| A
vowel is the nucleus of the syllable while a consonant is a marginal
part associated with the beginning and end of the air engendered by
the chest pulse. In other words, the analysis of a syllable usually
permits us to distinguish an irreducible minimum which may be called
the margin. While the nucleus is equated with the peak, the marginal
may either be pre-nuclear in which case it is the onset or it may
be post-nuclear in which case it is the coda. While the vowels usually
occupy the nucleus or peak, the consonants occupy the margin (both
onset and coda). |
| A
syllable being the smallest unit of recurrent phonemic sequence, may
be considered a phonological unit which in turn enters into still
large stretches of speech reaching up to a complete utterence. A syllable
includes not only the sequential phonemes but also prosodic features
like stress, tone etc. Any or all of occur in a sequence with each
other and a syllable is that stretch of phoneme which makes it possible
to state their relative distribution most economically. |
| As
far as the Sema language is concerned, a syllable may consist of just
a nucleus with the co-occurring tone or the nucleus may be preceded
and/or followed by one or more consonants. The membership of the syllables
in a monosyllabic word is clear and unambiguous. In the case of words
having two or more syllables, the syllabic division is based on the
principle that: |
| (a)
As few new positions or members hall be admitted as possible and |
| (b)
The same number of positions shall regularly be divided in the same
way. |
| In
this, the membership of the monosyllabic words would from the criterion
for syllabic division. It may, however be stated that as a rule of
thumb, a disyllabic word in Sema having VCV would invariably be split
up as V and CV and not VC and V. Here also the monosyllabic words
would give a clue in that, the vast majority of the monosyllabic words
have the CV pattern, as in, pa `he’. The monosyllabic words having
VC, as in, ax `gargle’ could be counted on fingers. In other words,
in a monosyllabic word, the VC pattern is of an extremely low frequency
one. If a word had VCCV it would be split up as V-CCV if C2 if h otherwise
VC-CV. |
| A
word in Sema may consist of one or more syllables ranging up to a
maximum of six syllables. Monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic
words combined together, however, form the bulk of the entire vocabulary
of the Sema language. The words having four or more syllables are
almost exclusively compound words. At the phonetic level, a word in
Sema never ends in a close syllable, though possible at the phonemic
level. This is because, the diphthongs occurring at the phonetic level
are treated phonemically as a vowel plus the corresponding semi-vowel.
Hence there would be some words in Sema that end in closed/checked
syllable. In all such instances, w/y would be the consonants that
check the syllable. This, however, does not prevent the occurrence
of closed/checked syllables in non-final positions. A syllable consisting
C1 C2 C3V would have h either in C2 or C3 position. It would be possible
to make a schematic diagram of different types of permutations and
commutations of syllables that could occur within a word in the Sema
language. These are stated below, beginning with mono-syllabic words. |
| Monosyllabic
Words : |
| The
entire monosyllabic words in Sema could be sub-grouped into six classes
which when put in a schematic diagram be: |
|
|
|
The illustrative examples of these types are given below: |
| v |
ś |
`wear
(cloth)’ |
| cv |
ka |
`shoot
(v)’ |
| vc |
ax |
`gargle
(v)’ |
| cvc |
hey |
`hammer
(v)’ |
| ccv |
mpa |
`burst’ |
| cccv |
mthé |
`clean’ |
|
|
| Disyllabic
words : |
|
The disyllabic words in Sema may consist of just two vowels. One or
more consonants may also follow or precede either or both the vowels.
The vowel consonant combination in a disyllabic word in Sema has a
great deal of freedom. The syllabic pattern of the disyllabic words
in Sema can be broadly sub-grouped into three types which when put
in schematic diagram would be |
1.
+ 
|
| 2. |
cvc |
+ |
(c) |
cv |
|
|
