SYLLABLE

What is Syllable?
• A syllable is a group of one or more sounds. The essential
part of a syllable is a vowel sound (V) which may be
preceded and followed by a consonant (C) or a cluster of
consonants (CC or CCC) Some syllables consist of just one
vowel sound (V) as in I and eye/ai/, owe/ə/.
• A syllable must contain a vowel or vowel-like sound,
including diphthongs. The most common type of syllable in
language also has a consonant (C) before the vowel (V) and
is typically represented as CV.
Rhyme
• The rhyme (sometimes written as “rime”) consists of a
vowel, which is treated as the nucleus, plus any
following consonant(s), described as the coda.
Onset and Coda:
The onset of a syllable is defined as the consonant or
sequence of consonants at the beginning of a
syllable. The coda is the consonant or sequence of
consonants at the end of a syllable.
Nucleus
• One or more phonemes form a syllable. Every syllable has a
nucleus, that is, a sound more prominent than the rest, which
is usually a vowel or a consonant.

Open Syllabus and Close Syllabus

An open syllable ends with a vowel sound that is spelled with a
single vowel letter (a, e, i, o, or u). Examples include me,
e/qual, pro/gram, mu/sic. A closed syllable has a short vowel
ending in a consonant. Examples include hat, dish, bas/ket.
• Syllables like me, to or no have an onset and a nucleus, but no coda.
They are known as open syllables. When a coda is present, as in the
syllables up, cup, at or hat, they are called closed syllables. The basic
structure of the kind of syllable found in English words like green
(CCVC), eggs (VCC), and (VCC), ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not
(CVC), like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am (VC)

Find open and close syllabus in the following words.

“atom”
“centre”
“filter”
“shopping”
“rubbish” and “pullet”
Consonant clusters
• A consonant cluster, also known as a consonant blend, is where
two or more consonant sounds appear in a word with no
intervening vowels.
• Both the onset and the coda can consist of more than one consonant,
also known as a consonant cluster. The combination /st/ is a consonant
cluster (CC) used as onset in the word stop, and as coda in the word
post. There are many CC onset combinations permitted in English
phonotactics, as in black, bread, trick, twin, flat and throw. Note that
liquids (/l/, /r/) and a glide (/w/) are being used in second position.
• English can actually have larger onset clusters, as in the words stress
and splat, consisting of three initial consonants (CCC)
Thank you!