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The first syllable of a word is the initial syllable and the last syllable is the final syllable. In languages accented on one of the last three syllables, the last syllable is called the ultima , the next-to-last is called the penult , and the third syllable from the end is called the antepenult.
Most syllables are a combination of an initial and a final. However, some syllables have no initials. This is shown in Pinyin as follows: if the syllable begins with an i, it is replaced with a y; if the syllable begins with an u, it is replaced with a w; if the syllable begins with an ü, it is replaced with yu
In Latin and Ancient Greek, only the three last syllables can be accented.In Latin, a word's stress is dependent on the weight or length of the penultimate syllable. In Ancient Greek, the place and the type of accent are dependent on the length of the vowel in the ultima.
A catalectic line is a metrically incomplete line of verse, lacking a syllable at the end or ending with an incomplete foot. One form of catalexis is headlessness, where the unstressed syllable is dropped from the beginning of the line. A line missing two syllables is called brachycatalectic. A line with an additional syllable is called ...
Syllable-final /l/ (probably already velarized in this position) vocalized to [w] and fused with the preceding vowel to produce falling diphthongs. Where syllable-final /r/ was weakened and lost word-internally, it was mostly later restored with the notable exception of morphemic -er .
French words are sometimes said to be stressed on the final syllable, but that can be attributed to the prosodic stress, which is placed on the last syllable (unless it is a schwa in which case the stress is placed on the second-last syllable) of any string of words in that language. Thus, it is on the last syllable of a word analyzed in isolation.
Final stressed vowels are short by nature, if a consonant follows a short stressed vowel the syllable must be closed, thus the consonant following the final stressed vowel is drawn to lengthen: parlò portoghese [parˈlɔpportoˈɡeːze] 's/he spoke Portuguese' vs. parla portoghese [ˈparlaportoˈɡeːze] 's/he speaks Portuguese'.
This explains the licensing of what would otherwise be superheavy syllables in English as long as they are word-final (an example of this would be any final syllable containing a long vowel or diphthong and one or more coda consonants, e.g. main /ˈmeɪn/) but the lack of certain 4-mora syllables (such as those containing a long vowel or ...