Page 172 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes the next letter goes in the following syllable, but if the vowel is ‘short’ the next letter goes with a
preceding vowel letter. Thus as in writing:
ra. dical. Sa.vor but rad. ic. al
le. gal, me. di. um but leg. a. cy, med.i.cine
fi. nal, ri. val but fin. ish, riv. er
co. pi. ous, so. lo but op.er.a, sol.id
pu. ny, stu. di. ous but punish, stud. y
Generally speaking, the rules for syllabifying spoken English words are:
1. If two vowels occur in a sequence, the syllable break is between the vowel (v,v): ne. on, cha. os,
cru.el (ty), bi.o (logy), re.a(lity).
2. If one consonant occurs between vowels and the second is strong, the consonant is part of the
second syllable whether the second vowel is stressed or not. e.g, re’.pent, va’ ca (tion).
3. If two vowels are separated by a consonant cluster, syllable division depends on the consonant
in the cluster. If the cluster is of the type (sc-, cr-, cl- , cw-, scr-, etc.) that can occur word initially
and followed by a vowel which is strong, the whole cluster is part of the syllable with the
strong vowel: pa. tri (cia), de. ‘c’line, re. ‘q’uire, s’u. ‘spect etc.
4. The consonants are divided in such a way that the second syllable begins with a single consonant
or cluster that can occur initially if the consonant cluster is one that cannot occur in initial
position e.g. can. dy.lat, shel. ter, a. car. pen. ter (lbid.).
12.7 Classification of the English Syllable

The classification of the English syllable has been acknowledged in a large number of linguistic and
phonetic studies. Thus, syllables are categorizedi in terms of three criteria: quality (strong and weak),
number (monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic) and complexity (complex and simple).
Strong (Heavy) and Weak (Light) Syllables

Laver (1994:517) distinguishes between heavy syllables and light syllables saying that a light syllable
is one whose rhyme is made up of a nucleus consisting of a short vowel, followed by a maximum of
one short consonant. A heavy syllable is any other type of syllable, and its phonological length is
greater than mora”.
Another important fact is that strong syllables are stressed while weak syllables are unstressed; any
strong syllable has in its peak one of vowel phonemes (or triphthong). If the vowel is short, the strong
syllable will have a coda (Roach, 2000:81). Heavy syllables always have more quantity than light
ones (Ohsieck, 1978:35).
Weak syllables, on the other hand, can only have one of a very small number of possible peaks (lbid.).
Kreidler (2003:81) points out that the strong unstressed syllables are similar to stressed ones in certain ways:
1. Strong syllables never contain a schwa.
2. The onset of a strong medial syllable is much clearer than the onset of weak medial syllable.
3. Voiceless stops at the onset of the strong unstressed syllables are aspirated just as they are at
the onset stressed syllables.
4. A strong syllable is a stressed syllable.
A weak syllable, on the other hand, is potentially an accented syllable. Roach (2000:82-6) identifies
the different types of weak syllables as follows:
1. The vowel ( ∂ ) schwa.
2. A close front rounded vowel, i.e., in the general area between /i:/ and /i/.
3. A close back rounded vowel i.e, in the general area between /u:/ and /u/.

n
4. A syllabic consonant e.g., [ , ] and [ l ] etc.
,

166 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY