Editing Syllable (section)

==Syllabification==
{{See also|Syllabification|Phonotactics|Sonority hierarchy}}
[[Syllabification]] is the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written. In most languages, the actually spoken syllables are the basis of syllabification in writing too. Due to the very weak correspondence between sounds and letters in the spelling of modern English, for example, written syllabification in English has to be based mostly on etymological i.e. morphological instead of phonetic principles. English written syllables therefore do not correspond to the actually spoken syllables of the living language.

Phonotactic rules determine which sounds are allowed or disallowed in each part of the syllable. [[English language|English]] allows very complicated syllables; syllables may begin with up to three consonants (as in ''strength''), and occasionally end with as many as four<ref name="Hultzén"/> (as in ''angsts'', pronounced [æŋsts]). Many other languages are much more restricted; [[Japanese language|Japanese]], for example, only allows {{IPA|/ɴ/}} and a [[chroneme]] in a coda, and theoretically has no consonant clusters at all, as the onset is composed of at most one consonant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shibatani |first=Masayoshi |chapter=Japanese |pages=855–80 |title=The World's Major Languages |editor=Bernard Comrie |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-19-520521-9}}</ref>

The linking of a word-final consonant to a vowel beginning the word immediately following it forms a regular part of the phonetics of some languages, including Spanish, Hungarian, and Turkish. Thus, in Spanish, the phrase {{lang|es|los hombres}} ('the men') is pronounced {{IPA|[loˈsom.bɾes]}}, Hungarian {{lang|hu|az ember}} ('the human') as {{IPA|[ɒˈzɛm.bɛr]}}, and Turkish {{lang|tr|nefret ettim}} ('I hated it') as {{IPA|[nefˈɾe.tet.tim]}}. In Italian, a final {{IPA|[j]}} sound can be moved to the next syllable in enchainement, sometimes with a gemination: e.g., {{lang|it|non ne ho mai avuti}} ('I've never had any of them') is broken into syllables as {{IPA|[non.neˈɔ.ma.jaˈvuːti]}} and {{lang|it|io ci vado e lei anche}} ('I go there and she does as well') is realized as {{IPA|[jo.tʃiˈvaːdo.e.lɛjˈjaŋ.ke]}}. A related phenomenon, called consonant mutation, is found in the Celtic languages like Irish and Welsh, whereby unwritten (but historical) final consonants affect the initial consonant of the following word.

===Ambisyllabicity===
There can be disagreement about the location of some divisions between syllables in spoken language. The problems of dealing with such cases have been most commonly discussed with relation to English. In the case of a word such as ''hurry'', the division may be {{IPA|/hʌr.i/}} or {{IPA|/hʌ.ri/}}, neither of which seems a satisfactory analysis for a [[non-rhotic accent]] such as RP (British English): {{IPA|/hʌr.i/}} results in a syllable-final {{IPA|/r/}}, which is not normally found, while {{IPA|/hʌ.ri/}} gives a syllable-final short stressed vowel, which is also non-occurring. Arguments can be made in favour of one solution or the other: A general rule has been proposed that states that "Subject to certain conditions ..., consonants are syllabified with the more strongly stressed of two flanking syllables",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wells |first1=John C. |author1-link=John C. Wells |editor1-last=Ramsaran |editor1-first=Susan |title=Studies in the pronunciation of English : a commemorative volume in honour of A.C. Gimson |date=1990 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, UK |isbn=9781138918658 |pages=76–86 |url=https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/syllabif.htm |chapter=Syllabification and allophony}}</ref> while many other phonologists prefer to divide syllables with the consonant or consonants attached to the following syllable wherever possible. However, an alternative that has received some support is to treat an intervocalic consonant as ''ambisyllabic'', i.e. belonging both to the preceding and to the following syllable: {{IPA|/hʌṛi/}}. This is discussed in more detail in {{Section link|English phonology|Phonotactics}}.

===Onset===
The '''onset''' (also known as '''anlaut''') is the consonant sound or sounds at the beginning of a syllable, occurring before the [[#Nucleus|nucleus]]. Most syllables have an onset. Syllables without an onset may be said to have an ''empty'' or ''[[zero (linguistics)|zero]] onset'' &ndash; that is, nothing where the onset would be.

