What does syllable mean? Proclitic - an unstressed syllable before a stressed one, for example, I thought

SYLLABLE

1. A sound or combination of sounds in a word, pronounced with one exhalation (ling.). Open syllable (ending in a vowel). Closed syllable (ending with a consonant). Divide words into syllables. 2 units only Style, manner of writing or speaking, expressing your thoughts. High-flown syllable. The article is written in an excellent style. “- Allow me, Pyotr Ivanovich, I’ll tell you... - Eh, no, let me... you don’t even have such a style.” Gogol . “Poems go with a high syllable.” Vyazemsky .

Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov. 1935-1940.

See what “SYLLABLE” is in other dictionaries:

syllable- syllable, a, plural. h.i, ov... Russian spelling dictionary

A syllable is a minimal phonetic-phonological unit, characterized by the greatest acoustic and articulatory unity of its components, that is, the sounds included in it. The syllable has no connection with the formation and expression of semantic relations.... ... Wikipedia

One of the simplest, but scientifically most difficult to define phonetic concepts. Strange as it may seem at first glance, there is no doubt that the conscious isolation of S. preceded in the history of mankind the conscious isolation of a separate sound.... ... Literary encyclopedia

1. SYLLABLE, a; pl. syllables, ov; m. A sound or combination of sounds in a word, pronounced with one impulse of exhaled air. Divide words into syllables. The emphasis is on the last syllable. Closed village (ending in with vowel). Open s. (ending with... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

See speech, style, language, glib syllable, caustic syllable, acute syllable... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. syllable manner, language, style; speech; ict, warehouse, syllabema, pen, euphuism Dictionary... ... Synonym dictionary

Syllable- A syllable is a phonetic-phonological unit that occupies an intermediate position between sound and speech tact (see Speech sounds, Articulation). Several features of a syllable are identified as phonetic unit. From the point of view of speech motor control, the syllable ... Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary

SYLLABLE, a, plural. and, ov, husband. A sound or combination of sounds produced by a single impulse of exhaled air. Divide words into syllables. Read syllable by syllable. Shock s. Open s. (ending in a vowel sound). Closed village (ending in a consonant).… … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

The minimum pronunciation unit of speech, consisting of one or more sounds that form a close phonetic unity. An open syllable ends with a vowel, a closed consonant ends with sounds... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

SYLLABLE 1, a, plural. and, ov, m. a sound or combination of sounds pronounced by one impulse of exhaled air. Divide words into syllables. Read syllable by syllable. Shock s. Open s. (ending in a vowel sound). Closed village (ending in a consonant).… … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

SYLLABLE 2, a, m. Same as style 1 (in 3 meanings). Write in a good style. High s. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Books

• Letter - phoneme - speech sound - syllable - word. Alphabet of the Chinese language Putonghua, A. Aleksakhin. Letter - phoneme - speech sound - syllable - word. Alphabet Chinese language Mandarin...
• Educational and game set “Find the stressed syllable”, Nasonova T. R., Burlakina Olga Viktorovna. We present to your attention the educational game set “Find the stressed syllable” - 4 games - 4 playing fields - 60 cards…

This article covers the topic "1 syllable". You can divide words into syllables using an online program.

Syllable is one sound or several sounds,
pronounced with one exhalation push of air:
go-ra, ma-shi-na.

Rules for dividing words into syllables in Russian

1. In the Russian language there are sounds of different audibility: vowel sounds are more sonorous compared to consonant sounds.

• There are so many syllables in a word how many vowel sounds. Vowel sounds form syllables and are syllabic.
• Consonant sounds are non-syllabic. When pronouncing a word, consonant sounds are “attached” to vowels, forming a syllable together with the vowels.

2. A syllable can consist of one sound (in which case it must be a vowel) or several sounds (in this case, in addition to the vowel, the syllable contains a consonant or a group of consonants) : defense-defense; line-line;If a syllable consists of two or more sounds, then it must begin with a consonant.

3. Syllables can be open or closed.

• Open syllable ends with a vowel sound: yes, wall.
• Closed syllable ends with a consonant: juice.
• In the middle of a word, a syllable usually ends in vowel sound, and a consonant or group of consonants coming after a vowel usually goes to the following syllable: but-ski, di-kta-tor.
• In the middle of a word, closed syllables can only form unpaired voiced consonants [th], [r], [r'], [l], [l'], [m], [m'], [n], [n'] (sonorant): ma yay, Sa Come on, sim-ka.

