Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each syllable constituent or process to its description.
- Onset
- Nucleus
- Coda
- Phonotactics
- The rules governing which sequences are permitted
- Consonants after the nucleus
- The obligatory centre, nearly always a vowel
- Consonants before the nucleus
Hints
- Three are parts of a syllable and one is the study of what may combine.
- The rules forbidding certain onsets are phonotactic.
Show the answer
- Onset → Consonants before the nucleus
- Nucleus → The obligatory centre, nearly always a vowel
- Coda → Consonants after the nucleus
- Phonotactics → The rules governing which sequences are permitted
Why
Phonotactics is the term that ties the unit together: it is what makes blick a possible English word that happens not to exist, and bnick an impossible one, a distinction every English speaker makes instantly and could not have been taught explicitly.
Practise Transcription and Connected Speech
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