====Onset cluster====
Some languages restrict onsets to be only a single consonant, while others allow multiconsonant onsets according to various rules. For example, in English, onsets such as ''pr-'', ''pl-'' and ''tr-'' are possible but ''tl-'' is not, and ''sk-'' is possible but ''ks-'' is not. In [[Greek language|Greek]], however, both ''ks-'' and ''tl-'' are possible onsets, while contrarily in [[Classical Arabic]] no multiconsonant onsets are allowed at all.

Onset clusters often follow the [[sonority principle]], that is, onsets with increasing sonority (/kl/) are usually preferred to ones with a plateau (/ll/) and even stronger preferred to decreasing sonority (/lk/); however, many languages have counterexamples to this tendency.{{sfn|Easterday|2019|p=9}}

====Null onset====
Some languages forbid '''null onsets'''. In these languages, words beginning in a vowel, like the English word ''at'', are impossible.

This is less strange than it may appear at first, as most such languages allow syllables to begin with a phonemic [[glottal stop]] (the sound in the middle of English ''uh-oh'' or, in some dialects, the double T in ''button'', represented in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] as {{IPA|/ʔ/}}). In English, a word that begins with a vowel may be pronounced with an [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] glottal stop when following a pause, though the glottal stop may not be a [[phoneme]] in the language.

Few languages make a phonemic distinction between a word beginning with a vowel and a word beginning with a glottal stop followed by a vowel, since the distinction will generally only be audible following another word. However, [[Maltese language|Maltese]] and some [[Polynesian languages]] do make such a distinction, as in [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] {{IPA|/ahi/}} ('fire') and {{IPA|/ʔahi}}/ ← {{IPA|/kahi/}} ('tuna') and Maltese {{IPA|/∅/}} ← [[Arabic]] {{IPA|/h/}} and Maltese {{IPA|/k~ʔ/}} ← Arabic {{IPA|/q/}}.

[[Ashkenazi Hebrew|Ashkenazi]] and [[Sephardi Hebrew]] may commonly ignore {{lang|he|א}}, {{lang|he|ה}} and {{lang|he|ע}}, and Arabic forbid empty onsets. The names ''Israel'', ''Abel'', ''Abraham'', ''Omar'', ''Abdullah'', and ''Iraq'' appear not to have onsets in the first syllable, but in the original Hebrew and Arabic forms they actually begin with various consonants: the semivowel {{IPAslink|j}} in {{lang|he|יִשְׂרָאֵל}} {{transliteration|he|yisra'él}}, the glottal fricative in {{IPAslink|h}} {{lang|he|הֶבֶל}} {{transliteration|he|heḇel}}, the glottal stop {{IPAslink|ʔ}} in {{lang|he|אַבְרָהָם}} {{transliteration|he|'aḇrāhām}}, or the pharyngeal fricative {{IPAslink|ʕ}} in {{lang|ar|عُمَر}} {{transliteration|ar|ʿumar}}, {{lang|ar|عَبْدُ ٱللّٰ}} {{transliteration|ar|ʿabdu llāh}}, and {{lang|ar|عِرَاق}} {{transliteration|ar|ʿirāq}}. Conversely, the [[Arrernte language]] of central Australia may prohibit onsets altogether; if so, all syllables have the [[underlying representation|underlying shape]] VC(C).<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 4179048|title = Arrernte: A Language with No Syllable Onsets|journal = Linguistic Inquiry|volume = 30|issue = 1|pages = 1–25|last1 = Breen|first1 = Gavan|last2 = Pensalfini|first2 = Rob|year = 1999|doi = 10.1162/002438999553940|s2cid = 57564955|url = https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:209796/UQ209796_OA.pdf}}</ref>

The difference between a syllable with a null onset and one beginning with a glottal stop is often purely a difference of [[phonology|phonological]] analysis, rather than the actual pronunciation of the syllable. In some cases, the pronunciation of a (putatively) vowel-initial word when following another word – particularly, whether or not a glottal stop is inserted – indicates whether the word should be considered to have a null onset. For example, many [[Romance languages]] such as [[Spanish language|Spanish]] never insert such a glottal stop, while [[English language|English]] does so only some of the time, depending on factors such as conversation speed; in both cases, this suggests that the words in question are truly vowel-initial.