4. Sometimes a word can have two consonants written but only one sound, for example: get rid of[izh:yt’]. Therefore, in this case, two syllables stand out: and-live. Division into parts out-live corresponds to the rules of word hyphenation, and not division into syllables. The same can be seen in the example of the verb leave, in which the combination of consonants zzh sounds like one sound [and:]; therefore the division into syllables will be - leave, and dividing a word to hyphenate is leave.

Attention!

• Division twisting, pressing is a division into parts for hyphenation, and not a division into syllables, since in such forms the combination of letters huh, huh sounds like one sound [ts].
• When dividing into syllables, combinations of letters huh, huh go entirely to the next syllable: hover, press.

5. When combining several consonants in the middle of a word:

• two identical consonants necessarily go to the next syllable: O- leak, yes;
• two or more consonants usually go to the next syllable: sha-pka, ra- vny. Exception make up combinations of consonants in which the first is an unpaired voiced (sonorant): letters r, r, l, l, m, m, n, n, th :mark-ka, dawn-ka, bul-ka, insole-ka, dam-ka, ban-ka, ban-ka, bark-ka

Talking books
(the computer shows a syllable icon and says it out loud)

Educationchildren reading syllabically online:

• Talking books (the computer shows an icon of the syllable and can say it out loud)
• Online game Put the syllables in their places
• Game to strengthen reading skills Guess the word
• A game to develop a child’s figurative memory Extra warehouses
• Online game Word in the Matrix
• Game - training Guess the pictogram
• Online game Memorizing pictograms - warehouses

Literacy lessons and reading instruction

In literacy classes, it is important to offer children exercises to prepare their hands for the writing process. These are graphic games and graphic tasks preceded by finger exercises. Finger gymnastics- these are the simplest activities based on bending and straightening your fingers, clenching your hand into a fist, and tapping your fingers on the surface of the table. The purpose of such exercises is to strengthen the muscles of the hand, relieve their excessive tension, and relieve hand tremors. As a result of performing graphic exercises, children learn:

a) freely direct movements according to scope, degree of pressure on the pencil, according to rhythm;

b) navigate on a sheet of paper;

c) represent lines various configurations continuous movement of the hand.

It is not advisable to ask children to write elements of letters or the letters themselves, small graphic elements, because this requires precision execution and enormous volitional efforts.

It is necessary to widely use shading and tracing contours. drawing a group of contour images on a line (plums, apples, acorns, etc.) lays down the skill of keeping a line, saving the size of a figure, and reproducing an image. All this will be needed at school when writing letters in a notebook. It is important that everyone graphic exercise had its own name “Garland for the Christmas tree”, “Pattern of leaves”, “Planes”, etc. This figurative correlation allows children to see an object behind the line, develops imagination, creativity, and complex, time-consuming work to develop graphic skills that are interesting and attractive for a preschooler.

Classes on teaching reading should include elements of imagotherapy and its variety - puppet therapy. Considering the difficulty of the material, the use of such an understandable and familiar image for children - a doll - increases children's interest in the lesson, stimulates their attention and performance. In the presented methodological scenarios classes included fairy tale character Pencil. This hero is associated with the concept of “literacy”, “writing”. His tasks in the classroom are varied: introduces children to new material, plays games with them didactic games, makes “mistakes” that children are happy to correct, establishes increased emotional background, mood.

In reading lessons, attention should be paid to the intonation expressiveness of speech. It is important to teach a child to identify intonation sounds in a word, a word in a sentence. Recreating the melody of speech, stress placement skills, and the ability to control the tempo and rhythm of speech will help lay the foundations for expressive reading, teach the student to highlight significant information, and convey his thoughts and feelings in speech.

The article was devoted to the topic "1 syllable".

Syllable

Syllable- the minimum unit of pronunciation of speech sounds into which you can divide your speech by pauses. The word in speech is divided not into sounds, but into syllables. In speech, it is syllables that are recognized and pronounced. Therefore, with the development of writing among all peoples, syllabic signs first appeared in the alphabets, and only then letters reflecting individual sounds.

The division into syllables is based on the difference in sonority of sounds. A sound that is more sonorous than neighboring sounds is called syllabic and forms a syllable.

