A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
that forms a
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
is used, . It may be instead represented by an overstroke, if the symbol that it modifies has a
descender
In typography and handwriting, a descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font.
For example, in the letter ''y'', the descender is the "tail", or that portion of the diagonal line which lies below the ''v'' c ...
, such as in .
Syllabic consonants in most languages are
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
s, such as
nasals and
liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, a ...
s. Very few have syllabic
obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
s, such as
stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s and
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s in normal words, but English has syllabic fricatives in
paralinguistic
Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, is a component of meta-communication that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using techniques such as prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, etc. It is sometimes defined as relatin ...
words like ''shh!'' and ''zzz''.
Examples
Germanic languages
In many varieties of
High
High may refer to:
Science and technology
* Height
* High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area
* High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory
* High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...
and
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
, pronouncing syllabic consonants may be considered a
shibboleth
A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwor ...
. In High German and
Tweants
Tweants (Tweants pronunciation: ; nl, Twents ) is a group of non-standardised, closely related Westphalian, Dutch Low Saxon dialects, descending from Old Saxon. It is spoken daily by approximately 62% of the population of Twente, a region in t ...
(a Low Saxon dialect spoken in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
; more Low Saxon dialects have the syllabic consonant), all word-final
syllables
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
in infinite
verbs
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
and feminine
plural nouns
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
spelled are pronounced with syllabic consonants. The High German
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
('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
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
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
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
and a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
().
In
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
, a syllabic consonant is the standard colloquial realization of combinations of the
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
schwa and a
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
, 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
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
, a syllabic
alveolar nasal
The voiced alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in numerous spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar nasals is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ...
, , may be heard. It is syllabic when following other
alveolar consonants
Alveolar (; UK also ) consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with ...
and occurs most often in the
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular homology
* SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS)
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...
form of
masculine
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
nouns (see
Norwegian grammar
Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish language, Swedish and Danish language, Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect cont ...
) where the schwa has
elided
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
, 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
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
dialects. In all cases where the alveolar sound becomes
retroflex
A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
, also becomes retroflex , e.g. ('the moustache') (see
Norwegian phonology#Consonants). In some Norwegian dialects, a syllabic
alveolar lateral approximant
The voiced alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is , and the eq ...
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
__NOTOC__
Trøndersk (), also known as ''trøndermål'', ''trøndsk'' and ''trønder'', is a Norwegian dialect, or rather a group of several sub-dialects. As is the case with all Norwegian dialects, it has no standardised orthography, and its u ...
, 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
obstruent
An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...
s are used syllabically in English is in
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
, 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
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, ऌ & अं are syllabic consonants,
allophones
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
of consonantal and . This continues the reconstructed situation of
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
, where both
liquids
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, an ...
and
nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
had syllabic allophones, .
Slavic languages
Many
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
allow syllabic consonants. Some examples include:
*
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
*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
Vltava ( , ; german: Moldau ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Labe at M ...
.
*
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
''r'' , such as in 'to run'; ''l'' , such as in 'Vltava'; and ''n'' , such as in '
Newton
Newton most commonly refers to:
* Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist
* Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton
Newton may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film
* Newton ( ...
'. In dialects between the
Kupa
The Kupa () or Kolpa ( or ; from la, Colapis in Roman times; hu, Kulpa) river, a right tributary of the Sava, forms a natural border between north-west Croatia and southeast Slovenia. It is long, with its border part having a length of and th ...
river and
Velebit
Velebit (; it, Alpi Bebie) is the largest, though not the highest, mountain range in Croatia. The range forms a part of the Dinaric Alps and is located along the Adriatic coast, separating it from Lika in the interior. Velebit begins in the nor ...
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
The Sinitic languages (漢語族/汉语族), often synonymous with "Chinese languages", are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is ...
, such as
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
and
Hokkien
The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...
, 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
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
, 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
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
, 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
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
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
Nuosu or Nosu (, transcribed as ), also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language () and, as such, is the only one taug ...
has two similar "buzzed" vowels that are described as syllabic fricatives, . The former may even be trilled .
Sinologists
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
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
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
. However, this is a misnomer, as the tongue is actually
laminal
A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact
with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...
. 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
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
,
Salish
Salish () may refer to:
* Salish peoples, a group of First Nations/Native Americans
** Coast Salish peoples, several First Nations/Native American groups in the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest
** Interior Salish peoples, several First Nat ...
,
Wakashan
Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (state), Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
As is ...
and
Chemakuan languages have syllabic obstruents in normal vocabulary, such as
Nuxálk , "northeast wind", 'wet', 'dry', or 'we () used to sing ()'.
In
Standard Yoruba
Yoruba (, ; Yor. '; Ajami: ) is a language spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speakers is roughly 50 million, plus about 2 million second-language ...
, 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
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), the ...
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