Ўзбекистон Республикаси Олий ва ўрта махсус таълим вазирлиги Фарғона давлат университети Чет тиллар факультети

_______onset________ nucleus _________ coda________


e. g. t w | e |l f θ s
c c | v |c c c c
onset |nucleus | coda
So a syllable is a unit of sound composed of a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel) and the consonants that cluster around this central peak and these clusters consist of combinations of allowable segments and typical sound sequences. The analysis of the internal structure of syllables in English words has shown that in the position of the nucleus we may find all the English vowel phonemes and they combine with the elements of onsets and codas (consonants) according to phonotactic rules of the English language. The analysis of the nature of nucleus in English syllables gives us grounds to affirm that all the 20 vowel phonemes of English may perform the functions of syllable nucleus in English words and their presence in a syllable is obligatory.
TABLE N: 1

Onset 3	Onset 2	Onset 1	NUCLEUS	Coda 1	Coda 2	Coda 3	Coda 4
-	p	p	All the English vowel phonemes (20) may come in the position of nucleus	p	p	-	-
-	b	b		b	b	-	-
-	t	t		t	t	t	-
-	d	d		d	d	-	-
-	k	k		k	k	-	-
-	g	g		g	-	-	-
-	-	tʃ		tʃ	tʃ	-	-
-	-	dƷ		dƷ	dƷ	-	-
-	f	f		f	f	-	-
-	v	v		v	v	-	-
-	θ	θ		θ	θ	θ	-
-	-	ð		ð	-	-	-
s	s	s		s	s	s	s
-	-	z		z	z	z	-
-	ʃ	ʃ		ʃ	ʃ	-	-
-	-	Ʒ		Ʒ	-	-	-
-	h	h		-	-	-	-
-	l	l		l	-	-	-
-	-	r		-	-	-	-
-	-	j		-	-	-	-
-	-	w		-	-	-	-
-	m	m		m	-	-	-
-	n	n		n	-	-	-
-	-	-		ŋ	-	-	-

In case when the syllables have an onset (the initial segment of the syllable) in English words they may start with 1, 2 or 3 consonants and its presence is optional. A coda-less syllable of the form CV[ti:], CCV[trai], CCCV[strͻ:] is called an open syllable (or covered).As it has already been mentioned the consonant or the consonant cluster, which follows the peak of sonority, is called the “coda” (closing segment of the syllable) and its presence is optional[37.101].
A syllable that has a coda (VC[it], VCC[a:sk], VCCC, [a:sks] etc.) is called a closed syllable (or covered).
The analysis of the above-illustrated table shows that in English the syllabic structure which consists of an onset, nucleus and a coda may have certain restrictions, that is onsets and codas should be subjected to phonetic rules of English since phonetic rules may be observed differently in different languages. These restrictions deal usually the number and type of segments that can combine to form syllables and words and they vary greatly from one language to another.
Investigations made in the nature of English syllable onsets have found out that out of 24 consonant phonemes of English, all the consonants except [ ŋ ] can be found in the position of onset 1, in the position of onset 2 the following 9 consonant phonemes cannot be found-[ tʃ, dƷ, ð, z, Ʒ, r, j, w, ŋ ], and in the position of onset 3 only the phoneme [ s ] can form consonant clusters.
The analysis of the elements of onsets and codas of English syllable has shown that the sonorants [ m, n and l] can also be the nucleus of a syllable in certain positions of English words and their combinability is strictly regulated by the phonetic system of the language, e.g. [riðm], [si:zn],[pensl]. In this case the structure of the syllable is similar to the structure of the syllable formed by a vowel: C+S(sonorant) = C+V. Thus, there are structural subtypes of syllables in Modern English and their peak is formed by a vowel or a sonorant when it follows or precedes constrictive consonants.
Having analysed the inner structure and components of the syllable in English we may single out the following features of the syllable:
a) a syllable is a chain of phonemes of different length;
b) a syllable is constructed on the basis of allowable combinations of its constituents;
c) the nucleus of a syllable is a vowel, the presence of consonants is optional; there are no languages in which vowels are not used as syllable nuclei, however, there are languages in which this function is performed by consonants;
d) the sonorants [m, n, l] can form syllables in certain positions in English;
e) the distribution of phonemes in the syllabic structure follows by the rules which are specific enough for a particular language.
f) the structural patterns of syllables formed by sonorants in English are similar to V+C patterns: CS- written [ritn].
In most theories of phonology, the general structure of a syllable consists of three segments:
Onset -a consonant or consonants, obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others.
Nucleus – a vowel or a sonant, obligatory in all languages.
Coda – a consonant or consonants, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others.
Syllables having the following formal internal segmental structure: onset (initial consonant cluster), nucleus and coda (final consonant cluster), they may be defined in other terms too – initial, medial and final, but we consider that the terms onset, nucleus and coda are more suitable in structural analysis of syllables.
It is known that the structure of the syllable is closely connected with the type of the syllable. The presentation of a syllabic structure in terms of consonants and vowels gives rather numerous combinations which can be grouped into four structural types of syllables:
1) Fully open – V (here both onset and coda are empty);
2) Fully closed – CVC (this structural type of the syllable has several subtypes);
3) Covered at the beginning – CV (this type may have CCV and CCCV subtypes);
4) Covered at the end – VC (this type may have VCC, VCCC and VCCCC subtypes)[17.140].
All these types of syllables are closely connected with the features of syllable onsets and codas, they will be analysed in detail further.