A syllable usually has a peak (core) and a periphery. As a core, i.e. The syllabic sound is usually a vowel, and the periphery consists of a non-syllabic sound or several such sounds, usually represented by consonants. But a syllable can consist of only one vowel without any peripherals, e.g. diphthong in English pronouns I“I” or two or more vowels (Italian. vuoi). Peripheral vowels are non-syllabic.

But syllables may not have a vowel, for example, in the patronymic Ivanovna or in the interjections “ks-ks”, “tsss”. Consonants can be syllabic if they are sonants or occur between two consonants. Such syllables are very common in the Czech language: prst“finger” (cf. Old Russian. finger), trh“market” (cf. Russian. bargain), vlk"wolf", srdce, srbsky, Trnka(famous Czech linguist). In a sentence Vlk prchl skrz tvrz(the wolf ran through the fortress) there is not a single vowel. But in examples from the Czech language it is clear that the syllabic consonant is always sonorant.

The division into syllables is explained by different theories that complement each other.

Sonoration theory: in a syllable, the most sonorous sound is the syllabic. Therefore, in order of decreasing sonority, syllabic sounds most often are vowels, sonorant voiced consonants, noisy voiced consonants, and sometimes voiceless consonants (tss).

Dynamic theory: syllabic sound is the strongest, most intense.

Expiratory theory: a syllable is created by one moment of exhalation, a push of exhaled air. The number of syllables in a word is the number of times the candle flame flickers when the word is pronounced. But often the flame behaves contrary to the laws of this theory (for example, with a two-syllable “ay” it will flutter once).

Types of syllables

Open syllable is a syllable ending with a vowel sound, e.g. yeah, oh.

Closed syllable is a syllable ending with a consonant, e.g. hell, mind, cat.

Covered syllable begins with a consonant sound, e.g. glad, pop.

Uncovered syllable starts with a vowel sound: ah, he, ah, really.

In Russian, the syllables are mostly open, while in Japanese almost all are open (Fu-ji-ya-ma, i-ke-ba-na, sa-mu-rai, ha-ra-ki-ri).

There are also cases of extremely closed and covered syllables, for example, splash, English. and fr. strict(strict), German sprichst(you speak), Georgian - msxverpl(victim).

There are languages ​​where the roots and syllables are the same. Such languages ​​are called monosyllabic, e.g. whale. language - typical monosyllabic.

Often in speech it is very difficult to determine the boundary of a syllable.

Rus. They led me by the arm and took my friends away. They beat the viper - they killed the vipers. Palette - half a liter.

English. an ocean - a notion; an aim - a name.

Supersegmental units of language

Sound units of language can be segmental (linear) and supersegmental.

Segmental units- these are sounds (phonemes), syllables, words, etc. Longer language units are divided into shorter segments.

Supersegmental units, or otherwise prosodic(from Greek prosodia- refrain, stress) are layered onto a chain of segments - syllables, words, phrases, sentences. Typical supersegmental units are stress and intonation.

Tact- a group of words united by one stress and separated from each other by a pause.

Proclitic- unstressed syllable before a stressed syllable, e.g. I dat small.

Enclitic- unstressed syllable after a stressed syllable, e.g. znA YuI .

Unstressed words - articles, prepositions, particles - often act as enclitics. Sometimes they pull the emphasis on themselves: “p O d hand."

Thus, the boundaries of words and measures may not coincide.

Accent

Stress (accent) is the emphasis of a sound, syllable, word, group of words.

The three main types of stress are force, quantity and musical.

Power (dynamic) stress is related to the amplitude of the vibrations of the sound wave; the greater the amplitude, the stronger the sound is pronounced.

Quantitative (quantitative) stress is associated with the duration, length of the sound; a stressed syllable has a longer duration than unstressed syllables.

Musical (polytonic) stress is associated with the relative pitch of the tone, with a change in this pitch.

Usually in languages ​​that have stress, all three stresses are intertwined, but one of them predominates and the main type of stress in a particular language is determined by it.

In Russian, force stress, being the main one, is accompanied by the length of the stressed syllable.

In Swedish, musical stress is accompanied by force.

There are languages ​​in which there is no accent at all, for example, in Paleo-Asian languages ​​(Chukchi, etc.).

