Syllable Structure
Traditionally syllables were of (C)V structure. As such, there was no need to distinguish between syllables and morae. However, Chinese loanwords introduced a new type of sound that could end in -m, -n, or -t. This structure is (C)V(C) and is a syllable. The mora is based on the traditional (C)V structure.
During this period, syllable final -m and -n were initially distinguished; however, by the end of the Early period, both had merged into /N/.
Read more about this topic: Late Middle Japanese, Phonology
Famous quotes containing the words syllable and/or structure:
“He generally added the syllable um to his words when he could,—as paddlum, etc.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)