2.2. Orthographic and orthoepic types of syllables
Language performs its function as the most impor­tant medium of human intercommunication not only in oral, but also in written form. The material integument of written language is made up of graphic symbols, such as letters or hieroglyphics, and it is, therefore, of paramount theoretical and practical importance to know how the written form of language is constructed, how its components function and in what relation they are to speech sounds. Therefore, it is one of the aims of phonetics to study the relationships between the sounds of a given language and the letters of its con­ventional alphabet used for representing these sounds in writing.
The knowledge of the structure and functioning of a writing system includes the knowledge of the principles of orthography upon which it is built. English is notorious for the irregularities of its spelling and the heterogenous nature of its orthography, due to the variety of principles underlying it. This makes mastery of English spelling extremely diffi­cult not only for foreign learners, but also for native speak­ers of the language.
All the principles of orthography are represented in Eng­lish spelling, except the so-called phonetic principle. Accord­ing to some definitions this principle consists in "spelling words in the same way in which they are pronounced" or in "exactly representing the pronunciation of words in their spelling"[30.65]
From a phonological point of view such definitions of the "phonetic principle of orthography" are incorrect because no orthography is capable of representing the actual pronun­ciation of even a few words of the language, let alone that of all of them, i.e. all the positional and combinatory var­iants of its phonemes.
In connection with the types of syllables from the viewpoint of syllable division it is necessary to emphasize that phonetic syllables, i.e. those which are distinguished in the actual pronunciation of words, must not be confused
with orthographic "syllables", i.e. those into which words are divided in writing and print or for the application of the so-called reading rules. Syllables of one type need not coin­cide with those of the other. For instance, in writing or
print such words as ranging, raging, maker, alien are divided thus: rang-ing, rag-ing, mak-er, al-ien, whereas their purely
phonetic syllable division is, respectively, /'rein-d3iŋ/ /'rei-
d3iŋ/, /'mei-кə/, /'ei-ljən/. Phonetically disyllabic words like
rhythm /riðm/, middle /midl/, hour /'auə/ are treated in
writing or print as indivisible monosyllables [29.103].
From the viewpoint of "reading rules" the spelling of such a word as name contains two "open syllables": na-me. But phonetically, it is a single closed syllable: /neim/. In this connection it should be borne in mind that all orthographies represent the phonemes of the language and not their particular allophones, although some of the latter are represented by special letters in some languages (for instance, the Russian letter ы for the vowel sound [ы] if the latter is considered a variant of the /и/-phonemе).
Therefore the main principle underlying all orthographies is the phonemic principle in the above broad sense.Since letters represent mainly phonemes and not their particular allophones, it is impossible to avoid regard­ing relationships between letters and speech sounds as those between letters and phonemes rather than as those between letters and