Languages ​​with force stress as their main ones include Russian, English, French, German, Bashkir, Tat. and many others.

Quantitative stress is not used as the main one and is only used as a component in combination with other types of stress. In some languages, for example Latin, versification is based on the alternation of long and short syllables (which corresponds to stressed and unstressed syllables in Russian versification). Therefore, to the ear of an Italian, accustomed to verses based on dynamic stress, Latin verses are non-rhythmic.

Languages ​​in which musical stress is used widely or plays the role of the main stress primarily include such oriental languages ​​as Chinese (4 tones in the literary dialect, 6 tones in the Hong Kong dialect), Thai (5 tones), Vietnamese (6 tones), etc. In these languages, each syllable has its own tone, and since in these languages, as a rule, the syllable coincides with the word, then each simple word its constant tone, which changes only occasionally when composing words.

In China language ma(1) with an even tone means “mother”, ma(2) with a rising tone means "hemp", ma(3) with a descending-rising tone - “horse” and “digit,” ma(4) with a falling tone means “to swear.”

Another example from China. language: verb mai with a falling tone means “to sell”, a mai with a descending-rising tone - “buy”.

An even more amazing example of the distribution of tones in syllables can be found in the south of China in the Cantonese (Hong Kong) dialect, where there are 6 tones (the tones are indicated by numbers): Fu 55 (upper case) - man, husband; Fu 35 (ascending upper case) - to suffer, suffer; Fu 33 (outgoing upper case) - wealth, rich; Fu 21 (flat lowercase) - support, lean; Fu 13 (ascending lower case) - woman; Fu 22 (outgoing lowercase) - father, eldest relative.

Japanese has three types of musical stress, but they fall only on stressed syllables, similar to dynamic stress in Russian.

hana (0) pronounced with a low tone on the first syllable and a middle tone on the second means “nose, snot”; hana (1) pronounced high on the first syllable and low on the second means “beginning, end”; hana (2) pronounced low on the first syllable and high on the second means "flower".

The ancient Greek language also had three types of musical stress. The stressed syllable was pronounced not stronger than the unstressed one, but with a higher tone.

Spicy (lat. acutus) accent with a higher note, e.g. πατηρ [ pate r] - father; heavy stress (lat. gravis) with a lower note, e.g. αρχη [ arche ] - Start; light stress (lat. circumflex) with a combination of acute and heavy stress, for example, σωμα [ so ma] - body.

Of the modern European languages, musical stress (2-3 types) is found in Serbian, Croatian, Latvian, Swedish, but always in combination with the main power stress.

Musical stress can be on a syllable or word.

Syllable stress: China..., Tibetan, Burmese, Siamese (Thai), Vietnamese, Latvian, Serbian.

Word stress: Japanese, Ainu, Tagalog, Malay, Swedish, Norwegian.

There is stress in a word main(or secondary(\), e.g. yellowe zobetO n.

The emphasis in languages ​​can be constant (fixed), i.e. stressed syllables have a permanent place in the word, or free, i.e. not associated with a specific place in the word (tv O horn, creation O G).

One calculation showed that in 444 languages ​​studied, 25% of languages ​​have stress on the initial syllable, 18% on the penultimate syllable, 20% on the final syllable, and 33% of languages ​​have free stress.

Constant stress on the first syllable is characteristic of the Czech, Hungarian, and Latvian languages. Wed. Czech so bota"Saturday" O ta", vo jak"sold" A T"; Hungarian a lma « I block", ba lta"axe".

Constant stress on the penultimate syllable (the second syllable from the end) is inherent in the Polish language, for example. matematy ka, ko ziol"goat".

Most words in Spanish are also stressed on the penultimate syllable, especially those with a final vowel ( si esta).

Constant stress on the last syllable is characteristic of French. languages, Turkic languages ​​(Bash., Tat., etc.), Persian language (Farsi): French. revolutio n, bash., tat. alma (apple), balta (axe), Tehran.

The most typical language with free stress is Russian.

Sometimes stress helps to distinguish the meanings of homographs - words with the same spelling, for example, kr. at zhki - circle And, P O lky - regiment And.

