Syllable Structure
A word like measure has two syllables. In order to identify which phonemes are in the first syllable andwhich are in the second, we need to look at the pattern of vowels and consonants. We can represent each
consonantal phoneme with “C” and each vowel (vocalic) phoneme with “V”. Hence measure /m´Ω\r/
would be “CVCVC”. Notice that the pattern is based on the number of phonemes, not the number of
letters in the English spelling.
In order to have a syllable, you must have a vocalic phoneme, which may or may not be accompanied by
consonants on either side. So “CVCV” has two syllables because it has two vowels. In English, there are
only two significant syllable patterns: “VCV” and “VCCV”. In other words, English has syllables divided
by one consonant or more than one consonant (it does not matter if the first vowel is preceded by a
consonant or if the second vowel is followed by a consonant). As you can see, measure follows the
“VCV” pattern.
The syllable division for each type is as follows:
V | C V
V C | C V
Note that English words with double consonants (like bitter) can be tricky. The double consonant tells us
something about the preceding vowel (compare biter), not that the word has two consonant phonemes.
Words like bitter really follow the “VCV” pattern in English.
Nasal and liquid consonants can sometimes be vocalic; that is, they combine the functions of vowels and
consonants. Linguists represent this function by placing a small circle underneath the IPA symbol. But do
these consonants constitute separate syllables? This is a more complex issue than can be dealt with in an
introductory course, and we will not go too far astray if we avoid the issue. If you perceive a consonant to
be vocalic, it is best to simply insert a “dummy” vowel into your transcription. The best choice is to use
the schwa (/\/). Hence the word golden would be transcribed /gold\n/.
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