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Charles-James N. Bailey
Reproduced by the
Indiana .University Linguistics Club
310 Lindley Hall
Sloomington, Indiana 47401
February, 1978
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ABSTRACT
o Charles-Janes N. Bailey
--
Charles-James N. Bailey
Bailey - 3
to represent the onset of accent with ticks ([' ,]). This mode of
as generally supposed up till now, that there is a fixed place for the
syllabic boundary in each Engl ish word. But the old method of repre
senting accent with acute and grave marks ov~r nuclear peaks for
Let us nov, examine some of the kinc1s of evidence th.;)t cap [,\.',,'':; ... (1
for determining the place of syllabic boundaries.
Ba i 1ey - 5
and Latin bonum with standard Ital ian buono. One infers that [~r]
in Latin petra (originally Greek) was a cluster entirely syllabified
with the following vowel because of the changes seen in Ital ian
pietra.
to [<;] next -to a front vowel (though not only there; cf. chaos) in
nucleus. The English early rule that assibilates II gil 'in regent
"my thing, but exar:lple5 gi,,',j, late' thelt involvl' lh,,; dr, ic in~l (t
':> c' r, U rail t s fl. F;- [ r h ~:' 'Ji FP I r: /'\ T ! Vt:: S ;,.1' v d I i c! I 'I t'L t: I' j () 'r ~ ll. Lc· .. '
'J ,j r j c!.. j e .~> Q j t rig 1 ; s h ,~- t:. 9 ~ I r r..' L', 1 d n d T" ICC' ! f ( J ~ L I ; . II I ,
in l!~nto hiP. is longer than 5S [-J (T'''': [:;1) in ; , ' , ' C \',!i :r, '
/';/ for mdn( spe.:lkers); this lengtt1 n::J doubt indic.tc:"5 ',yllat,l" ',:,1'
neSS.
It will lat~i:Jc fownd th2t Enqli h lect~ (I:';.::r ,)11 th:- ~ 11.l'I,',"'
tiNt of interrli,:clear glides and liquids. ~ht' hi,t r:CJ: <tL~t,
to' all lcct~, se'~:lS to have been such Lhat intcr:<uclc:dr ~: ,des "d tl
../h'-lt we h,]ve b,-l":l cllling J r:",rked s)llat,izati()n, ',l:. t:',,. v,E."''!
tauto'yllabic,lith the preceding nur:leu. This ie, i:'J,'>led lJV j~,
tho n q - de r i v ( d nuclei 1nth e ;'j '": i_ d"t c' d fir s t i 'I I 1at! ',' () fe; ',.' ; ,-i ,
.;~,'~, a:1d ct the traditional pronl:',(,idtiYl of 1.'" ",J','! (:11' .".,,1 1',
3' i l l CH~ :,een, IF/ affects the s,ll hiz,]tic', hr,i,',t" U::,j. ,·!·t"J ' , I ,
I)f':', " t:~f' ,Tost [l"Oilitorcd, lentc t,:,~,()). Lv""" l)." ,1'f;l'Li'l 'I'
Bailey - 7
rule of Middle Engl ish treated them I ike the obstruents and nasals.
evident from what has been already said about variable syllabiza
earl ier and later phonological rules of Engl ish, the different
(e.g. Hawaiian) creol ized pronunciations of Engl ish that are discussed
later, that there are no fixed universal principles of syllabization.
This also seems evident from differences among languages, which are
reflected, e.g., in preferences for apocope over I iaison or vice
versa. What has been said should be qualified, however, by the
consideration that there may be principles of syl labization which
are universal but are related to and dependent on the accentual and
rhythmic principles of pronunciations with which they are associated
in given instances. Even granting this relativity of universal
principles of syllabization to variable factors of rhythm, tempo,
and the like, it wil I stil I have to be determined whether such
principles are compatible with the resyllabizations in English and
other languages which are described below after the discussion of
the four principles of Engl ish syllabization. At any rate, there
can be no doubt that any such universal principles have to be
gradient, i.e. more or less applicable under conditions in which
more or less of other factors are involved. These other factors
are mainly differences in the degree of self-monitoring of a speaker
or speakers -- reflected as tempo and styl istic differences which
are amenable to a gradient framework such as presupposed in Bai ley
(1974c).