In addition to traditional stress, logical stress can be placed in speech in order to emphasize the significance of a particular part of a sentence or to express additional meaning to the main meaning of the phrase. For example, in A. M. Artaud’s book “The Word Sounds” the following example of logical stress is given:

“Let's take the standard phrase Give me a glass of tea and break it down into its component meanings. If we focus onfirst word , we open the following: “Enough idle chatter! I came tired, thirsty, give me a glass of tea, and then I’ll tell you all the news.” Focus onsecond word : “They gave it to the neighbor on the right, they gave it to the neighbor on the left, they gave it to everyone, they asked everyone, they forgot about me - why is that? Give it to me too, if you give it to everyone...” Onthird word : “You know perfectly well that I don’t drink from a cup, give me a glass. You can respect my habits at least a little!” And finally, onfourth : “Tea! You see - no wine, no coffee! Nothing quenches thirst like good, fragrant tea!”

Intonation

Intonation refers to all prosodic phenomena in syntactic units - phrases and words.

Intonation consists of the following 5 elements, the first two of which are the main components of intonation:

accent;

1. rate of speech;

   It would seem that for any person who has learned to read, there is nothing easier than dividing words into syllables. In practice, it turns out that this is not such an easy task; moreover, in order to correctly complete this task, you need to know some nuances. If you think about it, not everyone can even give a clear answer to the simple question: “What is a syllable?”

   So what is this - a syllable?

   As you know, every word consists of syllables, which, in turn, consist of letters. However, for a combination of letters to be a syllable, it must contain one vowel, which in itself can form a syllable. It is generally accepted that a syllable is the smallest pronounceable unit of speech or, more simply, a sound/sound combination pronounced in one exhalation. For example, the word “ya-blo-ko”. To pronounce it, you need to exhale three times, which means that this word consists of three syllables.

   In our language, one syllable cannot contain more than one vowel. Therefore, the number of vowels in a word equals the number of syllables. Vowels are syllabic sounds (they create a syllable), while consonants are non-syllabic sounds (they cannot form a syllable).

   Syllable theories

   There are as many as four theories trying to explain what a syllable is.

   • Exhalation theory. One of the most ancient. According to it, the number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of exhalations made when pronouncing it.
   • Acoustic theory. It implies that a syllable is a combination of sounds with high and low volume. The vowel is louder, so it is capable of both independently forming a syllable and attracting consonants to itself, like less loud sounds.
   • Articulatory theory. In this theory, the syllable is presented as the result of muscle tension, which increases towards the vowel and decreases towards the consonant.
   • Dynamic theory. Explains the syllable as a complex phenomenon, which is influenced by a number of factors listed in previous theories.

   It is worth noting that each of the above theories has its own disadvantages, as well as advantages, and none of them has been able to fully characterize the nature of the concept “syllable”.

   Types of syllables

   The word may consist of different quantities syllables - from one or more. It all depends on the vowels, for example: “sleep” - one syllable, “sno-vi-de-ni-e” - five. According to this category, they are divided into monosyllabic and polysyllabic.

   

   If a word contains more than one syllable, then one of them is stressed, and it is called stressed (when pronounced, it is distinguished by the length and strength of its sound), and all the others are unstressed.

   Depending on what sound the syllable ends with, they are open (for a vowel) and closed (for a consonant). For example, the word “za-vod”. In this case, the first syllable is open because it ends with the vowel “a,” while the second is closed because it ends with the consonant “d.”

   How to correctly separate words into syllables?

   First of all, it is worth clarifying that the division of words into phonetic syllables does not always coincide with the division for transfer. So, according to the rules of transfer, one letter cannot be separated, even if it is a vowel and is a syllable. However, if the word is divided into syllables, according to the rules of division, then a vowel not surrounded by consonants will form one full syllable. For example: the word “yu-la” phonetically has two syllables, but when transferred, this word will not be separated.

   As specified above, a word has exactly as many syllables as vowels. One vowel sound can act as a syllable, but if it contains more than one sound, then such a syllable will necessarily begin with a consonant. The above example - the word “yu-la” - is divided in this way, and not “yul-a”. This example demonstrates how the second vowel “a” attracts the “l” to itself.

