A syllable as a phonetic unit

Though the basic phonological elements are phonemes, speech can be broken into minimal pronounceable units into which sounds show tendency to group themselves. These smallest phonetic groups are generally given the name of syllables. They form language units of greater magnitude, i.e. morphemes, words and phrases.

The syllable may be a single word (ex, chair, book), a part of a word (ex, mu-sic), a part of the gram. form of a word (ex, la-ter).

The syllable can be analyzed from the acoustic, auditory, articulatory and functional point of view. The syllable may be viewed in connection with its graphic representation.

ACOUSTICALLY AND AUDITORILLY syl. is characterised by the force of utterance, or accent, pitch of the voice, sonority, length, i.e. by prosodic features. Acoustic properties of syl. are studied with the help of intonograph and spectrograph. Auditorilly the syl. is the smallest unit of perception: the listener identifies the whole of the syl. and only after that the sounds contained.

The ARTICULATORY energy which constitutes the syllable results from the combined actions of the power resonator and abstracter mechanisms.

Phonologically the syl. is regarded and defined in terms of its structural and functional properties. Syl-s in writing are called syllabographs and are closely connected with the morphemic structure of words.

A syllable can be formed by a vowel: (V); by a vowel and a consonant: (VC); by a consonant and a sonorant (CS).

V — types of syllable called uncovered open, oak

VC — uncovered closed, odd

CVC —covered closed, note

CV —covered open, no.