Editing Syllable (section)

===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}}