These are nuclei, not onsets.cromulant wrote:Onsets: a i u
Are all of the syllables onsetless? That is, vowel-initial?
So, there are no onsets -- only nuclei and codas?cromulant wrote:Codas: p pm t tn m mp n nt
So, almost all syllables mandatorily have codas, except word-final syllables can be the bare nuclei i and u?cromulant wrote:Word-finally, i and u are also allowable syllables.
The usual way of analyzing syllables is to divide them into an (often optional, often mandatory) onset and a mandatory rime; then to further divide the rime into a mandatory nucleus and a (usually optional, sometimes mandatory) coda.
Another not-all-that-infrequent way of analyzing syllables is to divide them into a mandatory body and a (usually optional, sometimes mandatory) coda; then to further divide the body into an (often optional, often mandatory) onset and mandatory nucleus.
For most syllables in most languages, the nucleus consists of the syllable's vowels; the onset consists of all the syllable's consonants before the nucleus; and the coda consists of all the syllable's consonants after the nucleus.
Many languages have some syllables that contain no vowels. Usually these are analyzed as having their most sonor
However I have seen a discussion of some of the languages of the Pacific Northwest of North America which analyzes some of their syllables as having onsets and codas but no nuclei.
A syllable without a coda is an "open" syllable. One with a coda is a "closed" syllable. One with a consonant-cluster for its coda is (at least) "doubly closed".
If a syllable-nucleus is a vowel-cluster it is called a "polyphthong". "Diphthong" if a two-vowel cluster, "triphthong" if a three-vowel cluster, "tetraphthong" if a four-vowel cluster (these seem to be rare), and there do not appear to be (information subject to change) any five-vowel-or-longer vowel-clusters that don't span a syllable-boundary. A word-internal syllable boundary between a vowel-final syllable and the following vowel-initial syllable is called a "hiatus".
Many languages don't have any closed syllables at all.
Many languages don't have any tautosyllabic consonant-clusters at all. (I.e. if a syllable has an onset it can only be a single consonant; and if a syllable has a coda it can only be a single consonant.)
Many languages have no polyphthongs.
Many languages require an onset to each syllable.
So, many languages' syllables are all CV syllables.
And many languages' syllables are all (C)V syllables; no codas, no polyphthongs, no tautosyllabic consonant-clusters, but onsets are optional instead of mandatory.
Rare languages have mandatory codas.
Rare languages have no onsets.
If a language's syllable structure were, for instance, V(V)C(C(C)) -- no onsets, one-or-two-vowel nuclei, one-to-three-consonant codas -- it would be such a language.
I'm guessing you meant your twenty-six syllables to be:
Code: Select all
ap apm at atn am amp an ant
i ip ipm it itn im imp in int
u up upm ut utn um ump un unt
Could you have meant instead:
Code: Select all
pa pma ta tna ma mpa na nta
i pi pmi ti tni mi mpi ni nti
u pu pmu tu tnu mu mpu nu ntu
I could be wrong, but I think apm ipm upm atn itn utn are kind of exotic as syllables in natlangs.
(I think pma pmi pmu tna tni tnu mpa mpi mpu nta nti ntu are also exotic, though I know of an African language with mpa mpi mpu nta nti ntu, and Modern Greek is at least spelled with, in effect, <mp> as a syllable onset. But not only could I be wrong; I don't think you meant any of those to be among your 26 syllables.)