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The definition and general characteristics of a syllable.

It is generally known that speech is a continuum. The segmentation of the speech continuum into discreet sounds and the allocation of the latter to phonemic categories is the result of the linguistic analysis. According to the immediate auditory impression of linguistically untrained users, pronounced sound sequences are acoustically broken up into smaller units which are articulated with alternately increasing and diminishing energy. Such minimal units of sounding speech are called syllables. Thus, syllables may be defined as the smallest pronounceable units into which sounds tend to group themselves and which in their turn are joined into meaningful language units that are morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. Each of these units is characterized by a certain syllabic structure and consequently has two aspects: syllable formation and syllable division which form a dialectal unity.

The syllable is a complicated phenomenon and like the phoneme it can be analyzed from the acoustic, auditory, articulatory and functional points of view. Acoustically and auditorily a syllable is characterized by the force of utterance, or accent, pitch of the voice, sonority and length, that is by prosodic features. Articulatory characteristics of a syllable are connected with the syllabic formation and division. Functional characteristics of a syllable are connected with the constitutive, recognitive and distinctive properties of a syllable.

In English syllable formation is based on the phonological opposition vowel – consonant. Vowels are usually syllabic, while consonants are not, with the exception of the sonorants [l], [m], [n] which become syllabic if they occur in an unstressed final position preceded by a noise consonant.

A syllable may consist of one phoneme or a number of phonemes. The syllabic phoneme forms the peak of prominence (the crest, or the peak of the syllable). One ore more consonant phonemes preceding or following the peak of prominence are called slopes. The boundary between two syllables is called the valley of prominence.

As to the number of syllables in the English word it can vary from one to eight. Ex. come [kΛm], city ['si-ti], family ['fæ-mi-li], simplicity [sim-'pli-si-ti], unnaturally [Λn-'næ-t∫ə-rə-li], unsophisticated [Λn-sə-'fi-sti-kei-tid], incompatibility ['in-kom-pæ-ti-'bi-li-ti], unintelligibility ['Λn-in-te-li d3i-'bi-li-ti].

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