But there are exceptions here, too. For example, standard [[German language|German]] (excluding many southern accents) and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] both require that a glottal stop be inserted between a word and a following, putatively vowel-initial word. Yet such words are perceived to begin with a vowel in German but a glottal stop in Arabic. The reason for this has to do with other properties of the two languages. For example, a glottal stop does not occur in other situations in German, e.g. before a consonant or at the end of word. On the other hand, in Arabic, not only does a glottal stop occur in such situations (e.g. Classical {{IPA|/saʔala/}} "he asked", {{IPA|/raʔj/}} "opinion", {{IPA|/dˤawʔ/}} "light"), but it occurs in alternations that are clearly indicative of its phonemic status (cf. Classical {{IPA|/kaːtib/}} "writer" vs. /mak{{IPA|tuːb/}} "written", {{IPA|/ʔaːkil/}} "eater" vs. {{IPA|/maʔkuːl/}} "eaten"). In other words, while the glottal stop is predictable in German (inserted only if a stressed syllable would otherwise begin with a vowel),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wiese |first=Richard |title=Phonology of German |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780198299509 |pages=58–61}}</ref> the same sound is a regular consonantal phoneme in Arabic. The status of this consonant in the respective writing systems corresponds to this difference: there is no reflex of the glottal stop in [[German orthography]], but there is a letter in the Arabic alphabet ([[Hamza]] (<bdi>ء</bdi>)).

The writing system of a language may not correspond with the phonological analysis of the language in terms of its handling of (potentially) null onsets. For example, in some languages written in the [[Latin alphabet]], an initial glottal stop is left unwritten (see the German example); on the other hand, some languages written using non-Latin alphabets such as [[abjad]]s and [[abugida]]s have a special [[zero consonant]] to represent a null onset. As an example, in [[Hangul]], the alphabet of the [[Korean language]], a null onset is represented with ㅇ at the left or top section of a [[grapheme]], as in {{lang|ko|역}} "station", pronounced ''yeok'', where the [[diphthong]] ''yeo'' is the nucleus and ''k'' is the coda.

===Nucleus===
[[File:Syllable onset nucleus coda.svg|375px]]
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Examples of syllable nuclei
|-
! Word
! Nucleus
|-
| c'''a'''t {{IPA|[kæt]}}
| {{IPA|[æ]}}
|-
| b'''e'''d {{IPA|[bɛd]}}
| {{IPA|[ɛ]}}
|-
| '''o'''de {{IPA|[oʊd]}}
| {{IPA|[oʊ]}}
|-
| b'''ee'''t {{IPA|[bit]}}
| {{IPA|[i]}}
|-
| b'''i'''te {{IPA|[baɪt]}}
| {{IPA|[aɪ]}}
|-
| r'''ai'''n {{IPA|[ɻeɪn]}}
| {{IPA|[eɪ]}}
|-
| b'''i'''tt'''e'''n <br> {{IPA|[ˈbɪt.ən]}} or {{IPA|[ˈbɪt.n̩]}}
| {{IPA|[ɪ]}} <br> {{IPA|[ə]}} or {{IPA|[n̩]}}
|}

The ''nucleus'' is usually the vowel in the middle of a syllable. Generally, every syllable requires a nucleus (sometimes called the ''peak''), and the minimal syllable consists only of a nucleus, as in the English words "eye" or "owe". The syllable nucleus is usually a vowel, in the form of a [[monophthong]], [[diphthong]], or [[triphthong]], but sometimes is a [[syllabic consonant]].

It has been suggested that if a language allows a type of consonants to occur in syllable nucleus, it will also allow all the consonant types that are higher in [[sonority principle|sonority]], that is, a language with syllabic fricatives would necessarily also have syllabic nasals, and that syllabic obstruents will be much more rare than liquids; both statements have been shown to be false.{{sfn|Easterday|2019|pp=10−11}}

In most [[Germanic language]]s, [[tenseness|lax vowels]] can occur only in closed syllables. Therefore, these vowels are also called [[Checked and free vowels|checked vowels]], as opposed to the tense vowels that are called ''free vowels'' because they can occur even in open syllables.

