Open closed syllable in English. Types of syllables in English

In this lesson:
Alphabet for letter A
Open and closed syllable

Reading rules in English quite a few, but the most, the most, the most “basic” are the rules for reading vowels in open and closed syllables.

There is NO need to “learn the rules” of reading separately. You need to learn quite a lot of words - examples of this rule. By memorizing the rules, you remember patterns, which you then notice in unfamiliar words.

Let's go through the dictionary

Once upon a time, it seems like a long time ago, there were no electronic dictionaries. Why, back then there were no computers. The translation of unfamiliar words had to be looked for by leafing through a thick, solid book DICTIONARY. Probably, even now every student of English has a large or not very large English-Russian dictionary, which is called “hardcover”.

It is, of course, easier to look for a translation of a word in the electronic version of the dictionary, but when you hold a book in your hands, you see more words, and it is easier to find words in which a vowel denotes a specific sound. So, let's go through the dictionary and look for patterns.

"Alphabet" for the letter "A"

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn ​​Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Open and closed syllable

This table does not contain words for all letters of the alphabet, but this is enough. As you can see, there are a lot of things in English short words type

hat is a closed syllable - after the letter a there is one consonant and nothing else.

hate is an open syllable - after the letter a there is one consonant and a “silent” letter e (it is not pronounced).

Using such examples, the rules for reading vowels in open and closed (stressed!) syllables are the easiest to remember. So,

In an open stressed syllable, vowels are read in the same way as they are called (as in the alphabet), i.e. This is alphabetical reading.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Even this “simple” rule does not apply to all words. To read a vowel letter it is important what letters exactly? stand in front of her and behind her. Therefore, the letter a can also be read as [L] or [R]. But more on that in the next lesson.
In the meantime, try to remember the words from the table above and
transcription signs [x] and .
More:

Syllable

Syllable- the minimum unit of pronunciation of speech sounds into which you can divide your speech by pauses. The word in speech is divided not into sounds, but into syllables. In speech, it is syllables that are recognized and pronounced. Therefore, with the development of writing among all peoples, syllabic signs first appeared in the alphabets, and only then letters reflecting individual sounds.

The division into syllables is based on the difference in sonority of sounds. A sound that is more sonorous than neighboring sounds is called syllabic and forms a syllable.

A syllable usually has a peak (core) and a periphery. As a core, i.e. The syllabic sound is usually a vowel, and the periphery consists of a non-syllabic sound or several such sounds, usually represented by consonants. But a syllable can consist of only one vowel without any peripherals, e.g. diphthong in English pronouns I“I” or two or more vowels (Italian. vuoi). Peripheral vowels are non-syllabic.

But syllables may not have a vowel, for example, in the patronymic Ivanovna or in the interjections “ks-ks”, “tsss”. Consonants can be syllabic if they are sonant or occur between two consonants. Such syllables are very common in the Czech language: prst“finger” (cf. Old Russian. finger), trh“market” (cf. Russian. bargain), vlk"wolf", srdce, srbsky, Trnka(famous Czech linguist). In a sentence Vlk prchl skrz tvrz(the wolf ran through the fortress) there is not a single vowel. But in examples from the Czech language it is clear that the syllabic consonant is always sonorant.

The division into syllables is explained by different theories that complement each other.

Sonoration theory: in a syllable, the most sonorous sound is the syllabic. Therefore, in order of decreasing sonority, syllabic sounds most often are vowels, sonorant voiced consonants, noisy voiced consonants, and sometimes voiceless consonants (tss).

Dynamic theory: syllabic sound is the strongest, most intense.

Expiratory theory: a syllable is created by one moment of exhalation, a push of exhaled air. The number of syllables in a word is the number of times the candle flame flickers when the word is pronounced. But often the flame behaves contrary to the laws of this theory (for example, with a two-syllable “ay” it will flutter once).

Types of syllables

Open syllable is a syllable ending with a vowel sound, e.g. yeah, oh.

Closed syllable is a syllable ending with a consonant, e.g. hell, mind, cat.

