| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̩ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌̍ |
| Ipa Number: | 431 |
| Decimal1: | 809 |
A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the m, n and l in some pronunciations of the English words rhythm, button and bottle, respectively. To represent it, the understroke diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet is used, . It may be instead represented by an overstroke, if the symbol that it modifies has a descender, such as in pronounced as /[ŋ̍]/.[1]
Syllabic consonants in most languages are sonorants, such as nasals and liquids. Very few have syllabic obstruents (i.e., stops, fricatives, and affricates) in normal words, but English has syllabic fricatives in paralinguistic words like shh! and zzz.
In many varieties of High and Low German, pronouncing syllabic consonants may be considered a shibboleth. In High German and Tweants (a Low Saxon dialect spoken in the Netherlands; more Low Saxon dialects have the syllabic consonant), all word-final syllables in infinite verbs and feminine plural nouns spelled -en are pronounced with syllabic consonants. The High German infinitive German: laufen ('to walk') is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈlaʊfn̩]/ or (in some accents) even pronounced as /[ˈlaʊfɱ̍]/ and its Tweants counterpart loopn is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈlɔːʔm̩]/. Tweants scholars even debate whether or not this feature should be incorporated in spelling, resulting in two generally accepted spelling forms (either loopn or lopen).
Standard German spoken in Luxembourg often lacks syllabic sonorants under the influence of Luxembourgish, so that German: laufen is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈlaʊfən]/, rather than pronounced as /[ˈlaʊfn̩]/.[2] [3]
Many dialects of English may use syllabic consonants in words such as even pronounced as /[ˈiːvn̩]/, awful pronounced as /[ˈɔːfɫ̩]/ and rhythm pronounced as /[ˈɹɪðm̩]/, which English dictionaries' respelling systems usually treat as realizations of underlying sequences of schwa and a consonant (for example, pronounced as //ˈiːvən//).[4]
In Danish, a syllabic consonant is the standard colloquial realization of combinations of the phoneme schwa pronounced as //ə// and a sonorant, generally referred to as schwa-assimilation,[5] e.g. Danish: katten ('the cat') pronounced as //ˈkatən// = pronounced as /[ˈkʰætn̩]/, Danish: dame ('lady') pronounced as //ˈdaːmə// = pronounced as /[ˈtɛːm̩]/, Danish: cykel ('bike') pronounced as //ˈsykəl// = pronounced as /[ˈsykl̩]/, Danish: myre ('ant') pronounced as //ˈmyːrə// = pronounced as /[ˈmyːɐ]/, Danish: sove ('sleep') pronounced as //ˈsɒːʋə// = pronounced as /[ˈsɒːʊ]/, Danish: reje ('shrimp') pronounced as //ˈraːjə// = pronounced as /[ˈʁɑːɪ]/, or Danish: huset ('the house') pronounced as //ˈhuːˀsəð// = pronounced as /[ˈhuːˀsð̩ˠ]/.
In all four dialect groups of Norwegian, a syllabic alveolar nasal, pronounced as //n//, may be heard. It is syllabic when following other alveolar consonants and occurs most often in the definite singular form of masculine nouns (see Norwegian grammar) where the schwa has elided, e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: bilen ('the car') pronounced as /[biː.ln̩]/, where it was originally pronounced as /[biː.lən]/. With some speakers, the schwa may be reinserted, especially for words already ending in pronounced as //n// where the syllabic pronounced as //n// may have been entirely elided afterward, e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: mannen ('the man') can either be pronounced like pronounced as /[mɑ.nn̩]/, pronounced as /[mɑn]/ or pronounced as /[man.nən]/.[6] [7] In addition to this, a syllabic pronounced as //n// always occurs in words like Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: vatn ('water') pronounced as /[ʋa.tn̩]/ and Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: botn ('bottom') pronounced as /[bɔ.tn̩]/. This syllabification of alveolar nasals also appears in norrland and svealand dialects of Swedish. In all cases where the alveolar sound becomes retroflex, pronounced as //n// also becomes retroflex pronounced as //ɳ//, e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: barten ('the moustache') pronounced as /[ba.ʈɳ̩]/ (see Norwegian phonology#Consonants). In some Norwegian dialects, a syllabic alveolar lateral approximant pronounced as //l// may be heard in the same circumstances as syllabic pronounced as //n//, e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: puddel ('poodle') pronounced as /[pʉ.dl̩]/, though it is not as common as syllabic pronounced as //n//. A syllabic pronounced as //l// may also be heard in Bergen, where a following syllabic pronounced as //n// has elided completely, e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: solen ('the sun') pronounced as /[suː.l̩]/.[8] In dialects that have palatalisation of some alveolar consonants like Northern Norwegian and Trøndersk, the following syllabic pronounced as //n// is also palatalised,[9] e.g. Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål: ballen ('the ball') pronounced as /[ba.ʎɲ̩]/.
All of the consonants syllabicized in Germanic languages are sonorants. However, the only time obstruents are used syllabically in English is in onomatopoeia, such as sh! pronounced as /[ ʃ̩ː]/ (a command to be quiet), sss pronounced as /[s̩ː]/ (the hiss of a snake), zzz pronounced as /[z̩ː]/ (the sound of a bee buzzing or someone sleeping), and tsk tsk! pronounced as /[ǀǀ]/ (used to express disapproval or pity), though it is not certain how to define what a syllable is in such cases.
