INTRODUCTION
When you speak you produce a string of noises which is perceived as a continuous flow of sound. This continuous flow is meaningful to anyone who understands. For instance, the English word pen is made up of three sound segments; /p, e, n/. If the middle sound is replaced with other sounds e.g. /e , , æ / we can have words like pain, pin and pan. Human speech can be broken down into units called sounds. Each unit of sound is a segment. When segments are put together, they form words and utterances.
A sound segment which causes a change in meaning when replaced by another segment is said to be significant, contrastive or distinctive.
Such a speech sound may be referred to as a phoneme. Hyman (1975, p.
59) defines the phoneme as ‘a minimal unit of sound capable of distinguishing words of different meanings’. For instance, the following English words: beat, bat and bet are made up of three sounds: beat
/bi:t/, bat /bæt/, bet / bet/ but they are different words because of the
difference in the middle sound. Similarly in the words road / r。ud / and load / l。ud / the difference in meaning of the two words lies in the
difference between the two initial sounds /r/ and /l/. The sounds /i:, æ, e, r, l, / are therefore phonemes in English.
The phoneme is also the smallest unit of speech in all languages. In French for instance, the difference between the two words: fille (girl) and ville (town) lies in the replacement of / f/ with /v/. Similarly, in Ibibio, the two words iwa (cassava) and ita (three) are different in meaning because of the difference in the middle sound.
A way to determine whether a particular sound is a phoneme or not is to substitute that sound for another in two words which have the same spelling like the words load and road. The words which are identical in this way are referred to as minimal pairs. Thus the words road and load; coat and goat; tin and sin; are minimal pairs.
Each language in the world has its own number of phonemes and uses them differently from other languages. But within the same language, a particular speech sound (phoneme can be realized differently due to, among other factors, its position in a word or utterance. Experience shows that it is not possible for the same sound to be pronounced in the same way many times even by the same person. In the following words: peak, speak, and reap the pronunciations of the sound /p/ are not the same. In peak, the /p/ is pronounced with a puff of air (aspirated); in speak the /p/ is unaspirated while in reap the final /p/ is not released. The different phonetic realizations of a phoneme are referred to as allophones. In the above examples the phoneme /p/ has three different realizations or allophones: the initial or aspirated /p/, the medial or unaspirated /p/ and the final or unreleased /p/. To an English speaker, the phoneme he hears is /p/. The difference in quality is due to the position where the sound occurs in the word. When sounds combine to form syllable, words and sentences, it is the phonemes that take part in such combinations.
3.1 The Nature of the Syllable
The syllable has been explained as the smallest unit of language which can be pronounced with one breath. It is made up of a vowel with or without one or more consonant sounds. When we looked at the sounds of English, it was shown that it was possible to say whether a particular sound was a vowel or consonant on phonetic grounds; that is, in relation to whether the passage of air from the lungs to the outside was obstructed or not; or phonologically in terms of their different distributions and descriptions. Similarly, a syllable may be defined phonetically or phonologically. Phonetically, a syllable may be defined (in relation to how it is produced or how it sounds) as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to the air flow and therefore sounds louder than the end of the syllable where there are greater obstruction to the airflow and consequently less loud sounds. (See Roach,1991:67); much of the explanation of the syllable is from this source ). The centre of the syllable is called the nucleus the beginning is called the onset while the end is called the coda.
What might be called a minimum syllable would be a single vowel in isolation as for example in the words are /a: /; or / Ǥ: / and which are preceded and followed by silence. Some syllables have onset; that is the nucleus is not preceded by silence but by a consonant sound as in so /s。u/ and tea /ti: /. Some syllables have no onset but a coda as in arm /a:m/; ought / Ǥ:t/ and more /m Ǥ:/.Some syllables have the onset, nucleus and coda as in sat /sæt/ , run /rΛn/ and fan /fæn/ .
The main problem about this phonetic description of the syllable is deciding where to divide the syllable. Syllable boundary has been an issue where there is no agreement. An example is the word extra /ekstr。/ where the following suggestions have been given: e+kstr。, ek +str。, eks+tr。, ekst+r。and ekstr +。(See Roach, 1991: 68). Normally the second or third option is the usual choice but it is not possible to say which one is correct. Looking at the syllable from the phonological point of view proves more useful. This involves looking at the possible ways the English phonemes combine. It is useful to begin with trying to understand what the constructions are in the initial position of English syllables. Usually, we find that the syllable can begin with a vowel or with one or two or three consonants. No syllable begins with more than three consonants. Similarly we can look at how a syllable ends. Usually, it can end with a vowel or one or two or three (and in rare cases) four consonants. No syllable ends with more than four consonants.
Let us recapitulate. A syllable can be described as a unit of speech made up of a vowel with or without one or more consonant sounds. Sounds combine to form syllables. For instance, in English the word, /g。ut/, three sounds:/g/, /。u/ and /t/ combine to form a syllable, goat, which is also a word. This is a monosyllabic word. Syllables also combine to form words. Some are disyllabic (two syllables); trisyllabic (three syllables) and polysyllabic (four or more syllables). Note that every syllable must contain a vowel sound. There are syllables which are made up of just one vowel sound but a consonant sound alone cannot make a syllable. In cases where a syllable has no vowel sound to function as a nucleus some special consonants, because of their sonorous nature, can function as the nucleus of a syllable. They are called syllabic consonants. The common syllabic consonants of English are /l/ and /n/ which are sonorous like vowel sounds as in the following: mutton / mΛtn/. In other words, the second syllable of this word has no vowel nucleus. The letter ‘o’ is omitted in pronunciation.
