Syllable Division and Ambisyllabicity
Most commonly, a single consonant between vowels is grouped with the following syllable (i.e. /CV.CV/), while two consonants between vowels are split between syllables (i.e. /CVC.CV/). In some languages, however, such as Old Church Slavonic, any group of consonants that can occur at the beginning of a word is grouped with the following syllable; hence, a word such as pazdva would be syllabified /pa.zdva/. (This allows the phonotactics of the language to be defined as requiring open syllables.) Contrarily, in some languages, any group of consonants that can occur at the end of a word is grouped with the following syllable.
In English, it has been disputed whether certain consonants occurring between vowels (especially following a stressed syllable and preceding an unstressed syllable) should be grouped with the preceding or following syllable. For example, a word such as better is sometimes analyzed as /ˈbɛt.ər/ and sometimes /ˈbɛ.tər/. Some linguists have in fact asserted that such words are "ambisyllabic", with the consonant shared between the preceding and following syllables. However, Wells (2002) argues that this is not a useful analysis, and that English syllabification is simply /ˈCVC(C).V/.
In English, consonants have been analyzed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, as in 'bellow' bel-low, a phenomenon known as ambisyllabicity. It is argued that words such as arrow /ˈæroʊ/ can't be divided into separately pronounceable syllables: neither /æ/ nor /ær/ is a possible independent syllable, and likewise with the other short vowels /ɛ ɪ ɒ ʌ ʊ/. However, Wells (1990) argues against ambisyllabicity in English, positing that consonants and consonant clusters are codas when after a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, or after a full vowel and followed by a reduced syllable, and are onsets in other contexts. (See English phonology#Phonotactics.)
Read more about this topic: Syllable Rime
Famous quotes containing the words syllable and/or division:
“He generally added the syllable um to his words when he could,—as paddlum, etc.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;
Yet slower yet, oh faintly gentle springs:
List to the heavy part the music bears,
“Woe weeps out her division when she sings.”
Droop herbs and flowers;
Fall grief in showers;
“Our beauties are not ours”:
Oh, I could still,
Like melting snow upon some craggy hill,
Drop, drop, drop, drop,
Since nature’s pride is, now, a withered daffodil.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)