====Consonant nucleus====
{{Main|Syllabic consonant}}
Some languages allow [[obstruent]]s to occur in the syllable nucleus without any intervening vowel or [[sonorant]].{{sfn|Easterday|2019|p=10}} The most common syllabic consonants are sonorants like {{IPA|[l]}}, {{IPA|[r]}}, {{IPA|[m]}}, {{IPA|[n]}} or {{IPA|[ŋ]}}, as in English ''bott'''le''''' or in [[Slovak language|Slovak]] krv [krv].{{sfn|Easterday|2019|p=10}} However, English allows syllabic obstruents in a few para-verbal [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] utterances such as ''shh'' (used to command silence) and ''psst'' (used to attract attention). All of these have been analyzed as phonemically syllabic. Obstruent-only syllables also occur phonetically in some prosodic situations when unstressed vowels elide between obstruents, as in ''potato'' {{IPA|[pʰˈteɪɾəʊ]}} and ''today'' {{IPA|[tʰˈdeɪ]}}, which do not change in their number of syllables despite losing a syllabic nucleus.

A few languages have so-called ''[[syllabic fricative]]s'', also known as ''fricative vowels'', at the phonemic level. (In the context of [[Standard Chinese phonology|Chinese phonology]], the related but non-synonymous term ''apical vowel'' is commonly used.) [[Mandarin Chinese]] allows such sounds in at least some of its dialects, for example the [[pinyin]] syllables ''sī shī rī'', usually pronounced {{IPA|[sź̩ ʂʐ̩́ ʐʐ̩́]}}, respectively. Though, like the nucleus of rhotic English ''church'', there is debate over whether these nuclei are consonants or vowels.

Languages of the northwest coast of North America, including [[Salishan languages|Salishan]], [[Wakashan languages|Wakashan]] and [[Chinookan languages|Chinookan]] languages, allow [[stop consonant]]s and [[voiceless fricative]]s as syllables at the phonemic level, in even the most careful enunciation. An example is Chinook {{IPA|[ɬtʰpʰt͡ʃʰkʰtʰ]}} 'those two women are coming this way out of the water'. Syllabic [[obstruent]]s used to be considered very rare, but surveys have shown that they are relatively common and might even be more common than syllabic [[Liquid consonant|liquids]].{{sfn|Easterday|2019|p=11}}

Other examples:
; [[Nuxálk language|Nuxálk]] (Bella Coola)
: {{IPA|[ɬχʷtʰɬt͡sʰxʷ]}} 'you spat on me'
: {{IPA|[t͡sʼkʰtʰskʷʰt͡sʼ]}} 'he arrived'
: {{IPA|[xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬɬs]}} 'he had in his possession a bunchberry plant'<ref>{{harvnb|Bagemihl|1991|pp=589, 593, 627}}</ref>
: {{IPA|[sxs]}} 'seal blubber'

In Bagemihl's survey of previous analyses, he finds that the Bella Coola word {{IPA|/t͡sʼktskʷt͡sʼ/}} 'he arrived' would have been parsed into 0, 2, 3, 5, or 6 syllables depending on which analysis is used. One analysis would consider all vowel and consonant segments as syllable nuclei, another would consider only a small subset ([[fricative]]s or [[sibilant]]s) as nuclei candidates, and another would simply deny the existence of syllables completely. However, when working with recordings rather than transcriptions, the syllables can be obvious in such languages, and native speakers have strong intuitions as to what the syllables are.

This type of phenomenon has also been reported in [[Berber languages]] (such as Indlawn [[Shilha language|Tashlhiyt Berber]]), [[Mon–Khmer languages]] (such as [[Semai language|Semai]], [[Temiar language|Temiar]], [[Khmu language|Khmu]]) and the Ōgami dialect of [[Miyako language|Miyako]], a [[Ryukyuan languages|Ryukyuan language]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pellard |first1=Thomas |editor1-last=Shimoji |editor1-first=Michinori |title=An introduction to Ryukyuan languages |date=2010 |publisher=Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies |location=Fuchū, Tokyo |isbn=978-4-86337-072-2 |pages=113–166 |url=http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/70116/1/B072_05.pdf |access-date=21 June 2022 |chapter=Ōgami (Miyako Ryukyuan)}} {{HAL|hal-00529598}}</ref>
; Indlawn Tashlhiyt Berber
: {{IPA|[tftktst tfktstt]}} 'you sprained it and then gave it'
: {{IPA|[rkkm]}} 'rot' (imperf.)<ref>{{harvnb|Dell|Elmedlaoui|1985}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dell|Elmedlaoui|1988}}</ref>
; Semai
: {{IPA|[kckmrʔɛːc]}} 'short, fat arms'<ref>{{harvnb|Sloan|1988}}</ref>

Languages with long sequences of obstruents pose a problem to several models of the syllable.{{sfn|Easterday|2019|p=11}}

===Coda===
The '''coda''' (also known as '''auslaut''') comprises the [[consonant]] sounds of a syllable that follow the [[#Nucleus|nucleus]]. The sequence of nucleus and coda is called a [[#Rime|rime]]. Some syllables consist of only a nucleus, only an onset and a nucleus with no coda, or only a nucleus and coda with no onset.