Covered syllable begins with a consonant sound, e.g. glad, pop.

Uncovered syllable starts with a vowel sound: ah, he, ah, really.

In Russian, the syllables are mostly open, while in Japanese almost all are open (Fu-ji-ya-ma, i-ke-ba-na, sa-mu-rai, ha-ra-ki-ri).

There are also cases of extremely closed and covered syllables, for example, splash, English. and fr. strict(strict), German sprichst(you speak), Georgian - msxverpl(sacrifice).

There are languages ​​where the roots and syllables are the same. Such languages ​​are called monosyllabic, e.g. whale. language - typical monosyllabic.

It is often very difficult to determine the boundary of a syllable in speech.

Rus. They led me by the arm and took my friends away. They beat the viper - they killed the vipers. Palette - half a liter.

English. an ocean - a notion; an aim - a name.

Supersegmental units of language

Sound units of language can be segmental (linear) and supersegmental.

Segmental units- these are sounds (phonemes), syllables, words, etc. Longer language units are divided into shorter segments.

Supersegmental units, or otherwise prosodic(from Greek prosodia- refrain, stress) are layered onto a chain of segments - syllables, words, phrases, sentences. Typical supersegmental units are stress and intonation.

Tact- a group of words united by one stress and separated from each other by a pause.

Proclitic- unstressed syllable before a stressed syllable, e.g. I dat small.

Enclitic- unstressed syllable after a stressed syllable, e.g. znA yuI .

Unstressed words - articles, prepositions, particles - often act as enclitics. Sometimes they pull the emphasis on themselves: “p O d hand."

Thus, the boundaries of words and measures may not coincide.

Accent

Stress (accent) is the emphasis of a sound, syllable, word, group of words.

The three main types of stress are force, quantity and musical.

Power (dynamic) stress is related to the amplitude of vibrations of the sound wave; the greater the amplitude, the stronger the sound is pronounced.

Quantitative (quantitative) stress is associated with the duration, length of the sound; a stressed syllable has a longer duration than unstressed syllables.

Musical (polytonic) stress is associated with the relative pitch of the tone, with a change in this pitch.

Usually in languages ​​that have stress, all three stresses are intertwined, but one of them predominates and the main type of stress in a particular language is determined by it.

In Russian, force stress, being the main one, is accompanied by the length of the stressed syllable.

In Swedish, musical stress is accompanied by force.

There are languages ​​in which there is no accent at all, for example, in Paleo-Asian languages ​​(Chukchi, etc.).

Languages ​​with force stress as the main ones include Russian, English, French, German, Bash., Tat. and many others.

Quantitative stress is not used as the main one and is only used as a component in combination with other types of stress. In some languages, for example Latin, versification is based on the alternation of long and short syllables (which corresponds to stressed and unstressed syllables in Russian versification). Therefore, to the ear of an Italian, accustomed to verses based on dynamic stress, Latin verses are non-rhythmic.

Languages ​​in which musical stress is used widely or plays the role of the main stress primarily include such oriental languages ​​as Chinese (4 tones in the literary dialect, 6 tones in the Hong Kong dialect), Thai (5 tones), Vietnamese (6 tones), etc. In these languages, each syllable has its own tone, and since in these languages, as a rule, the syllable coincides with the word, then each simple word its constant tone, which changes only occasionally when composing words.

In China language ma(1) with an even tone means “mother”, ma(2) with a rising tone means "hemp", ma(3) with a descending-rising tone - “horse” and “digit,” ma(4) with a falling tone means “to swear.”

Another example from China. language: verb mai with a falling tone means “to sell”, a mai with a descending-rising tone - “buy”.

Even more amazing example The distribution of tones in syllables can be found in southern China in the Cantonese (Hong Kong) dialect, where there are 6 tones (the tones are indicated by numbers): Fu 55 (upper case) - man, husband; Fu 35 (ascending upper case) - to suffer, suffer; Fu 33 (outgoing upper case) - wealth, rich; Fu 21 (flat lowercase) - support, lean; Fu 13 (ascending lower case) - woman; Fu 22 (outgoing lower case) - father, eldest relative.

