1. Syllabic Consonants Erika Serna January 7th, 2011 Phonetics IMNRC

2. Syllabic Consonants A syllable where the vowel and the consonant have merged into one. • Syllabic consonants in English are: n, l, r, d • How do we identify them? n, l, r*, d* I I I I *Additional resource: https://notendur.hi.is/peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/syllcons.html

3. Examples of Syllabic Consonants I I I I

4. How to articulate them • A consonant sound often anticipates the following sound: sudden, kitten • The /t/ can be glottarized (attack) or replaced with a glottal stop (loot) • When a /t/ or a /d/ is pronounced before a syllabic n /n/ the air use to make • a stop sound is released through the nose rather than the mouth: sudden, • Sutton, bidden, bitten • Before syllabic /l/ the /t/ & /d/ are sometimes produced with a flap • (A flap is released by lowering both sides of the tongue for air to escape) • Flaps in syllabic /l/ make difficult for students to distinguish the sounds • from /t/ of /d/: Little, Liddle, petal, peddle, metal, meddle /ʔ/ I /r/

5. Light Vs. Dark /l/ ~ Dark / l / Light /l/ • It occurs syllable-finally • Before back vowels (fall) • It is produced with the body of • the tongue to the velum • full, hole, pole • Tongue closer to the velum, • the darker it gets • It occurs syllable-initially • Before front vowels (lip) • It is produced with the tip of the tongue • in the alveolar area: late, balloon • (liquid)

6. Important to know • In the case of pronouncing double /t/ (e.g. butter) we need to remember • the difference in how it is pronounced in American English from the British English. • While Americans use a flap /r/ British remark the sound of /t/. • In some cultures e.g. Asian languages they might find difficult to pronounce • or to distinguish the difference between syllabic consonants, as they may not have • those sounds in their own alphabet. Therefore, they use their own pronunciation • to get the message across.