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4. The Syllabic Structure of English

The syllabic structure of English has certain peculiarities that distinguish it from other languages. They are as follows:

1. 
   Syllabic sound in English are not only vowels, but also sonants /l, n, m/, when they are preceded by a noise consonant.
   

E.g. /te_Ibl, g_ɑ:dn, bi:tn, f_Ilm, pr_Izm, s_dnl_I/ The sonants /w, r, j/ are never syllabic.

2. 
   As to the type of sounds constituting the syllable (vowel-V, consonant-C) there exist 23 syllable structures in the English language.
   

Depending on the position of the vowel, which is the peak of the syllable, and that of the consonants, which form the margins of the syllable, we distinguish the following types of syllables:

Open syllables, when there is no consonant after the vocalic peaks, (CV) e.g.

/fa:/ far, /ta_I/ tie, /si:/ sea.

Closed syllables, when the vocalic peak is followed by a consonant, (VC) e.g. /a:t/ art, /s_It/ sit, /b_Il/ bill.

Covered syllables, (CV(c)), when the peak is preceded by a consonant, e.g.

/_lɔŋ/, /ɔ:/ shore.

Uncovered syllables, (v(c)), when there is no consonant before the peak, e.g.

/_æpt/ apt, /i:t/ eat, /In/ in.

The fundamental syllable type in English is the closed syllable, whereas in Russian it is the open syllable. The most frequent type in English is CVC.

3. 
   Consonant clusters are very characteristics of the syllable structure of English, 19 structures out of 23 have consonant clusters.
   

The largest possible initial number of consonants in a cluster is 3. Final clusters contain up to 4 (5 are very rare). Consonant clusters present particular interest in the studies of the syllable because it is due to consonants that the structure of the syllable varies.

3. 
   English checked vowels (i.e. all historically short vowels under stress) occur only in a closed syllable. They cannot occur at the end of a syllable as there is no tailing off in articulatory tension. Checked vowels are always followed by initially strong consonants.
   

E.g. bed /bed/, Sunday /sn-d_I/, hot /h_ɔt/, put /put/.

English free vowels (historically long monophthongs, diphthongs and unstressed short monophthongs) can occur both in the open and in the closed syllable, because the end of free vowels is weaker than the beginning.

E.g. car / k_ɑ:/, cart /k_ɑ:t/, tea /ti:/, teeth /ti:/, tie /ta_I/, tide /ta_Id/, Sunday

/sn-d_I/, forehead /f_ɔr_Id/.

The character of the end of a vowel, i.e. the retention or the weakening of articulatory energy is important for determining the rules of syllabification in English.

3. 
   The syllable boundary never occurs after a checked vowel. It lies after the following consonant, as in.
   

E.g. twenty /`twen-t_I/, quickly /kw_Ik-l_I /, hotly /h_ɔt-l_I/, /gud-n_Is/ or within it, if it is the only consonant between the checked vowel and the succeeding vowel. E.g. letter /let_ə/, bigger /b_Ig_ə/, hotter /h_ɔtə/, shilling /ʃ_Il_Iŋ/.

The preceding and following vowels attract this consonant and the consonant is split into two. In speech the consonant forms a close link between the two syllables. It is especially important to know the point of syllable division in such English words, because similar Russian words are divided into syllables in a different way. Cf.