| 2.8.0. Syllables |
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The sounds which constitute the peak of sonarity are called syllabic and an utterance has as many syllables as it contians syllabic sounds. In Abujhmaria, when a vowel is uttered alone or contiguous to one or more consonants begins a syllable it is called the onset of that syllable. When a consonant or consonant cluster closes the syllable it is the coda of that syllable. Syllables can either occur with “zero” onsets (eg. in ‘say’, ad ‘that’) or can occur with “zero” coda (e.g., ki: ‘do’, ari: ‘way’) (Hockett, 1958 : 86). Generally consonant clusters do not occur as onsets of the initial of syllable. In our data there are two such instances as in the words tra:s ‘snake’, gya:ra: ‘eleven’.
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In Abujhmaria, maximum number of syllables a word can have is three. Words with four or five syllables are very rare. Disyllabic words are more in number.
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| 2.8.1. Structure of Monosyllabics |
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Monosyllables are divided as free and checked syllables. A syllable is free (or open) when it ends in a vowel. A syllable is checked when it ends in consonant(s).
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| Free syllable is of the type CV: |
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(C = Consonant; V = Vowel)
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hi: |
‘give’ |
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ki: |
‘do’ |
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ta: |
‘bring’ |
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wa: |
‘come’ |
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a:y |
‘to become’ |
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o: |
‘anger’ |
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| Checked syllables are of the following types: |
| V (:) C |
| V (:) CC |
| CV (:) C |
| CV (:) CC |
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Examples for the above said types of checked syllables are as follows:
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| V (:) C |
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oy |
‘porcupine’ |
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in |
‘say’ |
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a: |
‘woman’ |
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i:r |
‘louse’ |
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