Second Year LMD ___Phonetics Teacher : Mr.

Aounali

Lecture 3 : Syllable structure and Stress placement

I-Basic syllable structure :

The syllable is a unit containing one and only one vowel either alone as in I /aɪ/ or surrounded
by consonants in certain arrangements.
In English, we can find the vowel in a single syllable preceded by up to three consonants and
followed by up to four consonants represented in the formula: CCCVCCCC
For example, an English word can be VC, such as Ann/æn/, CVC, such as: sit/sɪt/, or CCCVC,
such as split/splɪt/, and CVCCC as sixth/sɪksθ/ or CCVCCCC like twelfths /twelfθs/.

For instance: Say/seɪ/ (CV), spy/spaɪ/ (CCV), spray/spreɪ/ (CCCV) or get/get/(CVC),

gets/gets/ (CVCC), text/tekst/(CVCCC), texts (/teksts/ (CVCCCC).
-A syllable is unit of sound made from a single vowel, or single vowel/consonant combination
- note that syllables never have more than one vowel sound in them.
Eg: bit/bɪt/; (a) about/ə’baʊt/; (un) unrest/ʌn’rest/; as; (re) revise/rɪ’vaɪz/;(ist) dentist/’dentɪst/;
(bi) bilateral/baɪ’lætərəl/,biology/baɪ’ɒlədʒi/, biscuit/’bɪskɪt/ ,bishop /bɪʃəp/.

1.1- Counting Syllables: To find the number of syllables in a word, use the following steps:
1. Count the vowels in the word.
2. Subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent e at the end of a word, or the second vowel
when two vowels are together in a syllable such as: cable [’keɪbɫɫ ] , open/’əʊpən/

3. Subtract one vowel from every diphthong (diphthongs count as one vowel sound like
in : time/’taɪm/ , pocket/’pɒkɪt/)

4. The number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables, such as:
receive /rɪ’si:v/ , perhaps/pə’hæps/ ,intend/ɪn’tend/,record (v) /rɪ’kɔːd/

The English language is heavily stressed, with each word divided into syllables. Here are
examples of words with different numbers of syllables:

1- One syllable: The, cold, quite, start, clean, trade, green, chair, sign.
2- Two syllables: Qui/et, par/ty, to/day, part/ner, ta/ble, de/mand, re/trieve.
doc/tor Fri/day o/ver yel/low chick/en
3- Three syllables: Fantastic, energy, expensive, wonderful, temptation.
4- Four syllables: Understanding, American, psychology, conversation.
5- Five syllables: Misunderstanding, uncontrollable, conversational.

1.2- Dividing Words into Syllables:

There are four ways to split up a word into its syllables:

1. Divide between two middle consonants.

Split up words that have two middle consonants. For example: hap/pen, bas/ket, let/ter,
sup/per, din/ner, and Den/nis. The only exceptions are the consonant digraphs. Never split up
consonant digraphs as they really represent only one sound. The exceptions are "th", "sh",
"ph", "th", "ch", and "wh".

2. Usually divide before a single middle consonant.

When there is only one syllable, you usually divide in front of it, as in: "o/pen", "i/tem",
"e/vil", and "re/port". The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an
obvious short sound, as in "cab/in" or ca/bin.

3. Divide before the consonant before an "-le" syllable.

When you have a word that has the "-le" sounds like "-el", divide before the consonant before
the "-le". For example: "a/ble", "fum/ble", "rub/ble" "mum/ble" and "whi/stle". The only
exception is "ckle" like "tick/le".

4. Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes and roots which have vowel sounds.

Split off the parts of compound words like "sports/car" and "house/boat". Divide off prefixes
such as "un/happy", "pre/paid", or "re/write". Also divide off suffixes as in the words
"farm/er", "teach/er", "hope/less" and "care/ful". In the word "stop/ping", the suffix is actually
"-ping" because this word follows the rule that when you add "-ing" to a word with one
syllable, you double the last consonant and add the "-ing".

II-Syllabic consonants :
In unstressed syllables where no vowels are found, the consonants (/l/, /m/ ,and /n/ ,or /r/ )
can serve as the nucleus of the syllable-as the center of the syllable instead of a vowel- (as in a
consonant used as vowel) such as: Table [’teɪbɫɫ ]; Cotton /’kɒtņ / ,Rhythm/rɪ’ðm̩/,Sudden/’sʌdņ/

. It’s indicated by means of a small vertical diacritic (ֽ) as (/ņ/, /ļ/ and /ŗ/ and /m̩/)

The lateral /l/ consonant, the most frequent syllabic consonant, is syllabic at the end of the word, if it
fell immediately after a consonant mainly after plosives and fricatives – ,couple[’kʌpɫɫ ],little [’lɪtɫɫ ],
tackle [’tækɫɫ ],paddle [’pædɫɫ ],awful[’ɔːfɫɫ ], whisle [’wɪsɫɫ ] ,muscle [’mʌsɫɫ ],drizzle [’drɪzɫɫ ], struggle
[’strʌgɫɫ ]. (also after nasal and non-alveolar consonants such as: kennel [’kenɫɫ ],channel [’tʃænɫɫ ] and
trouble [’trʌbɫɫ ],the only problem happens with /r/ sound, it is correct for the words like barrel
[’bærəɫɫ ] but it does not work with most forms like : snarl [’sna:l]when the /l/ has to a part of a
vowel.