   

   If there are several consonants in a row in the middle of a word, they belong to the next syllable. This rule applies to both cases with the same consonants and cases with different non-syllable sounds. The word “oh-ch-ya-ny” illustrates both options. The letter “a” in the second syllable attracted a combination of different consonant letters - “tch”, and “y” - a double “nn”. There is one exception to this rule - for unpaired non-syllable sounds. If the first in a letter combination is a voiced consonant (y, l, l, m, m, n, n, r', r), then it is separated along with the previous vowel. In the word “sklyanka” the letter “n” belongs to the first syllable, since it is an unpaired voiced consonant. And in the previous example - “oh-cha-ya-ny” - “n” moved to the beginning of the next syllable, according to general rule, since it was a paired sonorant.

   Sometimes letter combinations of consonants in a letter mean several letters, but sound like one sound. In such cases, dividing the word into syllables and dividing for hyphenation will differ. Since the combination means one sound, these letters should not be separated when dividing them into syllables. However, when transferred, such letter combinations are separated. For example, the word “i-zzho-ga” has three syllables, but when transferred, this word will be divided as “izzho-ga”. In addition to the letter combination “zzh”, pronounced as one long sound [zh:], this rule also applies to the combinations “tsya” / “tsya”, in which “ts” / “ts” sound like [ts]. For example, it is correct to divide “u-chi-tsya” without breaking “ts”, but when transferring it will be “learn-tsya”.

   As noted in the previous section, a syllable can be open or closed. There are significantly fewer closed syllables in the Russian language. As a rule, they are found only at the end of the word: “ha-ker”. In rare cases, closed syllables may appear in the middle of a word, provided that the syllable ends in an unpaired sonorant: “sum-ka”, but “bud-dka”.

   How to correctly separate words for hyphenation

   Having dealt with the question of what a syllable is, what types there are, and how to divide into them, it is worth turning your attention to the rules of word hyphenation. Indeed, despite their external similarity, these two processes do not always lead to the same result.

   When dividing a word for hyphenation, the same principles are used as when dividing it into syllables, but it is worth paying attention to a number of nuances.

   It is strictly forbidden to tear off one letter from a word, even if it is a vowel forming a syllable. This prohibition also applies to the transfer of a group of consonants without a vowel, with soft sign or y. For example, “a-ni-me” is divided into syllables like this, but it can only be transferred in this way: “ani-me”. As a result, when transferred, two syllables appear, although in reality there are three.

   

   If two or more consonants are nearby, they can be divided at your discretion: “te-kstu-ra” or “tek-stu-ra”.

   When paired consonants are between vowels, they are separated, except when these letters are part of the root at the junction with a suffix or prefix: “class-sy”, but “class-ny”. The same principle applies to the consonant at the end of the root of a word before a suffix - it is, of course, possible to tear off letters from the root when transferring, but it is not advisable: “Kyiv-skiy”. Similarly, with regard to the prefix: the last consonant included in its composition cannot be torn off: “under-crawl”. If the root begins with a vowel, you can either still separate the prefix itself, or transfer two syllables of the root together with it: “no-accident”, “no-accident”.

   Abbreviations cannot be transferred, but complex abbreviated words can be transferred, but only by compound ones.

   ABC by syllables

   The syllable has a huge practical significance when teaching children to read. From the very beginning, students learn the letters and syllables that can be combined. And subsequently, children gradually learn to construct words from syllables. First, children are taught to read words from simple open syllables - “ma”, “mo”, “mu” and the like, and soon the task is complicated. Most primers and methodological manuals, devoted to this issue, are built precisely according to this methodology.

   

   Moreover, specifically for developing the ability to read syllables, some children's books are published with texts divided into syllables. This facilitates the reading process and helps to bring the ability to recognize syllables to automaticity.

   The concept of “syllable” itself is not yet a fully studied subject of linguistics. At the same time, its practical significance is difficult to overestimate. After all, this small piece of the word helps not only to learn reading and writing rules, but also helps to understand many grammatical rules. We should also not forget that poetry exists thanks to syllable. After all, the main systems for creating rhymes are based precisely on the properties of this tiny phonetic-phonological unit. And although there are a lot of theories and studies devoted to it, the question of what a syllable is remains open.

   Linguists distinguish such a concept as syllables. Language learners need to be able to correctly determine their boundaries in words and distinguish them by type. Let's look at the most basic types of syllables, as well as the rules of division.

   Syllables - what are they?

   There are different approaches to defining this concept. From a phonetic point of view, a syllable is one sound or group of sounds accompanied by an expiratory impulse. A word always has exactly as many syllables as there are vowels. We can say that a syllable is the minimum pronunciation unit.

