English phonetics and phonology (Peter Roach)

9 Strong and weak syllables

When we compare weak syllables with strong, syllables, we find the vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality.

Any strong syllable will have as its peak one of the vowel phonemes (or possibly a triphthong) listed in chapter 3, but not ə, i or u

It the vowel is short, then the strong syllable will always have a coda as well

At the end of a word, we may have a weak syllable ending

with a vowel (i.e. with no coda):

i) The vowel ə

ii) A close front unrounded vowel in the general area of i: and I (symbolised i);

iii) A close back rounded vowel in the general area of u: and υ (symbolised u).

We also find weak syllables in word-final position with a coda if the vowel is ə.

We have ə in following cases:

i) Spelt with ‘a’; strong pronunciation would have æ ‘attend’ ətend

ii) Spelt with ‘ar’; strong pronunciation would have a: ‘particular’ pətIkjələ

iii) Adjectival endings spelt ‘ate’; strong pronunciation would have eI

‘intimate’ intitImət

iv) Spelt with ‘o’; strong pronunciation would have D or əυ ‘tomorrow’ təmDrəυ

v) Spelt with ‘or’; strong pronunciation would have o: ‘forget’ fəget

vi) Spelt with ‘e’; strong pronunciation would have e ‘settlement’ setlmənt

vii) Spelt with ‘er’; strong pronunciation would have з: ‘perhaps’ pəhæps   

viii) Spelt with ‘u’; strong pronunciation would have Λ ‘Autumn’ o:təm

ix) Spelt with ‘ough’ ‘through’ θΛrə

ix) Splet with ‘ou’; strong pronunciation might have aυ ‘gracious’ greI∫əs  

Syllabic consonants:

In this case, a consonant, either l, r or a nasal, stands as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel.

Syllabic l is perhaps the most noticeable

Example of the English syllabic consonants

The l is a “dark l”

The most obvious case is where we have a word ending with one or more consonant letters

followed by ‘le’. Example are:

i) With alveolar consonant preceding

‘cattle’ kætl

ii) With non-alveolar consonant preceding

‘couple’ kΛpl

Syllabic n is most common after alveolar plosives and fricatives

Syllabics m, ŋ:

Both can occur as syllabic, but only as a result of processes such as assimilation and elision

In words like ‘happens’, which can be pronounced hæpm.