All Questions
Tagged with phonotactics syllables
28 questions
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Are Classical Tibetan "syllables" actually one syllable, like we think of English syllables?
Words like /bkroŋs/ and /bsgrubs/ are called "syllables" in Tibetan. Yet, there is no way to pronounce a "b" and a "k" in a sequence, without a syllabic pause between ...
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Syllable division in English words such as "library", "represent", "february"
Longman Pronunciation Dictionary transcription for those words favor separating /b/ (or /p/) and /r/ so "represent" is transcribed as /ˌrep.rɪ.ˈzent/.
Though at the beginning of the book, ...
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Does 'z' act as a coda or onset in the syllable structure for the word crazy?
I am working on drawing the syllable structure for the word crazy. So far within kreizi, ei and i are nucliet, kr is an onset, but I am stuck on the 'z'. There are many words that start with z in the ...
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Are there languages where all syllables start with a consonant and end in a vowel?
This is a relaxed version of this question Are there any languages that only allow CV syllables? asking for strictly CV-languages. Here I want to know if there are languages with the phonology CC*VV*, ...
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How are codas before null onsets differentiated from onsets?
That is, how do people tell ...VC V... from ...V CV... in languages that have such a distinction?
I haven't been able to find anything regarding this.
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Deducing syllable structure from sonority curve and phonotactics
When I take the sonority curve of `Tuesdays' (/tuzdeɪz/) I have a peak at /u/ and another one at /eɪ/. Between the two peaks I have /zd/, why should the /z/ belong to the first syllable and the /d/ to ...
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Violations of sonority sequencing principle in English
What accounts for these violations of the sonority sequencing principle in English: /strɛŋkθ/, /fʌdʒ/ （both have fricatives after stops in the coda)
Wikipedia says
In native English words, no phoneme ...
user31190
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Mathematics of Rhyme (perfect, slant)
I have recently been working on some programming frameworks incorporating audio analysis of the English language, particularly whether words "rhyme" or not (pure rhyme, slant rhyme, etc.)
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2
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How do you bound a syllable / split a word into syllables programmatically?
What are the rules for bounding a syllable? I am trying to take IPA text and write software to automatically separate the syllables for the word. By trying I am still just thinking about how to do it. ...
- 4,438
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Can languages restrict their number of distinct syllables when written by syllabaries?
Disclaimer: I am not a linguist, please provide any corrections for terminology.
From How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?, Yoon Mi Oh's thesis counted the ...
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How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?
Note: I am not a linguist, please provide any corrections for terminology.
I would like to find some approximate data (if it exists) comparing several languages with the number of different syllables ...
- 309
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Why isn't intervocalic /ŋ/ analyzed as an onset in English?
I think that sɪ.ŋɪŋ does not seem too unreasonable as a syllabification of the word singing, so I'm a bit puzzled why that option for the syllabification of intervocalic /ŋ/ seems to be dismissed in ...
- 18.7k
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How to split IPA spelling into syllables
First, please forgive my ignorance, I'm completely new to linguistics.
Given the IPA spelling for word, is it possible to programmatically split it into its sounds? So, for example, given the word "...
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2
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894
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Is Swahili a Mora-counting language like Japanese?
I have this simple question on Kiswahili, a Bantu language.
As you know in english, we can not always define morae. it's completely different from Japanese morae system.
But when I learn Swahili, ...
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Is there a "maximal coda principle"?
The "maximal onset principle" says that, in many (most) languages, consonants will attach to a syllable onset rather than a coda when given the choice. For example, "walking" /wakɪŋ/ in English is ...
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The breakdown of the word "strength" or "cheap" or "sheep"
So it turns out that sometimes consonants in a sequence can be called single consonants (e.g. d͡z), or consonant "clusters". But the main reason for calling d͡z a single consonant is because it "...
- 4,438
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Are there any languages that only allow CV syllables?
In my research online, I have found a truism that CV is the most basic syllable type cross-linguistically, and is in fact present in all languages. Other syllable types are not present in all ...
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Wellsean Syllabification and Recapitulation Symbols in the LPD
Those of you who deal with phonetics and phonology of English, and perhaps other languages as well, will surely have read John C. Wells’s article “Syllabification and allophony”, which you can find ...
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Do a classification of words with two or more stressed syllables exist?
In phonology, words can be classified according to the position of the stressed syllable:
An oxytone word is a word stressed in the last syllable.
A paroxytone word is a word stressed in the second ...
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English onsets with /s/ and sonority hierarchy
Why are clusters such as /sk/ (as in sky), /st/ (stop), and /sp/ (spill) allowed as onsets in English? The sonority decreases in these clusters and does that not violate the phonotactic rules?
On a ...
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Can a syllabic consonant exist between two vowels?
I think it would break the sonority principle, but. Who knows...
I was thinking on a similar thing to semivowels, it seems they are only possible between vowels, if there is one between two consonants,...
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2
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Can R sound follow a schwa in a syllable?
Let me ask a question of an usage of schwa as a phoneme and [r]. This [r] is the sound which is used in English and generally expressed with R and not [r] expressed with IPA.
Schwa can be regarded ...
- 141
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2
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Are there languages that disallow initial vowels and lack glottal stop?
Which, if any, of the world's languages have both the following features?
Syllable-initial vowels are disallowed; all syllables must begin with a consonant.
There is no glottal stop phoneme.
- 11k
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Cross-linguistically, how do syllabic consonants interact with morae?
I've read a bit about the moraic system found in Japanese, but as there isn't much complexity in the case of its syllabic consonants, I am left with a few questions.
1) Are there any natural ...
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Is there a phonotactics hierarchy?
For example, Japanese is (C)V(N) [plus that geminated stops across syllable boundaries thing], while Mandarin is (C)(G)(V)(G)(/n/ or /ŋ/) and Polynesian languages are just (C)V. Is there a gradation ...
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Can a syllable be open before a lenghtened consonant?
This thread (related to this problem) can be split into two questions, the first one being restricted to Ancient Greek, the second one being more general.
(1) Let's be, by example, two syllables, the ...
- 2,017
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Is there any proof that diphthongs exist?
I was always taught that a word contains as many syllables as it has vowels. By definition, a vowel is a sound that produces a syllable.
On the other hand, in English phonology, by definition, ...
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What is the syllable structure of a word with an affricate in the onset?
If a word has an affricate in the onset, let's say /ts/, along with another consonant, let's say /k/, to make a word like /tski/, is the phonotactic syllable structure of this word CCV or is it CCCV?
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