Japanese has three types of musical stress, but they fall only on stressed syllables, similar to dynamic stress in Russian.

hana (0) pronounced with a low tone on the first syllable and a middle tone on the second means “nose, snot”; hana (1) pronounced with a high tone on the first syllable and a low tone on the second means “beginning, end”; hana (2) pronounced low on the first syllable and high on the second means "flower".

The ancient Greek language also had three types of musical stress. The stressed syllable was pronounced not stronger than the unstressed one, but with a higher tone.

Spicy (lat. acutus) accent with more high note, for example, πατηρ [ pate r] - father; heavy stress (lat. gravis) with a lower note, e.g. αρχη [ arche ] - start; light stress (lat. circumflex) with a combination of acute and heavy stress, for example, σωμα [ so ma] - body.

Of the modern European languages, musical stress (2-3 types) is found in Serbian, Croatian, Latvian, Swedish, but always in combination with the main power stress.

Musical stress can be on a syllable or word.

Syllable stress: China..., Tibetan, Burmese, Siamese (Thai), Vietnamese, Latvian, Serbian.

Word stress: Japanese, Ainu, Tagalog, Malay, Swedish, Norwegian.

There is stress in a word main(or secondary(\), e.g. yellowe zobetO n.

The emphasis in languages ​​can be constant (fixed), i.e. stressed syllables have a permanent place in the word, or free, i.e. not associated with a specific place in the word (tv O horn, creation O G).

One calculation showed that in 444 languages ​​studied, 25% of languages ​​have stress on the initial syllable, 18% on the penultimate syllable, 20% on the final syllable, and 33% of languages ​​have free stress.

Constant stress on the first syllable is characteristic of the Czech, Hungarian, and Latvian languages. Wed. Czech so bota"Saturday" O ta", vo jak"sold" A T"; Hungarian a lma « I block", ba lta"axe".

Constant stress on the penultimate syllable (the second syllable from the end) is inherent in the Polish language, for example. matematy ka, ko ziol"goat".

Most words in Spanish also have stress on the penultimate syllable, especially those with a final vowel ( si esta).

Constant stress on the last syllable is characteristic of French. languages, Turkic languages ​​(Bash., Tat., etc.), Persian language (Farsi): French. revolutio n, bash., tat. alma (apple), balta (axe), Tehran.

The most typical language with free stress is Russian.

Sometimes stress helps to distinguish the meanings of homographs - words with the same spelling, for example, kr. at zhki - circle And, p O lky - regiment And.

In addition to traditional stress, logical stress can be placed in speech in order to emphasize the significance of a particular part of a sentence or to express additional meaning to the main meaning of the phrase. For example, in A. M. Artaud’s book “The Word Sounds” the following example of logical stress is given:

“Let's take the standard phrase Give me a glass of tea and break it down into its component meanings. If we focus onfirst word , we open the following: “Enough idle chatter! I came tired, thirsty, give me a glass of tea, and then I’ll tell you all the news.” Focus onsecond word : “They gave it to the neighbor on the right, they gave it to the neighbor on the left, they gave it to everyone, they asked everyone, they forgot about me - why is that? Give it to me too, if you give it to everyone...” Onthird word : “You know perfectly well that I don’t drink from a cup, give me a glass. You can respect my habits at least a little!” And finally, onfourth : “Tea! You see - no wine, no coffee! Nothing quenches thirst like good, fragrant tea!”

Intonation

Intonation refers to all prosodic phenomena in syntactic units - phrases and words.

Intonation consists of the following 5 elements, the first two of which are the main components of intonation:

accent;

1. rate of speech;

   As a rule, modern standard school curriculum English does not provide some important points in learning, and among them the ability to determine the type of syllable and, accordingly, correctly read the entire word. How to do this?