3.2 The Structure of the English Syllable
As already mentioned, the syllable has a structure; it is made up of the onset (or beginning), the nucleus (or middle) and the coda (or end). The consonants occupy the onset and coda parts while the nucleus is occupied by vowels and syllabic consonants. The nucleus is the obligatory part of the syllable, thus there are as many syllables as there are vowels in an utterance. The onset and the coda are optional parts. Four possibilities of syllabic structure may occur in a language. One may have ONC (onset, nucleus, coda); NC (nucleus, coda); ON (onset, nucleus) and N (nucleus). All four possibilities occur in English. A syllable that has a coda is called a closed syllable whereas one that lacks it is called an open syllable (see also Egbokhare, 1992: 49-50).
Apart from the above structure which is done in terms of the phonetic analysis of the syllable, the structure of an English syllable can be described phonologically in terms of the distribution of vowels and consonants. Thus a syllable maybe made up of a vowel alone e.g oh /。u/. This may be represented thus V. We may also have a consonant and a vowel as in tea /ti:/. The structure here is CV where “C” stands for consonant and “V” for vowel.
Taking the consonants at the initial positions first, we may have one consonant initially as in fee / fi:/. We can also have two consonants in initial position. These are of two main kinds: first “s” followed by one of /p, t, k, f, n, l, w, j / as in speak, stay, sky, sphere, small, snail, sleep, swear, suit. Second, we can have one of /p, t, k, b, d, g, f, v, m, n/ followed by one of /l, r, w, j/. Thus we may have: play, try, cry, bread, dress, music, new, among others. Finally, we can have three consonants initially. Here we have /s/ followed by /p, t, k/ followed by one of / r, j,l,w/which may be explained as vowel-like sounds. Examples of words with three initial consonants are: spring, string, screw, spurious, stupid, skewer, split, squash. Of these, the sequence /spj/ is not very common.
In the final positions we may have one consonant finally as in, face bed, tape. We may also have two consonants finally as in cats, sweets and hens. Three consonants may also occur in the final position in words like: facts, bounds, plunged. Lastly, in the final positions we can have more than three consonants mainly because /s/ or /z/ has to be added to most nouns to form plurals; and /t/ or /d/ to form past time as in prompts /prΛmpts/ and asked /æskt/.
The above information on the structure of the syllable in English may be summarized thus;
1
2
3
Are
0
V
O
Car
C
V
O
At
0
V
C
Cat
C
V
C
Star
CC
V
O
Start
CC
V
C
Stray
CCC
V
O
Stretched
CCC
V
CC
Strengths
CCC
V
CCC
Prompts
CC
V
CCCC
We therefore have (C ) (C ) ( C ) V (C ) (C ) (C ) ( C )
C0-3 V C0-4 showing the vowel as the compulsory element.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 1
1. What is a phoneme?
2. What do you understand by the term syllable?
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 2
1. Explain the terms, onset, nucleus and coda and how they combine to form the syllable in English.
4.0 CONCLUSION
This unit introduced you to the structure of the English syllable. More importantly, you learnt about significant English speech sounds and how they combine to form syllables and words as well as the structure of the syllable itself. Basically, you need to really understand the role of the English syllable in intelligent and intelligible spoken communication in the Language.
5.0 SUMMARY
The following are the main points raised in this unit:
Human speech can be broken down into units called sounds which can be put together to form syllables, words and utterances.
When sounds combine to form syllables and words it is the phonemes that take part in such combinations.
A phoneme is the smallest sound segment that is significant and can cause a change in meaning if replaced by another sound.
Variations of a phoneme are called allophones; allophones do not cause a change in meaning if replaced by another allophone.
A syllable consists of the onset, nucleus and coda if explained phonetically.
Phonologically, an English syllable is made up of vowels and consonants.
A maximum of three consonants can occur in initial position in the syllable in English while a maximum of four consonants can occur at the final position.
Every syllable contains a nucleus which occupies the centre of the syllable; where there is no vowel, a syllabic consonant functions like the nucleus of the syllable.
The structure of the syllable in English can be represented with the formula: C0-3 V C0-4 .
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)
1. Using the formula C0-3 V C0-4, describe the structure of the syllable in English.
7.0 REFERENCES / FURTHER READINGS
Eka, D. and Udofot, I. (1996) Aspects of Spoken Language. Calabar: Bon Universal.
Gimson, A.C. (1980) An introduction to the pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold
Gonzales, X. C. (2014) English Grammar Master in 30 Days: A Step by Step Guide for a Strong English foundation.
https://www.pdfdrive.com/english-grammar-master-in-30-days-a-step-by- step-guide-for-a-strong-english-foundation-e46522541.html
Jones, D. (1969) The pronunciation of English (9th edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
"http:/ / en.wik ipedia.org/ wiki / International_Phonetic_Alphabet_ forEnglish
O’Connor, J. D.(1970) Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Roach, P. (1991) English phonetics and phonology. (Second edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Seaton, A. and Y. H. Mew (2008) Basic English Grammar for English
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