syllabic consonants

back to course outline Syllabic consonants If you look up the pronunciation of words like 'button' and 'bottle' in Wells's Pronunciation Dictionary you'll come across a symbol we haven't mentioned yet - a small, raised schwa: , Wells uses a raised schwa to indicate a choice of pronunciations: the schwa may be omitted. But without a schwa, without a vowel, how can we have a syllable? As we saw in the page on Weak and Stong Syllables ( ) a weak, unstressed syllable often has schwa ( ) in it. But if the schwa is omitted, we are left with a SYLLABIC CONSONANT - a syllable where the vowel and the consonant have merged into one. Instead of using Wells's method of showing this possibility with a raised schwa, I shall follow Roach's practice of marking certain consonants with a small vertical line beneath them to show that they are SYLLABIC. The syllabic consonants in English are: n, l, r - written The first two are fairly common. Here are some examples: button widen rotten bottle little wobble able Syllabic r occurs in words like history Hungary And even syllabic and sometimes occur: happen OR broken OR back to course outline back to Phonetics back to Pétur Knútsson's home page Syllabic consonants https://notendur.hi.is//~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/syllcons.html 1 of 2 1/3/2014 1:03 PM

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back to course outline

Syllabic consonants

If you look up the pronunciation of words like 'button' and 'bottle' inWells's Pronunciation Dictionary you'll come across a symbol we haven'tmentioned yet - a small, raised schwa:

Wells uses a raised schwa to indicate a choice of pronunciations: theschwa may be omitted. But without a schwa, without a vowel, how can wehave a syllable?

As we saw in the page on Weak and Stong Syllables ( ) a weak, unstressedsyllable often has schwa ( ) in it. But if the schwa is omitted, we areleft with a SYLLABIC CONSONANT - a syllable where the vowel and theconsonant have merged into one.

Instead of using Wells's method of showing this possibility with a raisedschwa, I shall follow Roach's practice of marking certain consonants witha small vertical line beneath them to show that they are SYLLABIC.

The syllabic consonants in English are:

n, l, r - written

The first two are fairly common. Here are some examples:

buttonwidenrotten bottlelittlewobbleable

Syllabic r occurs in words like

historyHungary

And even syllabic and sometimes occur:

happen OR broken OR

back to course outline back to Phonetics back to Pétur Knútsson's home page

Syllabic consonants https://notendur.hi.is//~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/syllcons.html

1 of 2 1/3/2014 1:03 PM