3.Lecture 3-Syllables Structure & Stress

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 [’keɪbɫ̩] , 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.

Second Year LMD ___Phonetics

Teacher : Mr.Aounali

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 [’teɪbɫ̩]; 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[’kʌpɫ̩],little [’lɪtɫ̩], tackle [’tækɫ̩],paddle [’pædɫ̩],awful[’ɔːfɫ̩], whisle [’wɪsɫ̩] ,muscle [’mʌsɫ̩],drizzle [’drɪzɫ̩], struggle [’strʌgɫ̩]. (also after nasal and non-alveolar consonants such as: kennel [’kenɫ̩],channel [’tʃænɫ̩] and trouble [’trʌbɫ̩],the only problem happens with /r/ sound, it is correct for the words like barrel [’bærəɫ̩] 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/.

Second Year LMD ___Phonetics

Teacher : Mr.Aounali

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 [ˈɔːfɫ̩] 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