Syllabic Consonants

A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet is used, . It may be instead represented by an overstroke, if the symbol that it modifies has a descender, such as in .

Syllabic consonants in most languages are sonorants, such as nasals and liquids. Very few have syllabic obstruents, such as stops and fricatives in normal words, but English has syllabic fricatives in paralinguistic words like ''shh!'' and ''zzz''.

Examples

Germanic languages

In many varieties of High and Low German, pronouncing syllabic consonants may be considered a shibboleth. In High German and Tweants (a Low Saxon dialect spoken in the Netherlands; more Low Saxon dialects have the syllabic consonant), all word-final syllables in infinite verbs and feminine plural nouns spelled are pronounced with syllabic consonants. The High German infinitive ('to walk') is pronounced or (in some accents) even and its Tweants counterpart is pronounced . Tweants scholars even debate whether or not this feature should be incorporated in spelling, resulting in two generally accepted spelling forms (either or ).

Many dialects of English may use syllabic consonants in words such as ''even'' , ''awful'' and ''rhythm'' , which English dictionaries' respelling systems usually treat as realizations of underlying sequences of schwa and a consonant ().

In Danish, a syllabic consonant is the standard colloquial realization of combinations of the phoneme schwa and a sonorant, generally referred to as schwa-assimilation, e.g. ('the cat') = , ('lady') = , ('bike') = , ('ant') = , ('sleep') = , ('shrimp') = , or ('the house') = .

In all four dialect groups of Norwegian, a syllabic alveolar nasal, , may be heard. It is syllabic when following other alveolar consonants and occurs most often in the definite singular form of masculine nouns (see Norwegian grammar) where the schwa has elided, e.g. ('the car') , where it was originally . With some speakers, the schwa may be reinserted, especially for words already ending in where the syllabic may have been entirely elided afterward, e.g. ('the man') can either be pronounced like , or . In addition to this, a syllabic always occurs in words like ('water') and ('bottom') . This syllabification of alveolar nasals also appears in some Swedish dialects. In all cases where the alveolar sound becomes retroflex, also becomes retroflex , e.g. ('the moustache') (see Norwegian phonology#Consonants). In some Norwegian dialects, a syllabic alveolar lateral approximant may be heard in the same circumstances as syllabic , e.g. ('poodle') , though it is not as common as syllabic . A syllabic may also be heard in Bergen, where a following syllabic has elided completely, e.g. ('the sun') . In dialects that have palatalisation of some alveolar consonants like Northern Norwegian and Trøndersk, the following syllabic is also palatalised, e.g. ('the ball') .

Obstruents

All of the consonants syllabicized in Germanic languages are sonorants. However, the only time obstruents are used syllabically in English is in onomatopoeia, such as ''sh!'' (a command to be quiet), ''sss'' (the hiss of a snake), ''zzz'' (the sound of a bee buzzing or someone sleeping), and ''tsk tsk!'' (used to express disapproval or pity), though it is not certain how to define what a syllable is in such cases.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , ऌ & अं are syllabic consonants, allophones of consonantal and . This continues the reconstructed situation of Proto-Indo-European, where both liquids and nasals had syllabic allophones, .

Slavic languages

Many Slavic languages allow syllabic consonants. Some examples include:
* Czech and Slovak ''r'' and ''l'' , as in the phrase 'stick your finger through the throat' (in both languages). Slovak also has long versions of these syllabic consonants, ŕ and ĺ, e.g.: 'joint', 'willow', '(of) spots'. Czech also has m̩ and n̩, e.g.: 'seven'.
* Slovene , and in non-native words, e.g. Vltava.
* Serbo-Croatian ''r'' , such as in 'to run'; ''l'' , such as in 'Vltava'; and ''n'' , such as in 'Newton'. In dialects between the Kupa river and Velebit of pre-war Croatia, other consonants are also syllabic. For example, ''t'' , such as in (which is 'small bridge' in standard Croatian); and ''č'' , such as in (which is ('clove') in standard Croatian).
* Macedonian ''р'' , such as in 'first', 'heart', 'irrepressible', 'spine', 'to rust', 'to snore', etc.

Sinitic languages

Several Sinitic languages, such as Cantonese and Hokkien, feature both syllabic ''m'' () and ''ng'' () that stand alone as their own words. In Cantonese, the former is most often used in the word meaning 'not' (, ) while the latter can be seen in the word for 'five' (, ) and the surname Ng (, or , , depending on the tone), among others.

Syllabic fricatives

A number of languages have syllabic fricatives or fricative vowels. In several varieties of Chinese, certain high vowels following fricatives or affricates are pronounced as extensions of those sounds, with voicing added (if not already present) and a vowel pronounced while the tongue and teeth remain in the same position as for the preceding consonant, leading to the turbulence of a fricative carrying over into the vowel. In Mandarin Chinese, this happens for example with '','' '','' '','' and . Traditional grammars describe them as having a "buzzing" sound. A number of modern linguists describe them as true syllabic fricatives, although with weak frication and voicing. They are accordingly transcribed respectively.

However, for many speakers, the friction carries over only into the beginning of the vowel. The tongue and teeth remain where they were, but the tongue contact is lessened a bit to allow for a high approximant vowel with no frication except at the beginning, during the transition. John Wells uses the detailed transcriptions for ''si'' and for ''shi'' (ignoring the tone), with the superscript indicating the "color" of the sound and a lowering diacritic on the ''z'' to indicate that the tongue contact is relaxed enough to prevent frication. Another researcher suggests and for ''si'' and ''shi'', respectively, to indicate that the frication of the consonant may extend onto the vowel.Kwan-hin Cheung, 1992. "北京話 '知' '資' 二韻國際音標寫法商榷" PA transcription of the so-called 'apical vowels' in Pekinese in T. Lee, ed., ''Research on Chinese Linguistics in Hong Kong'', Linguistic Society of Hong Kong. Some speakers have even more lax articulation, opening the teeth and noticeably lowering the tongue, so that are pronounced , with the same vowel in each case and no r-coloring.

The Nuosu language has two similar "buzzed" vowels that are described as syllabic fricatives, . The former may even be trilled .

Sinologists and linguists working in the Chinese analytical tradition frequently use the term apical vowel ( ) to describe the sounds above and others like them in various Sino-Tibetan languages. However, this is a misnomer, as the tongue is actually laminal. The nonstandard symbols are commonly used to transcribe these vowels in place of or , respectively. The term ''apical vowel'' should also not be taken as synonymous with ''syllabic fricative'', as e.g., the bilabial syllabic fricative in Liangshan Yi is not pronounced with the tongue.

Other languages

Berber, Salish, Wakashan and Chemakuan languages have syllabic obstruents in normal vocabulary, such as Nuxálk , "northeast wind", 'wet', 'dry', or 'we () used to sing ()'.

In Standard Yoruba, the consonants ''m'' and ''n'' may be syllabic and carry tone like vowels. However, they always stand alone as syllables and cannot stand as syllable nuclei.

In Baoulé, ''m'' or ''n'' may be syllabic. As a stand-alone word, it means 'I' (first person subject pronoun), as in 'I speak Baoulé'. Its quality varies with the consonant following it, as in 'I will come tomorrow'.

The Hungarian word , a high-register variant of 'and', is a syllabic consonant, although it usually cliticises: 'and I had eaten'.

See also

* N with long right leg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syllabic Consonant
Vowels
Consonants
Phonotactics