,J'~-"'IJI1.b, ()!ld."!1 t,-'l).;.J",' (i...;hicn undoubt'~I.~i\;-, once ,,:,\", t.~)i;,~>:! /;~./) Cor
:) ;.; j . ./;,;,,~. q •
by 1';/ !f~ C;,.":J, ~i [' ':'lybI 1 in su::: f .... i •. : ! c s u fEr; (OJ 1 ~ ; (' ':
Ba i ley - 9
•
The first or (a) part of the first principle of Engl ish syllabiza
tion can be stated as follows, in view of evidence already cited and
to be cited: 13
it.
10 - Ba i 1el
['J] .
left, v/hich Engl ish tends to do morc theW ilan\( ether fdr i 1 i",r l~lf'
[t 1] may not begin a word in Engl ish. Fast ter"po makes a:l ajr ::'(.r,:j
1 ike d name (see above) and misf!Zead have the 5yllabizal i0r: ,_,
There is evidence in fast tempo for mjlsncm'.'r and d,"S'1011'lt II. hi'
fact that [m] after- [5] is devoiced, just as Itlhf'r fillowing tauto"yl
r.
1ab i c [ ) in smell.
7 L;2] •
with the preceding II nH is that it has been deleted (see the pre
the deletion does not take place in con~tain (where aspirated [th]
case where this operates across a word boundary (one t-enacious ?).
As ill ready noted in connection with at',t11 ;)nd " / " " , <.yi i j
rin<:lI 111/1 ie, changed in norrrial Af;]crican pronunci;Jtion (oute,ide clf
New England) to [c.J], provided it sL,mds between vOI>;els, The accent,·r!
SS laO] in mighty ['miJ 8 dI] shows that the [j] here is syllable-fina!.
The change of 11:11 to [d] is possible in tarter and portc:T bcc,Jus(;
the apical stop is internuclear as the result of the prior nucleariza
tion or deletion of the preceding underlying 1 iquid. But the chang~
occurs in the speech of some or many speakers even after I,t/ lin
lects where the lateral is not nuclearized after certain heavy back
rounded nuclei), as in voltage, Walter, si1elt(>r, and rr.altcd. That
Iitl is a special sort of cluster is evident not only from this fact,
but also from the fact that ['tlJ occurs after it, as in molt n
[lmoUlt?t;lJ in the relevant lects. The change under scrutiny occurs
across l..Jord boundaries, whether the II til stands after llil (e.C).
. _ _ _-_ .... - - -
..
-----
Ba i 1ey - 15
atom and in formative, etc. The present writer, for example, feels
that the output of II til between unaccented nuclei and in talented
(see below) and allegro pinto -- as perhaps also in voltage and
Walter -- is more I ikely to qual ify as a tap in his speech than the
[d] in atom.
Both the output of ITI and the deletion of II -II in ninet:! inriic
the tautosyllabicity of n~tn with the preceding nucleus in this pro
Ba i ley - 17
of talented below.
follows them. After all, English vlOrds n,ay not end with [rj] (or Ll
tap) from II til • even if a vowel precedes, unless a vowel also
follows in the next word; e.g . .3t li all. (It should be noted that
the clusters that may precede an unaccented nucleus need not be as
extensive as those that may begin a word, though they may be, so
far as is known. The test using word-initial and word-final
clusters in determining Engl ish syllabization is most relevant. for
reasons to be seen later, to the environments immediately precedi19
and following accented syllables, respectively. The test is less
conclusive for consonants between unaccented nuclei.) But the main
point is that, if the evidence from phonological developments known
or strongly suspected to be correlated with syllabization indicates
a word-internal syl labization that posits a cluster which cannot
be found at the beginning or end of a word (as the case may be),
with what was learned above about bantam, mantel, and momentous,
though the rule that operates is not the one deleting II til, as with
those words, but the one that changes syllable-final lit/I to [d].