   Syllables in English

   Some theoretical aspects linguistics is not always required for beginners. Perhaps one of the optional skills for those who do not study English at a professional level is syllabification. Usually this does not present serious difficulties, but in in this case it is necessary to know the basic rules, since they differ significantly from those accepted in Russian phonetics.

   The general rule is that the number of syllables corresponds to the number of vowel sounds. This means that you don’t need to look at the letters, but listen to the pronunciation of the word, since the English language contains an abundance of silent vowels, diphthongs, etc. In addition, so-called sonorant consonants can also be syllabic, so the word “mild” will turn out to be divided this way: mi|ld. In the future it will become clear why this happens.

   The syllable division is made from the end of the word: student - stu|dent, money - mo|ney, permission - per|mis|sion.

   A consonant that is on the border of two syllables is thus adjacent to the vowel that follows it. Doubled sounds are divided. All this matters if you need to figure out how to pronounce a particular unfamiliar word. Also, for this you need to know about closed and open syllables in English.

   Impact on reading rules

   The types of syllables in English differ from the classification in Russian. Here there are four varieties, while in others, as a rule, there are only two.

   Firstly, it is an open syllable. In English it ends in At this point, the reading rules come into play.

   The second type is a closed syllable. It ends with one or more consonants (except for "r"). In this case, the vowels are read briefly.

   The third and fourth types of syllables are conditionally open. They end in “r” or “re”; the preceding vowels are read in a special way, which will be discussed below.

   Of course, there are exceptions to all rules. Closed and open syllables in English do not guarantee that the vowels will be read one way or another. However, such cases do not occur very often.

   By the way, first of all, you need to determine the stressed syllable for a word, because whether it is open or closed is of paramount importance. Vowels in the rest, as a rule, are pronounced quite neutrally or become completely mute. But problems usually arise with accents, because English is a freely placed language.

   Open

   This type of syllables includes those that end in a vowel. When analyzing a word visually, it is imperative to take into account the presence of a silent “e” at the end, since it is this that opens the previous syllable.

   

   In this case, most of the vowels are diphthongs.

   The general reading rules in this case will be as follows:

   A - pale, name;

   E - to be, she;

   I - to bite, kite;

   O - to go, so;

   U - to use, pupil;

   Y - to type.

   But this does not always work, for example, in the word “to come” the phonetically “o” does not correspond to the accepted rules, despite the presence of a silent “e” at the end of the word. In this case, it is read according to the principle of a closed syllable. What is this principle?

   Closed

   Syllables of this type, unlike open ones, always end in consonants (except r).

   

   Accordingly, vowels in this case are pronounced briefly and easily.

   A [æ] - bad, cat;

   E [e] - to let, pen;

   I [i] - list, to sit;

   O [ɔ] - to lock, pot;

   U [ʌ] - must, sun;

   A closed syllable in English is perhaps somewhat less common than an open one. This happens precisely due to the fact that there is often a silent “e” at the end of the word. But closed and open syllables in English, unlike Russian, are not the only types. There are two more varieties that are not always considered. But their features are also important to take into account when studying the rules of reading vowels.

   Conditionally open

   These two types of syllables are sometimes also called half-closed. They end in "r" or "re". In theory, in this case these will be closed and open syllables, respectively. In English, everything is different, and vowels, being in front of these letter combinations, acquire a new, more complex sound; before “re”, some of them even become diphthongs.

   

   In the first case, if we are talking about syllables ending in r, everything will be like this:

   A - park, dark;

   E [ə:] - term, her;

   I [ə:] - bird;

   O [ɔ:] - port, short, world;

   U [ə:] - to burn;

   Y [ə:] - Myrtle.

   In the second, if there is a “re” after the vowels, they will sound differently:

   A [ɛə] - to care, nightmare;

   E - here, here;

   I - fire;

   O [ɔ:] - core;

   U - cure, sure, pure;

   Y - tire.

   In addition to the fact that open and closed syllables in English, as well as the third and fourth types, influence the reading of certain vowels, there is huge amount letter combinations that also have a special sound. This knowledge can be obtained both in theory and simply by memorizing the transcription of words by encountering them in practice.

