🚀 go-pugleaf

mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) writes:
>
>A syllable is a sonority peak.  That is, it is a local maximum of sonority.
>The middle of a syllable is surrounded by less sonorous sounds on both sides.
>
>Sonority is defined by the Aissen/Hankamer sonority hierarchy, which I
>dimly remember as like this: 
>      Highest:  Vowels
>      Second:   Liquids (l, r)
>      Third:    Nasals (n, m)
>      Fourth:   Any other voiced continuant
>      Fifth:    Voiceless continuants
>      Bottom:   Stops

This is interesting, but I'd tend to shy away from any definition that
didn't show clearly how the syllable fits into the phonology.  Is it an
abstract unit of structure?  Do syllables need to be represented in the
lexicon?  In postlexical rules?  What sorts of phonological phenomena
demonstrate that they actually exist?

There are a lot of people lurking around here who have opinions on these
issues.  I hope they'll share some of their hard-won knowledge on this
topic.


-- 

   -Richard L. Goerwitz              goer%midway@uchicago.bitnet
   goer@midway.uchicago.edu          rutgers!oddjob!ellis!goer