Syllabic /ņ/ is the most common syllabic consonants which is found after alveolar plosives and
fricatives; in the case of /t,d/ sounds followed by /n/ ,so the plosives /t,d/ are nasally released
by the lowering of the soft-palate; such as : Eaten/i:tņ/, seven /sevņ/ , heaven /hevņ/,
heathen/hi:ðņ/; relation/rɪ’leɪʃņ/,lessen/’lesņ/,risen/’rɪzņ/,

Syllable Stress:
Syllables break our words up into sections which can be stressed, or unstressed. Which
 Second Year LMD ___Phonetics Teacher : Mr.Aounali

syllable is stressed, alters the pronunciation of the word. Try saying the following words aloud
while stressing the first syllable: Doc/tor, fri/day o/ver, mis/take, pur/ple
All of the above words should have their first syllable stressed.

Here are some more examples. The bold O will show you which syllable should be stressed in
each word:

monosyllabic O: bike cat black

disyllabic O o: prob/lem en/gine yel/low

disyllabic o O: be/side di/vide un/do

trisyllablic O o o: dif/fi/cult hos/pit/al of/fi/cer

triyllablic o O o: de/tec/tive pro/fess/or re/dun/dant

Syllables of English can be “open” or “closed”, if a syllable ends with a vowel (i.e.CV, CVV)
this is open syllable but if it ends with a consonant or a consonant cluster (i.e. CVC,
VCC) this would be closed syllable. So, the structural formula for the English Syllable can be
drawn as:Pre-initial + Initial + Post-initials -Vowel - Pre-final + Final+ Post-final.

C) (C) (C) V (C) (C) (C) (C)

Onset Nucleus Coda, or
Onset + Rhyme (the rest of the syllable after the onset). Rhyme can be devided as nucleus +
coda.
the rules that describe possible sequences of sounds for forming English words.” These rules
are

1) All phonological words must contain at least one syllable, hence it contains at least one vowel.
2) Sequences of repeated consonants are not possible.
3) The velar nasal /ng/ never occurs in the onset of a syllable.
4) The glottal fricative /h/ never occurs in the coda of a syllable.
5) The affricates /ts/ and /dz/, and the glottal fricative /h/ do not occur in complex onsets.
6) The first consonant in a two-consonant onset must be an obstruent.(p,t,k, d, f, g)
7) The second consonant in a two-consonant onset must not be a voiced obstruent.
8) If the first consonant of a two-consonant onset is not an /s/, the second consonant must be a
liquid or a glide – the second consonant must be /l/, /r/, /w/, or /j/
9) Every subsequence contained within a sequence of consonants must obey all the relevant
phonotactic rules.
10) No glides in syllable codas.
11) The second consonant in a two-consonant coda cannot be /ng/, /d/, /r/, /3/.
12) If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, the first consonant in the coda must
also be voiced.
13) When a non-alveolar nasal is in a coda together with a non-alveolar obstruent, they msut
have the same place of articulation, and obstruent must be a voiceless stop.
14) Two obstruents in a coda together must have the same voicing.
(Harley, H. 2003)

Stress Patterns

Usually one syllable of a word is stressed more than the others. For example, in some of the words from the
above lists, the stressed syllable is in bold:

Two syllable words stress pattern Quiet, party, special, today, orange, partner, table, demand, power,
retrieve, engine, diet

Three syllable words stress pattern: Fantastic, energy, expensive, wonderful, laughable, badminton, celery,
temptation

Four syllable words stress pattern: Understanding, indecisive, conversation, realistic, moisturising, American,
psychology

Five syllable words stress pattern: Uncontrollable, inspirational, misunderstanding, conversational,

opinionated, biological

Many dialects of English may use syllabic consonants in words such

as even [ˈiːvn̩], awful [ˈɔːfɫɫ ] and rhythm [ˈɹɪðm̩], which are usually regarded as realizations of underlying
sequences of schwa plus consonant (/ˈiːvən/ etc).
Monosyllable / monosyllabic - words with one syllable
Disyllable / disyllabic - words with two syllables, also called bisyllablic by some
Trisyllable / trisyllabic - words with three syllables
Polysyllable / polysyllabic - words with four or more syllables, however often people will
refer to word with three or more syllables as polysyllabic.

The easiest way to determine how many syllables are in a particular word is to sound it out -
or even better clap it out. Clap along while you try the following words:

Monosyllabic: dog ,there, he, walk.

Dysyllabic: doc/tor Fri/day o/ver yel/low chick/en

Trisyllabic: hos/pit/al yes/ter/day de/tec/tive am/bi/ence

Polysyllabic: un/wa/ver/ing no/tif/ica/tion re/an/i/ma/tion pri/va/ti/zation