since syllable-initial II til does not change to [d], whi Ie II nil would
not remain undeleted if IIUI here were tautosyllabic with it. That
vowel, rather than the vowel following. But [8] would not be expected
(I)], not [89], here is due to the fol lowing lEI, rather than to any
Sa i ley - 21
22 - Ba i 1ey
The prc-,cl:t ~'Jriter f;r,d les:, ,)Sr,ir~lti r - or' Js;!ir,]tic:n Ic ' ,<:
~- -,~"-r ." Ll] irr L"xtru, vxrjd!::;.t;O:!~ . ;(.:·rt..'1Tif·)nt~71 .. ;,x~:) P7J: I" rC:.1~H,,·;r~' It
,~;ll be seen, precisely because} th.:.: cluster', :lrt' loncc'r iF1C (h('r'"
"iould account for the lack of an aspirated [,'], .Jnd c!lthouqh tr'c
t Sa i ley - 23
I
1 an English word (and the provisos which except certain instances
of cluster-final sonoranb do not apply here). But it Ifli II be
remembe~ed that in very rapid tempos a final sonorant may be
syllabified with a preceding cluster unless the last sonorant
is a lateral or nasal preceded by an apical stop. Note that
if the next-to-last consonant is a grave obstruent, it Itlould not
in any event be syllabified with a preceding consonant other than
a nasal or lateral ([t] and (CfJ being nuclear segments).
The variabil ity that has just been noted does not in itself
mean that syllabization principles are "anywhere" rules. This will
be true only if they are universals dependent on other prosodic
phenomena. It will be seen that the man.ner of syllabization changes
after the accent rules operate in their usual place in the ordering
of the phonological rules of Engl ish. "Styl istic" or "sociol inguistic"
RULE FEATURES like (t tempo] (mean i ng that a ru lei s more like I y to
operate as the tempo is faster) characterize some rules, and certainly
principles la and Ic. If the rule deleting IIUI shows little or
no variation in the cluster 1/ ~+rl/ when an unaccented nucleus
follows (as in vestry), this may be due to several factors. One
such factor may be the place of the rule deleting interconsonantal
apical stops, viz. between those rules assuming a syllable-timed
C-C(R) syllabization and those rules presupposing the syllabization
of consonants around a heavier-accented nucleus.
24 - Bailey
The preceding formula does not distinguish I/',,}II frorn II nell clust
and to that extent may be not wholly correct (see above). Princ:pl
Ie could be combined with Ib to be the mirror-image of 121 by
additionally requiring in Ie that the first consonant followi~q
a fully accented nucleus be syllAbified with it, This would havc
the disadvantage of precluding the two orderings of Ib and Ie in
moniker and multiple (see abo'/e). /CIS I.'i 11 be seen i 11 C(1nne~:t. iOIl
with principle 'III below, the provision for a fol1o~.';n(' unaccented
nucleus might be general izable to include any fol lowing LESS-HEAVIL
dccl2!l"(ed nue I eus.
themselves go together.
we have [t] from 1011 in lcqal (cr. le'qalitIJ) and [t] from 1;:)11
does not appear, being deleted except in the most drawled enuncia
The last example shows that evidence from vowel neutral ization
offers evidence for syllabization. lects that neutral ize (do not
keep distinct) vowels before It :::1"1 make the vOYJels in the accented
syllables of serious and period sound I ike that in rit and merge
the words Mary, marry, and merTlI -- and even MUlT:J/. 'j Parallel
neutral izations are found in some forms of N5 in the accented nucle~
of forest and trolley -- I ike war and ball, r<lther than far and doll
and even in sailing and selling, (See Bailey (1973).)
e
When we consider clusters of stops plus 1 iquids or gl ides which
.' ,. t
may occur word-initially, if no Iffl is present we hear syllable final
allegro tempos have [ae], from which are inferred the syllabizations,
[t]). These syl labizations are all confirmed by the aspiration test,
The evidence from nasal assimilation confirms what has just been
said. The lento syllabization of mongoose, mangrow:-, ,oni:qoir:g,
and in#qrown show [G,g], while the allegro syl labizations -- the tempo
has to be more rapid when I~I is present than when it is absent -
28 - Ba i ley
show [rJCJI]' That IrJl is constant in Fr:mc'J (a~, indicated by the \/0
change in SS ['frii:lk,oU]) is perhalls due to a phonological repreSt'n
tion with INI, viz. Franc#a. However, the writer has noticed that
what have been called lento treatments above are rare in foreign wo
like Congo (see also Klimeko, Nankh1g belmv, and Bf'nga.l, Ranqonr:
subsequently). The reason for this are not clear. Betor.;; /1 a
preceding II nil is deleted with accompanying nasal izatio'l of the
preceding vowel in allesro tempo, which h evidence that the tVIO
con son ant s are tau to s YI Jab ic. j n a I leg rot C 1'1 po - - \'1 fl i chi 5 a Iso
confirmed by the unaspirated [k]: H:mcock, Dunkirk, ,",'D.nking, ]"lnca.