   The syllabic (or syllabic-forming sound) is a vowel. A consonant, accordingly, is considered non-syllabic.

   Types of syllables

   Syllables are also classified into open and closed. Closed syllables end in a consonant, and open ones end in a vowel. In the Russian language there is a tendency towards open syllables.

   Also, if a syllable begins with a vowel sound, it is open, and if it begins with a consonant, it is covered.

   Syllables are also distinguished according to their acoustic structure:

   • ascending, where from a less sonorous (voiceless consonant) comes both a sonorant consonant and/or a vowel (pa-pa).
   • descending, where, in contrast to ascending, the syllable begins with a vowel, and then comes sonorant consonants and/or voiceless (um).
   • ascending-descending, where you get something like a “slide”, in which the consonants first go according to the degree of sonority, then the top is a vowel sound, and then there is a “descent” down, starting with the most sonorous consonants (ping-pong).
   • even syllables - one vowel, that is, unclosed and open syllables are even and consist of only one vowel (a).

   

   Stressed and unstressed syllables

   A stressed syllable is a syllable whose vowel is stressed, that is, the vowel is in a strong position. Unstressed syllables are not stressed.

   And unstressed syllables, in turn, are divided into two types in relation to the stressed syllable: unstressed and pre-stressed. It is not difficult to guess that pre-stressed syllables come before the stressed syllable, and post-stressed syllables, respectively, come after them. They are also divided into pre-stressed/post-stressed syllables different order in relation to the shock. The first pre-stress or post-stress is closest to the one being struck, the second in order is behind the first post-stress and pre-stress, and so on.

   Let's take for example the word che-re-do-va-ni-e, where all syllables, it is worth noting, are open. The fourth syllable -va- will be stressed, the first pre-stressed syllable will be -do-, the second - -re-, the third - che-. But the first post-accent will be -ni-, the second - -e.

   

   How to divide a word into syllables?

   All words can be divided into syllables. IN different languages division can occur in different ways. But how is division carried out in the Russian language? What are the nuances of the rule?

   In general, the division follows general principles:

   • There are as many vowels as there are syllables. If a word has one vowel sound, then it is one syllable, since vowels are syllabic. For example, these are the words: cat, whale, that, current, which consist of one syllable.
   • A syllable can only be a vowel sound. For example, the word “this” is divided into syllables as e-that.
   • Open syllables end in vowels, closed syllables end in consonants. Examples of openness: mo-lo-ko, de-le-ni-e, ko-ro-va. Closed syllables are found, as a rule, at the end of a word or at the junction of consonants (com-pot, mole, give). In the Russian language, as already mentioned, there is a tendency towards open syllables.
   • If a word contains the letter "th", then it goes to the previous syllable. For example, my-ka.
   • At the junction of two vowels, a division occurs in the middle, because there cannot be two vowels in one syllable. In this case, it turns out that the first syllable is open, and the second is open (ha-os).
   • All sonorants (m, n, l, p) at the junction of consonants before voiceless ones usually “stick” to the sounds preceding them, forming a syllable.

   

   Theories of syllabification

   However, there is no clear framework for what exactly a syllable is and where its boundaries lie. The main thing is the presence of a vowel, but the definition of boundaries can occur in different ways. There are several basic theories of syllable division.

   • Sonority theory, which is based on the principle of the wave of sonority of a syllable. It was developed by the Danish scientist Otto Jespersen, and for the Russian language he continued the idea of ​​R.I. Avanesov. He identified four degrees of sonority, starting with more sonorous ones and ending with non-sonorous ones. Vowels are at the top, followed by sonorant ones in the second degree, voiced noisy ones in the third degree, and completely voiceless consonants in fourth place. That is, a syllable is a combination of a vowel with less and even non-sonorous ones.
   • The expiratory theory (exhalation) implies that a syllable is one expiratory impulse. How many shocks, so many syllables. However, the disadvantage of this theory is the uncertainty of the syllable boundary at the junction of consonants. In this theory, you can use a candle to understand how many syllables (air bursts) there are in a word.
   • The theory of “muscular tension” carries the idea that a syllable combines levels of maximum and minimum muscular tension (i.e. tension of the speech organs). The syllable boundary will be sounds of minimal muscular tension.

   Now that you know the rules for dividing words into syllables, you will not have problems with word hyphenation.