POLISH SYLLABLE IDALIA SMOCZYK

Outline n VARIOUS DEFINITIONS OF A SYLLABLE n SYLLABLES CAN BE DIVIDED INTO : n AMBIGUITY OF DIVISIONS n PHONOLOGICAL MODEL OF POLISH SYLLABLE n THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE ONSETS OF POLISH SYLLABLES n ANALYSIS OF THE POLISH SYLLABLE - PROBLEMS n REPRESENTATIONS OF SYLLABLES

VARIOUS DEFINITIONS OF A SYLLABLE n a rhythmical part of a word which usually contains one vowel n the smallest independent phonetic unit n a segment of speech between two declines of sonority with a clearly marked peak of sonority n a unit in which in a given language phonemes are combined according to particular rules sonority sounds domdom

TYPES OF SYLLABLES n OPEN SYLLABLES ending with a vowel, eg. za-ba-wa, o-gło- sze-nie n CLOSED SYLLABLES ending with a consonant or a cluster of consonants, eg. staw, pod-ręcz-nik

AMBIGUITY OF SYLLABLE DIVISIONS The division of a word into syllables may be ambiguous. Consonantal clusters inside a word can be split in different ways. Two or more different divisions are usually possible! e.g.:

PHONOLOGICAL MODEL OF POLISH SYLLABLE In Polish only the opposition between a consonant and a vowel is relevant! ( C )* V ( C )* * - the element of the type C can occur many times ( ) - C is optional V - an obligatory element

PARTICULARITIES OF POLISH PHONOTACTICS n In Polish syllable there can be up to 5 consonants at the beginning and at the end of the syllable, eg: –nastepstw / # nastempstf # / –Strwiąż / # strfj NS # / n In comparison to other European languages, in Polish the QUANTITY, LENGTH and FREQUENCY of occurrence of consonantal groups is the HIGHEST c

THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE ONSETS OF POLISH SYLLABLES n the most frequent combinations of consonants OS-, FT-, FTS- O - obstruent (b,p, f,v,ts,dz,d,t...) S - sonorant (m,n,l,j,r ) F - fricative ( f,v,s,z...) T - stop (g,k,d.t,p,b...)

OTHER COMBINATIONS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE n even combinations of the type SO- (as opposed to many other European languages) eg: łże, lśni, mgła n and combinations of the type OSO- eg: krwawy, trwoga, plwać, płciowy

RESTRICTIONS ON INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF POLISH SYLLABLE n groups of 2+ obstruents must be homogenous as far as voicing is concerned, eg: zhardzieć, dwa n /j/ can occur only in the immediate neighbourhood of a vowel, eg: jawa n groups: /rl/, /lr/ do NOT occur in Polish onsets n /n/ and /n/ do NOT occur in OSO- n the combinations of a nasal sonorant + a stop of the same place of articulation (eg. /nd/, /mb/) do NOT occur in Polish onsets

METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY n no research concerning all possible combinations of consonants and vowels in the Polish syllable is known n the analysis made on the basis of 240 words (out of ) occurring most frequently on WWW pages on the Internet. Therefore, the study does not fully reflect reality n only onsets of Polish syllables analysed

s k f z' t k r s dz' Tree representation of Polish CCCCV onsets r r f f 6 o 51 f a j t p 52 S j o~ 53 e 40 b w źdźbło from tothrough 120z’ 2030dz’ 3040b 40 50w 506o strwożony from tothrough 121s 2131t 3141r 41 50f 506o skrwawiony from tothrough 121s 2132k 3242r 42 51f 516a krwiak from tothrough 122k 2233r 3343f 43 51j 516a wstrząs from tothrough 123f 2334s 3444t 44 21S 526o~ wspierać from tothrough 123f 2334s 3445p 45 53j 536e