Lakhasly

The structure of the English syllable

Let us now look in more detail at syllable onsets.Any consonant may be a final consonant except h, w, j. The consonant r is a special case: it doesn't occur as a final consonant in BBC pronunciation, but there are many rhotic accents of English (see Section 7.3) in which syllables may end with this consonant.When we look at three-consonant clusters we can recognise a clear relationship between them and the two sorts of two-consonant cluster described above; examples of three-consonant initial clusters are: 'split' split, 'stream' strizm, 'square' skwes.One sort is composed of s followed by one of a small set of consonants; examples of such clusters are found in words such as 'sting' stig, 'sway' swei, 'smoke' sm?ok.If the first syllable of the word in question begins with a vowel (any vowel may occur, though o is rare) we say that this initial syllable has a zero onset.The s in these clusters is called the pre-initial consonant and the other consonant (t, w, min the above examples) the initial consonant.In fact, the number of possible initial three-consonant clusters is quite small and they can be set out in full (words given in spelling form) Table 2 Two-consonant clusters with pre-initial Table 3 Two-consonant clusters with post-initial 1, r, w, j We now have a similar task to do in studying final consonant clusters.If the syllable begins with one consonant, that initial consonant may be any consonant phoneme except 1); 3 is rare.The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed by one of the set 1, r, w, j as in, for example, 'play' ples, 'try' tras, 'quick' kwik, 'few' fju:.Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English.

The structure of the English syllable

Let us now look in more detail at syllable onsets. If the first syllable of the word in question begins with a vowel (any vowel may occur, though o is rare) we say that this initial syllable has a zero onset. If the syllable begins with one consonant, that initial consonant may be any consonant phoneme except 1); 3 is rare.

We now look at syllables beginning with two consonants. When we have two or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster. Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English. One sort is composed of s followed by one of a small set of consonants; examples of such clusters are found in words such as 'sting' stig, 'sway' sweı, 'smoke' smǝok. The s in these clusters is called the pre-initial consonant and the other consonant (t, w, min the above examples) the initial consonant. These clusters are shown in Table 2.

The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed by one of the set 1, r, w, j as in, for example, 'play' ples, 'try' tras, 'quick' kwık, 'few' fju:. We call the first consonant of these clusters the initial consonant and the second the post-initial. There are some restrictions on which consonants can occur together. This can best be shown in table form, as in Table 3. When we look at three-consonant clusters we can recognise a clear relationship between them and the two sorts of two-consonant cluster described above; examples of three-consonant initial clusters are: 'split' split, 'stream' strizm, 'square' skwes. The s is the pre-initial consonant, the p, t, k that follows in the three example words are the initial consonant and the 1, r, w are post-initial. In fact, the number of possible initial three-consonant clusters is quite small and they can be set out in full (words given in spelling form)
Table 2 Two-consonant clusters with pre-initial
Table 3 Two-consonant clusters with post-initial 1, r, w, j
We now have a similar task to do in studying final consonant clusters. Here we find the possibility of up to four consonants at the end of a word. If there is no final consonant we say that there is a zero coda. When there is one consonant only, this is called the final consonant. Any consonant may be a final consonant except h, w, j. The consonant r is a special case: it doesn't occur as a final consonant in BBC pronunciation, but there are many rhotic accents of English (see Section 7.3) in which syllables may end with this consonant. There are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster, one being a final con- sonant preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other a final consonant followed by a post-final consonant. The pre-final consonants form a small set: m, n, 1, 1, s. We can see these in 'bump' bamp, "bent' bent, 'bank' bænk, 'belt' belt, 'ask' a:sk. The post-final consonants also form a small set: s, z, t, d, 0; example words are: 'bets' bets, 'beds' bedz, 'backed' bækt, 'bagged' bægd, 'eighth' exte. These post-final consonants can often be identified as separate morphemes (although not always'axe'æks, for example, is a sin- gle morpheme and its final s has no separate meaning). A point of pronunciation can be pointed out here: the release of the first plosive of a plosive-plus-plosive cluster such as the g (of gd) in bægd or the k (of kt) in bækt is usually without plosion and is therefore practically inaudible.