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Language: Linguistics · Semiotics · Speech

A syllable (Ancient Greek: συλλαβή) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).



Syllable structureEdit

The general structure of a syllable consists of the following segments:

  • Onset (obligatory in some languages, optional in others)
  • Rime
    • Nucleus (obligatory in all languages)
Syllable structure

tree representation of a CVC syllable


The syllable nucleus is typically a sonorant, usually a vowel sound, in the form of a monophthong, diphthong, or triphthong, but sometimes sonorant consonants like [l] or [r]. The syllable onset is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus, and the syllable coda (literally 'tail') is the sound or sounds that follow the nucleus. The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda. In the one-syllable English word cat, the nucleus is a, the onset c, the coda t, and the rime at. This syllable can be abstracted as a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, abbreviated CVC.


A heavy syllable is one with a branching rime or a branching nucleus — this is a metaphor, based on the nucleus or coda having lines that branch in a tree diagram. In some languages, heavy syllables include both CVV (branching nucleus) and CVC (branching rime) syllables, contrasted with CV, which is a light syllable. In other languages, only CVV syllables (ones with a long vowel or diphthong) are heavy, while both CVC and CV syllables are light. The difference between heavy and light frequently determines which syllables receive stress—this is the case in Latin and Arabic, for example. In moraic theory, heavy syllables are said to have two moras, while light syllables are said to have one. Japanese is generally described this way.


Syllables and suprasegmentalsEdit



Syllables and phonotactic constraintsEdit


There are languages that forbid empty onsets, Hebrew, Arabic, and many varieties of German (the names transliterated as "Israel", "Abraham", "Omar", "Ali" and "Abdullah", among many others, actually begin with semiconsonantic glides or with glottal or pharyngeal consonants).



Syllables and stressEdit

Syllable structure often interacts with stress. In Latin, for example, stress is regularly determined by syllable weight, a syllable counting as heavy if has at least one of the following:

  • a long vowel in its nucleus
  • a diphthong in its nucleus
  • one or more coda(e)

In each case the syllable is considered to have two moras.

Syllables and vowel tensenessEdit


Syllable-less languagesEdit


[ɬχʷtɬʦxʷ] 'you spat on me'
[ʦ’ktskʷʦ’] 'he arrived'
[xɬp’χʷɬtɬpɬɬs] 'he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant' (Bagemihl 1991:589, 593, 627)
[sxs] 'seal blubber'


This type of phenomenon has also been reported in Berber languages (such as Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber) and Mon-Khmer languages (such as Semai, Temiar, Kammu).

Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber:




See alsoEdit

External linksEdit

References and recommended readingEdit

  • Bagemihl, Bruce (1991). Syllable structure in Bella Coola. Linguistic Inquiry 22: 589–646.
  • Dell, F.; Elmedlaoui, M. (1985). Syllabic consonants and syllabification in Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 7: 105-130. (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).
  • Dell, F.; Elmedlaoui, M. (1988). Syllabic consonants in Berber: Some new evidence. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 10: 1-17. (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).
  • Ladefoged, Peter (2001). A course in phonetics, 4th edition, Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers. ISBN 0-15-507319-2.
  • Sloan, K. (1988). Bare-consonant reduplication: Implications for a prosodic theory of reduplication. In H. Borer (Ed.), Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 7. Stanford, CA: Stanford Linguistics Association. (Cited in Bagemihl 1991).

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