Lecture 5

Syllable Structure: onset, nucleus, coda

• Syllable is a unit that can be broken down into onset + nucleus + coda. In many descriptions, the nucleus is the core sonority (often a vowel or syllabic vowel/consonant). The onset consists of consonants before the nucleus; the coda consists of consonants after the nucleus.

• Sigma (σ) is used to denote a syllable in some lectures/transcripts.

• Key point: The nucleus (often a vowel) is required; both onset and coda can be omitted in some syllables, though onsets commonly exist.

• The rhyme of a syllable is defined as the nucleus + the coda. The term rhyme historically relates to rhythm, but in linguistics it specifically refers to the peak of the syllable (nucleus) plus its following sounds (coda).

• Syllabification focuses on sounds rather than alphabet letters.

• Examples:

  • The word I: nucleus only (single syllable, no onset, no coda).

  • The word sat: onset = s, nucleus = a, coda = t.

  • The word hay: onset = h, nucleus = a (or a diphthong), coda = none (or omitted in some analyses).

  • The word out: nucleus = diphthong /aʊ/ (as diphthong), onset omitted, coda = t.

  • The word bake: onset = b, nucleus = /eɪ/ (a diphthong), coda = k.

• Diphthongs: nucleus can be a diphthong (two sounds in the nucleus, e.g., /eɪ/).

• Transcribing syllables helps think about sounds rather than letters.

Complex Onsets, Codas, and Syllable Types

• A syllable can have multiple consonants in the onset (complex onset) and/or multiple consonants in the coda (complex coda).

• Onsets and codas can be omitted depending on the word, but many words involve at least a nucleus.

• The concept of complex clusters is important for analyzing real speech (e.g., spl- in splash).

Sonority and How We Identify Syllables

• Sonority = relative loudness of sounds within a syllable.

• General ordering (from louder to softer, based on typical conventions in the lecture):

  • Vowels are the loudest

  • Approximants (e.g., l, r, w, y)

  • Nasals (e.g., m, n, ŋ)

  • Fricatives (voiced fricatives louder than voiceless)

  • Affricates

• A voiced fricative is typically louder than a voiceless fricative (e.g., /v/ > /f/ in perceived loudness).

• The Sonority Principle: as you move from onset to nucleus to coda, the loudness typically rises to the nucleus and then falls toward the coda.

  • Example that violates this in part: splash begins with s (fricative) which is high in onset sonority, then p (stop) which is softer, then rises toward the nucleus and falls toward the coda.

• The brain uses multiple cues (including stress, timing, and phonation) to identify syllables.

Stress, Prosody, and IPA Notation

• Stress makes a syllable prominent within a word. Syllables can be primary stressed, secondary stressed, or unstressed.

• IPA notation for stress:

  • Primary stress: a high vertical symbol ˈ placed before the stressed syllable.

  • Secondary stress: a low vertical stroke ˌ placed before the syllable.

• Acoustic correlates of stress (4 main cues):

  • F0 (fundamental frequency / pitch)

  • Duration (length of the sound)

  • Intensity (loudness)

  • Formant pattern (spectral shape across the vowel region)

• English stress patterns:

  • Trochaic (stressed on the first syllable): e.g., hot dog (noun: HOT-dog; verb meaning may shift in some contexts).

  • Iambic (stressed on the second syllable): e.g., the verb form where the second syllable receives primary stress (e.g., phonetician with stress on the third syllable in the given example).

• Experimental example: phonetic focus on the word phonetician; primary stress on the third syllable; stress is reinforced by lengthening, loudness, and pitch excursion.

• Primary vs secondary stress can change meaning or emphasis within phrases; the same word in different parts of speech can shift stress (e.g., noun vs verb contrasts like record).

• Foot: a unit consisting of the stressed syllable and all following unstressed syllables; the concept is used to describe stress patterns and timing in poetry and linguistics.

• English tends to be stress-timed (irregular intervals between stressed syllables, with shortened/omitted unstressed syllables), whereas some languages are syllable-timed (equal syllable length) or mora-timed (beats based on sounds, e.g., in Japanese).

• Trochaic and iambic patterns are common descriptors for English; other languages show different rhythmic and stress patterns.

Rhythm Types: Stress-Timed, Syllable-Timed, and Mora-Timed

• Stress-timed languages (e.g., English): irregular syllable lengths with a rhythm driven by stressed syllables; speakers may truncate unstressed vowels or reduce sounds to align with a timing pattern.

• Syllable-timed languages (e.g., Spanish, French): more uniform syllable length, with less truncation of unstressed vowels; rhythm feels more even.

• Mora-timed languages (e.g., Japanese): beats are based on mora, not syllables; consonant-vowel sequences and some final consonants count as separate beats, leading to a choppier cadence.

• Examples discussed: infatuation (stress-timed tendencies with truncation of unstressed vowels), como te llamas (Spanish rhythm example), Kawasaki (Japanese mora-timed rhythm).

• The variety in rhythm affects second language acquisition and perception across languages.

Tone, Contour, and Intonation

• Tone languages use pitch to distinguish lexical/grammatical meaning within syllables or words (e.g., Thai, Yoruba, many African languages).

• Contour tone refers to the movement of pitch over time within a syllable or word (e.g., ma vs ma with different intonation or tone). A single syllable like ma can have different meanings depending on the pitch contour.

• In English (not a tone language for lexical meaning), pitch primarily conveys attitude, emotion, or grammatical structure (intonation).

• Contour vs tone: contour describes pitch movement in a sequence; tone is phonemic in tone languages.

• Intonation over phrases is used to convey attitude, mood, grammatical structures, and new vs. old information.

• Examples of pitch contour: rising end to signal a question (uptalk) vs falling end to signal a statement.

