LING 330 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Syllable, Sonority Hierarchy, Vocal Tract
Document Summary
The segments of a language are the consonants and vowels. The suprasegmentals comprise several linguistically important phenomena that are not segmental, such as. Carry meaning, manipulate language in different ways, and operate one more than one segment. The term suprasegmental comes from the fact that these elements often extend over a string of segments. Suprasegmentals are often defined in terms of syllables; so let"s begin with that. The syllable is a phonological unit of organization containing one or more segments. Not so relevant in phonetics mostly useful in phonology. Identifying syllables is not as easy as it sounds. All languages organize sounds in terms of syllables. Carnation": /k . n . n/ = 3 syllables. Lackadaisical": /l . k . d . z . k l/ = 5 syllables. Compatibility": /k m. p . t . b . l . ti/ = 6 syllables. Even in a language that you do not know, you can often count the syllables in a word.