(when the second syllable is mid-accented). Cronk~t0, Klim~nko, tru.
bronco, condord; Bancroft, Banquo, concrt;>te; un#couth,inficor".,. tCiX.
In lento tempos one hears [n,kh] here. For some speakers the alleql
treatment may be more usual \-,rhen the spell jng is link" than wher, it
is line." With the foregoing is to be compared the assimilation of
# n# to Iml in rainbow and henpecked in rapid pronunciation.
Leaving aside internuclear glides and liquids, it would be pos::
to avoid for'mulating a specific principle III, statin~l insteiJd a r:1et
principle that between a preceding fully accented nucleus and a fol
lowing mid-accented one principle la,b is ordered before Ic in alles
tempo, while the opposite ordering prevails in lentc tempo. This we
require rewording principles Ib,c to apply before (equally or) less
heavily accented nuclei, instead of sir1ply before unaccented ones;
and an additional proviso would have to stipulate that Ii:I affects t
syllabization when the next nucleus is mid-accented. The larger
generalization, as already observed, is that consonants tend to clus
with more heavily accented nuclei than .,.Jith less heavily accented en
and more consonants do this as the tempo increases. It is clear tha
mid-accented syllables are treated iTlore like unaccented syllables in
allegro pronunciation and more like fully accented syllahles in lent,
pronunciation.
When single underlying gl ides or ! iquids precede mid-accented
nuclei and are preceded by fully accented nuclei. principle Iia appl
but after heavy nuclei other than 1-:::'/ !lI-ful " SS does not treat II rll
differently from the "r-Iess" 5S treatment; e.g, r,t''''C' ["'! , r ].
However, "r-ful" NS and ("r-less") BRP haVe gemlndtion after all hea
nuclei; e.g. ['hfCl",rolJ). After "r-ful" 55 has gerlination, a I,',
chlQrj~0 and Clorox; after other heavy nuclei, as just said, genina
t ion is absent: ze I ro, Ne I ro, Xt:: I P)X. p};~l I LF; '1, Ca I"', +- i , r,'.
I'1j.rex, rru,ro, bu,reau. All lects in the Sc'uthern Stales syllabify
Je,llo, ka,yak. bouillon ['Lt!l1 ly L""] thus. But if jffl follm·Js the
I iquid or gl ide and a mid-accented Ilucleus follovis th.Jl, the I i·..Juid
or glide is syllabified with a ~receding fully accented nucleus, as
in mail,order. Cornpare also tell,';ou (with lTid"accented :Iou) ond
te'-llljou (where you is unaccented), The tr.3nscrif)tioll of /ifro d
few I ines above shows that neutral ization of the nucleus preceding
/' r /, occurs ""here geminat:on of the latter hLls occu .. red.
~Jjth the exception of the special treatl',cr:1 c·f iritt'rnllclea r' / / "',
viC find the same lectal division her~' as ;,r,t'f, eli' .'i<hCcliteG ilCJl.I"ll':
-
Ba i ley - 29
has some,weight) or Ic, while Ilr-ful l ' lects and others 1 ike them
tempo differences.
