English Syllable and Word Stress

English Syllable and Word Stress

The study of the inventory of speech sounds in a language is refered as segmental phonology.

The study of syllable structure, word stress, intonation and rhythm is referred to as supra-segmental phonology

Roach (2000), defines the syllable as a basic unit of speech which consists of a peak (vowel) that has no obstruction to airflow and sounds comparatively louder.  The centre or peak may have consonant phoneme before or after it to cause some form of obstruction to air flow and so comparatively less loud.

For example, the word ‘hat’ [hӕt], the peak (vowel) [ӕ] is surrounded by the fricative consonant phoneme [h] before it and stop consonant [t] after it.  There are 3 segments in the word [hӕt] ([h], [ӕ], and [t]) .

I.  Syllable structures

-----  a tree-diagram

-----  a table

-----  2 immediate constituents of a syllable

     -----  the onset which include any consonants preceding the

              vowel (V)

     -----  the rhyme ----- peak and coda

  

Coda refers to any consonants that come after the vowel.

For the word, ‘hat’ [hӕt] ( Consonant, Vowel and Consonant, CVC)

[h] ----- the onset of the syllable       C

[ӕ] -----  the peak of the syllable      V

[t] -----  the coda of the syllable        C