Sanskrit pronounced as /[r̩]/, ऌ pronounced as /[l̩]/ are syllabic consonants, allophones of consonantal and . This continues the reconstructed situation of Proto-Indo-European, where both liquids and nasals had syllabic allophones, (the last two had become a). By the era of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the remaining syllabic consonants unpredictably became either a, i, or u, causing ṛ and ḷ to be limited into tatsama words in modern languages.
Many Slavic languages allow syllabic consonants. Some examples include:
Several Sinitic languages, such as Cantonese and Hokkien, feature both syllabic m (pronounced as /[m̩]/) and ng (pronounced as /[ŋ̍]/) that stand alone as their own words. In Cantonese, the former is most often used in the word meaning 'not' (唔, pronounced as /[m̭̍]/) while the latter can be seen in the word for 'five' (五, pronounced as /[ŋ̬̍]/) and the surname Ng (吳, pronounced as /[ŋ̭̍]/ or 伍, pronounced as /[ŋ̬̍]/, depending on the tone), among others.
A number of languages have syllabic fricatives or fricative vowels. In several varieties of Chinese, certain high vowels following fricatives or affricates are pronounced as extensions of those sounds, with voicing added (if not already present) and a vowel pronounced while the tongue and teeth remain in the same position as for the preceding consonant, leading to the turbulence of a fricative carrying over into the vowel. In Mandarin Chinese, this happens for example with , , , and . Traditional grammars describe them as having a "buzzing" sound. A number of modern linguists[13] [14] describe them as true syllabic fricatives, although with weak frication and voicing.[15] They are accordingly transcribed (IPA|sź̩, tsź̩, ʂʐ̩́, and ʐʐ̩́) respectively.[16]
However, for many speakers, the friction carries over only into the beginning of the vowel.[17] The tongue and teeth remain where they were, but the tongue contact is lessened a bit to allow for a high approximant vowel with no frication except at the beginning, during the transition. John Wells[18] uses the detailed transcriptions (IPA|sz̞ᵚ) for si and (IPA|ʂʐ̩ᶤ) for shi (ignoring the tone), with the superscript indicating the "color" of the sound and a lowering diacritic on the z to indicate that the tongue contact is relaxed enough to prevent frication. Another researcher suggests (IPA|s͡ɯ) and (IPA|ʂ͡ɨ) for si and shi, respectively, to indicate that the frication of the consonant may extend onto the vowel.[19] Some speakers have even more lax articulation, opening the teeth and noticeably lowering the tongue, so that .
The Nuosu language has two similar "buzzed" vowels that are described as syllabic fricatives, pronounced as /[β̩, {{cnspan|ɹ̝̍|reason=terrible symbol. Should be nonrhotic lowered /z/|date=November 2023}}]/. The former may even be trilled pronounced as /[ʙ̞̍]/.
Sinologists and linguists working in the Chinese analytical tradition frequently use the term apical vowel (Chinese: 舌尖元音) to describe the sounds above and others like them in various Sino-Tibetan languages. However, . The nonstandard symbols (IPA|ɿ ʅ ʮ ʯ) are commonly used to transcribe these vowels in place of (IPA|z̩ ʐ̩ z̩ʷ ʐ̩ʷ) or (IPA|C͡ɯ C͡ɨ C͡u C͡ʉ), respectively. The term apical vowel should also not be taken as synonymous with syllabic fricative, as e.g., the bilabial syllabic fricative pronounced as /[β̩]/ in Liangshan Yi is not pronounced with the tongue.
Berber, Salish, Wakashan and Chemakuan languages have syllabic obstruents in normal vocabulary, such as Nuxálk pronounced as /[p̍ʰ.t̩ʰ.k̩ʰ.ts̩ʰ]/, pronounced as /[s̩.pʰs̩]/ "northeast wind", pronounced as /[ɬ̩.q̍ʰ]/ 'wet', pronounced as /[ť̩.ɬ̩.ɬ̩]/ 'dry', or pronounced as /[nu.jam.ɬ̩]/ 'we (pronounced as /ɬ̩/) used to sing (pronounced as /nu.jam.ɬ̩/)'.
In Standard Yoruba, the consonants m and n may be syllabic and carry tone like vowels. However, they always stand alone as syllables and cannot stand as syllable nuclei.
In Baoulé, m or n may be syllabic. As a stand-alone word, it means 'I' (first person subject pronoun), as in N ti baule pronounced as /[n̩̄ tɪ̄ bāūlē]/ 'I speak Baoulé'. Its quality varies with the consonant following it, as in M bá aiman pronounced as /[m̩̄ bá āɪ̄mān]/ 'I will come tomorrow'.
The Hungarian word Hungarian: s pronounced as /[ʃ̩]/, a high-register variant of Hungarian: és 'and', is a syllabic consonant, although it usually cliticises: pronounced as //ʃ̩ɛtːɛm// pronounced as /[ʃɛtːɛm]/ 'and I had eaten'.