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In the case of a word such as hurry, the division may be /hʌr.i/ or /hʌ.ri/, neither of which seems a satisfactory analysis for a non-rhotic accent such as RP (British English): /hʌr.i/ results in a syllable-final /r/, which is not normally found, while /hʌ.ri/ gives a syllable-final short stressed vowel, which is also non-occurring.
English written syllabification therefore deals with a concept of "syllable" that does not correspond to the linguistic concept of a phonological (as opposed to morphological) unit. As a result, even most native English speakers are unable to syllabify words according to established rules without consulting a dictionary or using a word processor.
The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, plus /x/, whose distribution is more limited. Fortis consonants are always voiceless, aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with /s/ or /ʃ/), and sometimes also glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with /t/, see T-glottalization), while lenis consonants are ...
The same applies to / ɪər /, / ʊər / and / ɛər /, which are realized as centering diphthongs or long monophthongs in non-rhotic varieties of English, but as vowel+consonant sequences (alternative analysis: centering diphthongs with a rhotacized offset) in rhotic English. The term checked vowel is also useful in the description of English ...
For example, the English suffix -s is pronounced [s] when it follows a voiceless phoneme (cats), and [z] when it follows a voiced phoneme (dogs). [1] This type of assimilation is called progressive , where the second consonant assimilates to the first; regressive assimilation goes in the opposite direction, as can be seen in have to [hæftə] .
In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the word splits. In the education field it is variously called a consonant cluster or a consonant blend. [1] [2] Some linguists [who?] argue that the term can be properly applied only to those consonant clusters that occur within one syllable. Others claim that the ...
For example, the English word fly can be considered either as an open syllable ending in a diphthong [flaɪ̯] or as a closed syllable ending in a consonant [flaj]. [ 8 ] It is unusual for a language to contrast a semivowel and a diphthong containing an equivalent vowel, [ citation needed ] but Romanian contrasts the diphthong /e̯a/ with /ja ...
The structure of the metrical grid explains a number of otherwise surprising features of prominence patterns in language. For example, the main stress in English phrases may be placed several syllables away from the end of the phrase, even though the rule assigning this stress looks for a lexically stressed syllable near this boundary. [9]