non-syllabic
non-syllabic — adjective
1. Describes a consonant or glide that does not form a separate syllable on its own
Describes a consonant or glide that does not form a separate syllable on its own — instead it shares the same syllable with a neighbouring vowel or sits at the sound's edge without acting as its loudest, most prominent nucleus.
In 'stop', the /s/ and /t/ are non-syllabic because they share one syllable with /ɒ/.
non-syllabic in a consonant cluster
Shirin explained that the /w/ in 'swim' is a non-syllabic glide that accompanies the vowel /ɪ/ inside one syllable.
non-syllabic + glide accompanying a vowel
The /r/ at the end of 'car' is non-syllabic in American English — it does not form a separate syllable.
In the word 'fly', the /l/ is non-syllabic because it shares the same syllable as the vowel /aɪ/.
When Eri practises the word 'garden', she often lengthens the final /n/ but keeps the /d/ non-syllabic.
- non-syllabic consonant
a more specific term that names the speech sound when it is a consonant rather than a glide
- non-syllabic glide
used when the sound is a glide such as /w/ or /j/ that accompanies a vowel
- syllabic
describes a sound that does function as the nucleus of a syllable, such as the /l/ in the second syllable of 'bottle'
文法句型
non-syllabic + noun
be + non-syllabic
用法筆記
This is the broadest sense of the term. A non-syllabic sound always co-occurs with a vowel (or syllabic consonant) within the same syllable — the vowel carries the syllable's peak, and the surrounding consonants or glides are non-syllabic by virtue of not being that peak.
2. Describes a vowel-like sound in a syllable that has a weaker vowel character tha
Describes a vowel-like sound in a syllable that has a weaker vowel character than the syllable's main vowel, typically occurring as the second part of a diphthong such as the /ɪ/ in /aɪ/.
In the diphthong /aɪ/, the /ɪ/ is the non-syllabic element because the /a/ carries more vocal weight.
Lara taught her students that the /ʊ/ sound in /əʊ/ is a non-syllabic glide with a weaker vowel quality than the opening /ə/.
non-syllabic glide with weaker vowel quality
The /ə/ in the triphthong /aɪə/ can shift between syllabic and non-syllabic status depending on how fast the speaker talks.
Camille noticed that her pronunciation of 'fire' contains a non-syllabic /ə/ that merges smoothly into the final /r/.
- non-syllabic vowel
the same concept but explicitly naming the vowel quality
- glide
a closely related term describing a sound that moves toward or away from a vowel
- syllabic vowel
a vowel that functions as the nucleus of a syllable, e.g. the two /æ/ sounds in 'banana' stand as the core of their syllables
文法句型
non-syllabic + noun
be + non-syllabic
用法筆記
This sense applies almost exclusively to vowels and semivowels within diphthongs and triphthongs. The non-syllabic vowel or glide is often transcribed with a special diacritic (◌̑) underneath in narrow phonetic notation.