glance:
prayer, pair/pare, stare, lair. The /#1 drops out in rapid pronun
poet (cf. fluidity, poetic) becomes a nuclear satel I ite of the pre
monosyllabic (I ike sour, cowl, poor, and cure). And so with lower
CONCLUSIONS
----- ~---------~----------~
----------------- -------------------
Ba i ley - 31
;Ii
I iquids in the "r-less " lects wi 11 hc1ve a marked, rather than
unmarked,' syllab i zat ion. For a proper perspect i ve for under
standing this, it is necessary to consider RE5YLLABIZATION, not
only in Engl ish, but in other languages. The treatment of
underlying gl ides and I iquids according to principle Iia in
"r-Iess" lects of Engl ish is not exceptional, at least in com
parison with the historical treatment of intervocalic gl ides
in Engl ish which was noted in the first section, and certainly
as compared with the present treatment of obstruents. At least
for the gl ides, this exceptionality serves to mark the foreignness
of all internuclear gl.ides, viz. those appearing in the underlying
etc. have already been cited. cf. also Gawa.in). The same excep
What has been said permits the conclusion that what is unmarked
and fll.Jrked in syll.Jbizat:on:'9 depends on rhythm and tCf:lpO. In
],Jnguages vlith syllable-til'lcd rhythm, and even in languages that
have long vowels (treated as bin~ric) -- whether in accented or
32 - Ba i ley
....~....------------------~=-------~=--=-----------------------------------------
-
Ba i ley - 33
word to' the rounding of a given vowel in its base (in vowel
[ I ba I t Sum] ) .
ma, pa, Arkansas, etc. For such speakers, the change occurs in
occurs in father (which once had 1].:1, even though today the under
FOOTNOTES
1i
i
!
Ba i ley - 37
contrast expected [ I fCL; I fo.: I fa: I fa] wi th [ I fo.: f~e I fG.: f-e] , where
41f in some language a base form ikli should have a redupl icated
derivative ikli-li, one might infer a syllabic boundary between [k]
and [I] in the base. But if the derived form were ikli-kli, then
the syllabic boundary would be presumed to stand immediately before
[k].
or Ilrll follows. See details later on. Such deletions are inhioited
by IHI in the slower tempos in vlhich 1;;1 is not d(:leted (sec be 10";) ;
e.g. pass#ed by, c<:1nn#ed milk.
The deletions occur, all else being
husband.
initial /w/ in kniwis "knee l s" and mawi (nominative sinqulcn forr.
of maujos). It is obvious that syllable-initial 1'1 and s'/llal)le~
irlitial Iw/ acted differently; for the former alone combined v·,;n,
the preceding la/ to yield [~].
14This qual ification is relative, since fast te:',pc's permi t c I,; ,::'
r :.
not permitted in slower tempos; e.g. m'rin~, [~m, ('" ~ .I • ,. ,
~lso n. 23. Note that syllable-initiJI aspil-d!:{.:
-
Ba i ley - 39
0
? •
.Actually, interconsonantal 11'p,~/1 are also deleted in :-rf:mus
and asthma, if they actually exist in the underlying representations
of these words. Some interconsonantal consonant has to exist in
isthmus to prevent the change of U sU to [z] at the relevant point
in the rules (cf. the change in plasma; contrast [ ) in plastic).
change of II lUI to /UI may occur before // til -- nc less than before
Ilvr :)rll (but cf. n. 14). Even though \lJord-initial II ;:1::1 f,j b'll
are tolerated (but not usually Ilbl Y'I vi/I), the syllabizati~n
tolerated but not II srll nor, except in rur 10rous pseudo Yiddish
s
wo r d s, II I II .
if the nasal had never been there; e.(l. dr;)ch~'()r and i(n)k~linrr
-
1
I
I Ba i ley - 41
42 - Ba i ley
32The fact that the lateral satell ite is deleted before tauto
syllabic non-apicals is due to their being non-apical ized laterals
here. They are not generally deleted before apicals, since there
they are apical ized. (The deletions in would, etc. are due to the
unaccented status of the modals. The deletion in talk, walk, folk,
yolk, calm, half, calf, salve -- the noun -- and nonstandard help,
self, etc. all occur before non-apicals of the heavy, or voiceless,
order. )
Bailey-43
REFEP.ENCES
pp. 82-95.
Ba i 1ey - 47
14.1-15.
--~
and Pavel Ivic. 1967. Some problems concerning the syllable
in Serbocroatian. Glossa 1.126-36.
lindblom, B. E. F. 1968. Temporal organization of syllable produc
tion. Quarterly progress and status report (Speech Transmission
laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm). 2-3.1-5.
I
Peterson, Gordon E., and lise lehiste. 1960. Durat ion of syllabic I
nuclei in Engl ish. Journal of the Acoustic .:oocietl) of America I
32.693-703.
f
Pulgram, Ernst. 1961. French /a/: stat ics and dynamics of
1inguistic subcodes. Lingua 10.305-25. 'I
I
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