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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:
Syllabic sound in English are not only vowels, but also sonants /l, n, m/, when they are preceded by a noise consonant.
E.g. /teIbl, gɑ:dn, bi:tn, fIlm, prIzm, sÙdnlI/
The sonants /w, r, j/ are never syllabic.
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, /taI/ tie, /si:/ sea.
Closed syllables, when the vocalic peak is followed by a consonant, (VC) e.g. /a:t/ art, /sIt/ sit, /bIl/ bill.
Covered syllables, (CV(c)), when the peak is preceded by a consonant, e.g. /lɔŋ/, /òɔ:/ 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.
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.
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 /sÙn-dI/, hot /hɔt/, 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 / kɑ:/, cart /kɑ:t/, tea /ti:/, teeth /ti:q/, tie /taI/, tide /taId/, Sunday /sÙn-dI/, forehead /fɔrId/.
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.
The syllable boundary never occurs after a checked vowel. It lies after the following consonant, as in.
E.g. twenty /`twen-tI/, quickly /kwIk-lI /, hotly /hɔt-lI/, /gud-nIs/ or within it, if it is the only consonant between the checked vowel and the succeeding vowel.
E.g. letter /letə/, bigger /bIgə/, hotter /hɔtə/, shilling /ʃIlIŋ/.
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.
English Russian
/sItə/ sitter /с’итъ/ сито
/letə/ letter /л’этъ/ лето
/rÙnə/ runner /ранъ/ рана
If a checked vowel is separated by one consonant from a syllabic sonant the boundary between the two syllables is also within the consonant.
E.g. /lItl, kɔtn, fætn, bItn, rIðm/
When a free vowel is separated from a succeeding stressed vowel by only one consonant sound, the syllable in which such a vowel occurs is always open.
E.g. idea /aI-`dIə/, cartoon /kɑ:-`tu:n/, erect /I-`rekt/
When a post-stressed free vowel is separated from a succeeding vowel by a single consonant it is hardly possible to determine the point of syllable division –whether it is before, within or after the intervocalic consonant. In all probability it is before the consonant.
E.g. family /`fæmIlI/, policy /`pɔlIsI/, economy /I`kɔnəmI/, possibility /ˎpɔsI`bIlItI/
But the establishment of the place of syllable division is of no practical importance being of academic interest only.
When there is a cluster of consonants between two vowels the place of the syllabic boundary is conditioned by whether this cluster occurs word-initially or not. If it does occur at the beginning of words, the syllabic boundary is before it. If it doesn’t, the boundary is between the consonants. For instance, the cluster /gr/ is used word-initially in English, therefore it can occur at the beginning of a syllable and the syllabic boundary is before the cluster.
E.g. agree /ə`gri:/, regret /rI`gret/.
The clusters /dm/, /dv/ do not occur word-initially and cannot occur at the beginning of a syllable. The syllabic boundary is, therefore, between the consonants constituting the clusters.
E.g. admit /əd`mIt/, admire /əd`maIə/, advice /əd`vaIs/, admission /əd`mIòn/.
When two vowels are separated by more than two consonants as for example in /ekstrə/ the boundary may be both before /s/ and /t/ because both /str/ and /tr/ occur at the beginning of words.
The so-called triphthongs in English are disyllabic combinations.
E.g. /`saI-əns/ sciences, /`flau-ə/ flower, /`vau-əl/ vowel.
9. The structure of the stressed syllable in English is different from the structure of the unstressed syllable. The main difference is in the peak. The peak of the stressed syllable is always vocalic. In the unstressed syllable the peak may be a vowel or a sonant. When the peak of the stressed syllable is checked, the syllable must be “closed” by a consonant. The structure of the stressed syllable (open and closed) may be presented by the following formula.
a) (C)v(c) - where v is a historically long monophthong or a diphthong and the brackets show that the consonant may be absent;
b) (C)vc - where v is a historically short monophthong.
To sum up, we can say that syllable formation and syllable division can more usefully be described with reference to the structure of an individual language since each particular language has its own syllabic structure.
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