to the vowel-final stem creates a hiatus, a sequence of two vowels
not allowed by the phonology of the language. Thus, the language resorts to the the
epenthesis of /w/ to break the hiatus.

Insertion Rule
w/ V-----V
Likewise a syllable in Spanish cannot begin with an s followed by a consonant. In the
Spanish word yugoslavo Yugoslavian the s is part of the second syllable, as shown below.
s s s s
yu gos la vo

If the prefix yugo does not occur, the s of the root slavo Slav cannot be properly
incorporated into a syllable. In such a case, an e is inserted to allow the construction of a
proper syllable for the s to attach to.
s s s s s
s la vo es la vo

3- Deletion

Deletion is expressed in terms of a segment becoming (zero)

A / B ___#
In some varieties of English, word-final coronal stop is deleted in a cluster; e.g.
hand [hn], list [ls]
- syll - syll ___ #
+ cons / + cons

Syllables and syllabification

What is a syllable?
Most people agree that they can count the number of syllables a word or utterance contains
but would find it difficult to give a definition of a syllable.

A phonetic definition
In terms of how they are produced and sound syllables can be said to consist of a centre that
as little obstruction of airflow (usually a vowel) and a start and end that have little of no
obstruction to airflow and sound quieter than the centre.

Phonological descriptions of the syllable

If we take a more phonological approach we may have more success in defining the syllable.
For this purpose we need to consider the possible combinations of English phonemes that can
occur. NB we are considering sounds NOT spellings
The syllable onset
If a syllable starts with a vowel we say the syllable has a zero onset. Any vowel can
occur at the beginning of a syllable although is rare.

If the syllable begins with a single consonant the consonant may be any phoneme
except and is very rare.

If the syllable begins with more than one consonant we call this a consonant cluster.
There are two types

Two consonant clusters

o S +p, t, k, f, m, n Examples are spin, stick, sphere, smell and snow. In these
type of clusters the s is call pre-initial consonant and the other consonant is
called the initial consonant.

o Consonant plus l, r, w, j Examples are plate, grin, slip, music etc. In theses
type of clusters the first consonant is the initial and the second is the post-
initial consonant.

Three consonant clusters

Some syllables begin with three consonants, although the combinations are limited. The
three consonants are called the pre-initial, the initial and the post-initial. The pre-initial
consonant is always s, the initial consonant is always p, t or k and the post-initial consonant is
always l, r, w or j. Examples are splay, spray, spew, string, stew, sclerosis,
screen, squeak and skewer.

The syllable coda

If there are no consonants at the end of the syllable we say it has a zero coda

A single consonant is called the final consonant. Any consonant except h, r, w and j may
be final.

Two consonant clusters

o Pre-final m. n, , l, s followed by a final consonant
o Consonant plus post-final s, z, t, d, (these are often separate morphemes e.g.
asks

Three consonant clusters

o Prefinal plus final plus post-final e.g helped, banks, bonds, twelfth

o Final plus post-final plus post final s, z, t, d, e.g. fifths, next, lapsed

Four consonant clusters

o Most are pre-final plus final plus post final plus post-final e.g. twelfths, prompts
o Occasionally there is one final and three post final consonants e.g. sixths, texts.