The [[phonotactics]] of many languages forbid syllable codas. Examples are [[Swahili language|Swahili]] and [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]]. In others, codas are restricted to a small subset of the consonants that appear in onset position. At a phonemic level in [[Japanese language|Japanese]], for example, a coda may only be a nasal (homorganic with any following consonant) or, in the middle of a word, [[gemination]] of the following consonant. (On a phonetic level, other codas occur due to elision of /i/ and /u/.) In other languages, nearly any consonant allowed as an onset is also allowed in the coda, even [[consonant cluster|clusters of consonants]]. In English, for example, all onset consonants except {{IPA|/h/}} are allowed as syllable codas.

If the coda consists of a consonant cluster, the sonority typically decreases from first to last, as in the English word ''help''. This is called the [[sonority hierarchy]] (or sonority scale).<ref>{{cite web |author1-first=Jonathan |author1-last=Harrington |author2-first=Felicity |author2-last=Cox |url=https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/our-faculties/medicine-and-health-sciences/departments-and-centres/department-of-linguistics/our-research/phonetics-and-phonology/speech/phonetics-and-phonology/syllable-and-foot |title=Syllable and foot: The syllable and phonotactic constraints |website=Department of Linguistics |publisher=Macquarie University |date=August 2014 |access-date=21 June 2022}}</ref> English onset and coda clusters are therefore different. The onset {{IPA|/str/}} in ''strengths'' does not appear as a coda in any English word. However, some clusters do occur as both onsets and codas, such as {{IPA|/st/}} in ''stardust''. The sonority hierarchy is more strict in some languages and less strict in others.

====Open and closed====
{{Redirect|Checked syllable|checked syllables in Chinese|Checked tone}}
A coda-less syllable of the form V, CV, CCV, etc. (V = vowel, C = consonant) is called an '''open syllable''' or '''free syllable''', while a syllable that has a coda (VC, CVC, CVCC, etc.) is called a '''closed syllable''' or '''checked syllable'''. They have nothing to do with [[open vowel|open]] and [[close vowel]]s, but are defined according to the phoneme that ends the syllable: a vowel (open syllable) or a consonant (closed syllable). Almost all languages allow open syllables, but some, such as [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]], do not have closed syllables.

When a syllable is not the last syllable in a word, the nucleus normally must be followed by two consonants in order for the syllable to be closed. This is because a single following consonant is typically considered the onset of the following syllable. For example, Spanish {{lang|es|casar}} ("to marry") is composed of an open syllable followed by a closed syllable (''ca-sar''), whereas {{lang|es|cansar}} "to get tired" is composed of two closed syllables (''can-sar''). When a [[Gemination|geminate]] (double) consonant occurs, the syllable boundary occurs in the middle, e.g. Italian {{lang|it|panna}} "cream" (''pan-na''); cf. Italian {{lang|it|pane}} "bread" (''pa-ne'').

English words may consist of a single closed syllable, with nucleus denoted by ν, and coda denoted by κ:
*i''n'': ν = {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/n/}}
*cu''p'': ν = {{IPA|/ʌ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/p/}}
*ta''ll'': ν = {{IPA|/ɔː/}}, κ = {{IPA|/l/}}
*mi''lk'': ν = {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/lk/}}
*ti''nts'': ν = {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/nts/}}
*fi''fths'': ν = {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/fθs/}}
*si''xths'': ν = {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/ksθs/}}
*twe''lfths'': ν = {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/lfθs/}}
*stre''ngths'': ν = {{IPA|/ɛ/}}, κ = {{IPA|/ŋθs/}}

English words may also consist of a single open syllable, ending in a nucleus, without a coda:
*''glue'', ν = {{IPA|/uː/}}
*''pie'', ν = {{IPA|/aɪ/}}
*''though'', ν = {{IPA|/oʊ/}}
*''boy'', ν = {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}}

A list of examples of syllable codas in English is found at [[English phonology#Coda]].

====Null coda====
Some languages, such as [[Hawaiian phonology#Phonotactics|Hawaiian]], forbid codas, so that all syllables are open.