   For easy use of the language when everyday communication or correspondence, you may not know such subtleties as the rules for dividing words and classifying syllables.

   The rules for reading vowels have so many exceptions that they almost lose all meaning. That is why closed and open syllables in English are more interesting and useful to linguists than to ordinary people.

   To do this, you need to know the types of syllables in English. Knowledge of several simple rules will take you one step closer to the desired pronunciation like native speakers. Let's first remember the basic things, a syllable is or several vowel sounds combined with a consonant/consonants, which are pronounced with one push of exhaled air. There are four types of syllables: an open syllable, a closed syllable, and two conventionally open (or half-closed) types of syllables. Open and closed syllables are the most common in English, so it’s worth talking about them in more detail with examples and exceptions, but we’ll also definitely tell you about the rest.

   Closed syllables

   This is the syllable that occurs most often. It ends in a consonant (one or more), and the vowel letter in the syllable is read briefly. We have selected several examples for you that will help you remember the rule better:

   bad- bad
   cat- cat
   lip- lip
   sad- sad
   black- black

   Exceptions:

   As always, there are a few exceptions to this rule that you need to keep in mind:

   Free lesson on the topic:

   Irregular English verbs: table, rules and examples

   Discuss this topic with a personal tutor for free online lesson at Skyeng school

   Leave your contact details and we will contact you to sign up for a lesson

   • The letter “a” before “s” and the combination “th” is always read as a long “a”: past, master, glass, father, path.
   • The letter “a” after “w” is always read as a short “o”: was, want, wasp.
   • In some words, the letter “u” is read exactly the same as in an open syllable: put, pull, bull, push.
   • The letter “o” in combination with “–st” is also read briefly: most, lost, host.
   
   

   Open syllables

   The main rule of an open syllable in English is that it must end in a vowel. In this case, the vowel is read exactly the same as in the alphabet and ultimately produces a long sound.

   Main characteristics of a syllable:

   • Such a syllable does not have a consonant after the vowel in the syllable. (for example in the words: go, my, no);
   • Usually has the letter e at the end of the word, which comes immediately after the vowel (for example in the words: pie, toe, bye);
   • Immediately after the consonant letter there is a silent (or unreadable) vowel e (for example in the words: name, take, pupil);
   • Immediately after the stressed vowel there is a consonant + le (for example in the words: table, noble).

   The same rule may apply to some monosyllabic words, such as: me, go, she and some others.

   Example words:

   male- male
   type- type
   bite- bite
   go- go
   late- late
   rude- rude
   like- like how

   
   Exceptions:

   There are also exceptions to this rule. It is very important to remember that in words: love, some, done, none, dove– the letter “o” in the first syllable is read exactly the same as the short “a”.

   
   
   

   Conventionally open (or semi-closed) syllables

   Conventionally open (or semi-closed) syllables come in several types:

   1. Syllables that end with a vowel + r;
   
   
   2. Syllables that end with a vowel + re;
   
   
   3. Syllables that end in a consonant + le.

   In the first case, the vowel makes a long sound, and the letter r is not readable.

   car- automobile
   girl [ɡɜːl]- girl

   In the second case, the consonant r is also unreadable, but the vowel is converted into a diphthong.

   pure - pure

   The third case (consonant + le) can be either an open or a closed syllable, depending on how many consonants come before le. There are two cases:

   1. There is one consonant before le.

      table [ˈteɪbl]- table
      title [ˈtaɪtl]- Name

   2. Before le there are two consonants.

      struggle [ˈstrʌɡl]- struggle
      sniffle [ˈsnɪfl]- sniffling

   Useful video:

   Closed syllable. In a closed syllable, a stressed vowel is followed by one or more consonants (except r); a vowel in a closed syllable conveys a short sound.

   Example of words with open syllable type

   • pen - [ pen ] - feather
   • cat - [ kæt ] - cat

   There are four types of syllables in English, more on that. Types of syllables

   Rules for reading vowels in open and closed syllables.