• Arrows in spectrograms can be used to indicate pitch contour visually.

• The bottom line for pitch representation: F0 is the fundamental frequency; harmonics appear as multiples of F0; formants are resonant concentrations shaped by the vocal tract (see Formants section).

Uptalk, Dialects, and Social Variation

• Uptalk (rising terminal intonation) is common in some English-speaking regions (e.g., US, Canada) and can affect perceived confidence or authority.

• In professional settings (e.g., job interviews), reducing uptalk and ending declaratively can improve perceived confidence and competence.

• Dialectal and gender patterns: uptalk varies by dialect and may be more prevalent among some groups (e.g., stereotypes like Valley Girls); some surveys suggest women use uptalk more than men, though there is substantial variation.

Geminates and Consonant Length

• Geminates are consonants that are held longer, giving the impression of a longer single consonant (often observed at morpheme boundaries or within words with double consonants).

• Example: forerunner vs foreigner – gemination (lengthened /r/) helps distinguish between phonetically similar words.

Vowel Length, Height, and Coarticulation

• Vowel height and duration:

  • Low vowels are held longer than high vowels; typical difference ~ ext{duration}{ ext{low}} - ext{duration}{ ext{high}}
    ightarrow 20 ext{-}25~ ext{ms}

  • The longer duration difference is above the perceptual threshold (just noticeable difference) for duration.

• Labials (lips) affect duration: labial sounds tend to lengthen more than other consonants.

• Coarticulation: surrounding sounds influence the articulation of a given vowel; longer vowels can shorten before certain consonants and shorten as more syllables are added.

  • Example: fame – the vowel before /m/ lengthens; longer sequences tend to shorten adjacent vowels.

  • Fruity vs fruityest – longer vowel realizations shorten as more syllables are added (progressively shortening the vowel or diphthong).

• Overall speech rate also affects duration and length of sounds; faster speech leads to shorter segments.

Formants, Spectrograms, and Harmonics

• Spectrograms (and historically sacrograms) visualize frequency content over time.

• F0 (fundamental frequency): the primary pitch source from the vocal folds.

• Harmonics: multiples of F0; all natural sounds have harmonics except pure tones (often produced by machines).

• Contours and formants in spectrograms:

  • Formants are not harmonics; they are resonant energies shaped by the vocal tract (vocal tract resonances F1, F2, F3, etc.).

  • Formants can shift with vowel quality (e.g., /i/ vs /a/ vs /ɐ/): energy concentrates around formant bands.

  • Anti-formants: troughs in energy due to specific articulatory configurations (e.g., certain vowels or breathy voice).

• Breathiness and voice quality: when breathiness is increased, harmonics can become less prominent and formant structure may appear smeared on the spectrogram.

• Glottal fry (creaky voice) and aperiodic sounds: lack periodic harmonics; no clear F0; spectrogram shows noise-like patterns rather than clear formant structure.

• Vocally healthy vs pathological voices: spectrograms can be used for biofeedback in voice therapy (e.g., to improve closure and reduce breathiness in nodules).

Onsets, Onset Types, and Articulation Details

• Onset types show how a word begins:

  • Strong onsets (e.g., plosives with clear release) vs glottal onsets (in some contexts a creaky or glottal stop may precede a vowel for emphasis or as an allophonic variant).

  • Glottal onset can be used for emphasis and is a feature sometimes described as a cricotic feature (articulatory emphasis).

• Examples of onset contrasts: e.g., a strong onset vs a breathy onset (onsets can affect perception of the following vowel).

Practical and Clinical Relevance

• The spectrogram and acoustic cues can be used to diagnose and treat voice disorders (e.g., vocal nodules, poor closure) via biofeedback.

• Understanding formants and harmonics helps in distinguishing vowel qualities and diagnosing breathiness or obstructed phonation.

Reading a Spectrogram: Worked Examples

• Baseball: F0 contour shows a subtle drop on the second syllable; the first syllable is more energetic (larger amplitude) than the second, indicating higher intensity on the first syllable.

• Bacon and eggs: The first syllable shows the strongest energy; there is a notable F0 contour across the phrase with relatively flat initial portion and a rise and fall around 'eggs'.

• Foreigner vs Forerunner: Gemination is visible as lengthened r in forerunner, making a longer consonantal segment than in foreigner.

• Make: The onset R (or the preceding consonant) behavior can illustrate how sound energy and amplitude distribute across the syllable; vowels are typically the loudest part of the nucleus, aligning with the sonority principle.

• Observations about the waveform and harmonics:

  • The first syllable often shows a larger harmonic energy and larger amplitude than subsequent syllables when stressed.

  • The absence or reduction of harmonics in certain segments (e.g., glottal fry or whispered tones) changes the visible energy distribution.

Formants, Vowel Quality, and Anti-Formants: A Quick Look

• Vowel quality is shaped by the resonant energies of the vocal tract; formants F1, F2 (and higher) define vowel height and backness.

• Anti-formants: regions of reduced energy (notches) that can occur in certain vowel configurations or due to anti-resonance effects.

• A shift from /e/ to /a/ changes formant positions (F1 tends to rise when vowels become more open; F2 shifts depending on backness).

Final Remarks: What the Exam Emphasizes

• The exam covers all chapters read so far; focus on core concepts: syllable structure, onset/nucleus/coda, rhyme, sonority, stress and its acoustic correlates, English rhythm patterns (trochaic vs iambic), mora/ syllable/timing differences, tone and intonation concepts, uptalk and social variation, gemination, coarticulation effects, formants/harmonics in spectrograms, and practical clinical applications.

• The instructor’s study guide will highlight the key topics from the chapters read; material outside of the class discussions may be less essential for the test.