Syllable.

Question

Hi,Could you please explain why the word "syllable" is divided like that "sy lla ble" and not "syl la ble"thanks a lot.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

angel girl1Hi,Could you please explain why the word "syllable" is divided like that "sy lla ble" and not "syl la ble"thanks a lot.

See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syllable

It's syl-la-ble.

CJ

Angel girl1 · Answer

Thanks. I am sorry I didn't mention that I am interested in RP. I found it like that "sy lla ble" here in 03:16

Enoon · Answer

angel girl1Thanks. I am sorry I didn't mention that I am interested in RP. I found it like that "sy lla ble" here in 03:16

They made a mistake. They are talking about syllables in speech, and if you listen, the "l" belongs to the first syllable and not the second, so they should have shown you syll.a.ble. The video is merely illustrating pronunciation. They are not showing you written syllables, which come into play when you want to break words at the end of lines with hyphens. You always split double consonants in that case: syl.la.ble, even though the second "l" is not pronounced.

Written syllabification has nothing to do with pronunciation. And, anyway, English doesn't really have syllables. The divisions between them are arbitrary and a matter of opinion.

Angel girl1 · Answer

I appreciate your help.

CalifJim · Answer

enoonEnglish doesn't really have syllables.

Hmmm. Yes and no, I'd say. The famous phonetician Ladefoged of UCLA once threw down the gauntlet by asking the experts to take a spectrogram and find the syllable divisions in it. He claimed it couldn't be done, and that, therefore, there is no such thing as a syllable (in any language). Still, I say, "Hmmm".

CJ

Enoon · Answer

CalifJim enoonEnglish doesn't really have syllables.Hmmm. Yes and no, I'd say. The famous phonetician Ladefoged of UCLA once threw down the gauntlet by asking the experts to take a spectrogram and find the syllable divisions in it. He claimed it couldn't be done, and that, therefore, there is no such thing as a syllable (in any language). Still, I say, "Hmmm". CJ

French, for instance, is spoken in syllables. We speak in words or clusters. That's all I meant. I don't know any of the theory, I'm afraid.

Raindoctor · Answer

Syllable is a phonological concept. Concepts are not neutral (an insight from history and philosophy of sciences, from philosophy of language as well). So, it all depends on which theory of syllable you adopt.

Phonology is all about patterns of sounds within a language. Today, the consensus is that phonology without phonetics is useless. And further that systematic phonetics (like all those IPA classification) should be treated as a theory of phonetic typology. Check Robert Ladd's http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~bob/gs.ss.pdf

What theory of syllable do I subscribe when it comes to English? Not JC Well's, of course. I subscribe to Charles-James Bailey's: check his "Gradience in English syallabization and a revised concept of syllabization", published by Indiana University Press.

His main hypotheses are:
(a) syllabification depends on tempo. So, varisyllabicity within a particular tempo does not arise. JC Wells sells varisyllabicty or ambisyllabicity
(b) phonotactics play a rule, etc.

You can read his work to get a better idea than what I can recall at the moment.

Since the first syllable of 'syllable' is stressed, it attracts the coda consonant l. If the second syllable receives stress, yes, l will become the onset of that syllable.

Syllable.

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