   The most common rules for reading English vowels are the rules for reading them in four syllable types.

   The vowels i and y are, as it were, duplicating each other (in the sense of the rules for reading them). The letter y is found mainly at the end of words, and the letter i is found in the middle of words and almost never at the end.

   1 Alphabetical reading, i.e. The pronunciation corresponding to the name of the letter in the alphabet has vowels only in the second type of syllable, which is also called open, since it ends with a vowel.

   2 A syllable becomes closed if a vowel is followed by one or more consonants.

   3 In polysyllabic words, according to the rules of English syllable division, one consonant, being on the border of syllables between the readable vowels, goes to the next syllable. For example, in the word lad [ læd] guy, the consonant d refers to the first and only syllable, “closing” it. In the word lady [ ˈleɪdi] lady the same consonant belongs to the second syllable, while the first remains open.

   4 If there are two or more consonants at the boundary of syllables, then at least one of them necessarily goes to the previous syllable, making it closed: splendid [ ˈsplɛndɪd ] magnificent, luxurious.

   This also applies to cases where combinations of consonants produce only one sound: funny [ ˈfʌni ] funny, amusing ticket [ ˈtɪkɪt ] ticket, coupon

   The syllable boundary then passes directly along this sound. The preceding syllable becomes closed, although the sound itself belongs to the following syllable.

   5 The letter x conveying two sounds is considered as two consonants boxer [ ˈbɒksə ] boxer

   6 The final silent vowel e serves to indicate the openness of syllables ending with the consonants made [ ˈmeɪd ] made . The letter e at the end of a word is read only when it is the only vowel: be [ bi] be .

   7 Sound [ (j) u: ] after sibilants, consonants [ r ] and consonant combinations ending in [ l ], pronounced [ u: ]

   • rule [ ruːl ] rule, rule, power
   • blue [ bluː ] blue, light blue
   • shoot [ ʃuːt ] shoot, shoot.

   In other cases, [ juː ]

   • few [ fjuː ] little, a little
   • use [ ˈjuːs ] benefit, use, application

   In American English the sound [ juː ] occurs much less frequently than in British, which in the following transcriptions is designated as [ (j) u: ].

   8 Syllables closed with a consonant r or letter combinations r + consonant are distinguished into a separate, third type of syllable, with special reading rules. In disyllabic words, with several consonants starting with r at the boundary of syllables, r goes to the preceding syllable, the rest to the subsequent one (including cases of rr):

   • [German] ˈdʒəːmən ] German
   • porridge [ ˈpɒrɪdʒ ] porridge .

   9 Finally, if immediately after the r, which closes the syllable, there is again a vowel, an open syllable of the fourth type is formed. If one letter r stands on a syllable boundary in two-syllable words, then general rule syllable division it goes to the subsequent syllable, but at the same time it is an indicator of reading the preceding vowel according to the rules of syllables of the fourth type:

   staring [ ˈsteərɪŋ ] bright .

   10 Reading rules open syllables Types 2 and 4 have quite a few exceptions regarding polysyllabic words in which the vowels in the indicated syllables are read according to the rules of closed type syllables.

   11 The consonant r after vowels in syllables of the third and fourth type is not readable in British English. However, if next word begins with a vowel, the final “silent” -r or -re ceases to be so:

   to take care of [ təˈ teɪk ker əv ] take care . In the American version, the consonant r is always pronounced.

   12 The vowels e, i, y and u in syllables of the third type produce the same sound [ ə: ] , and their reading in syllables of the fourth type is easily obtained from the alphabetic by adding the sound [ ə ] .

   13 The vowel o in syllables of the third and fourth types is read the same [ ɔː ]

   14 Letter combinations -er -re at the end of words that produce the same vowel sound [ ə ] , are considered as the vowel opening the previous syllable: metre [ ˈmiːtə ] meter The letter combination -le at the end of words has a similar property: table [ ˈteɪbl] table . Sonorant consonant [ l ]. similar in sound characteristics to vowels, appears in similar cases as a syllabic vowel.