POLISH SYLLABLE

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POLISH SYLLABLE

• IDALIA SMOCZYK

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Outline

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

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VARIOUS DEFINITIONS OF A SYLLABLE

• a rhythmical part of a word which usually
  contains one vowel
• the smallest independent phonetic unit
• a segment of speech between two declines of
  sonority with a clearly marked peak of sonority
• a unit in which in a given language phonemes are
  combined according to particular rules

sonority
sounds
d o m
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TYPES OF SYLLABLES

• OPEN SYLLABLES
• ending with a vowel, eg. za-ba-wa, o-glo-sze-nie
• CLOSED SYLLABLES
• ending with a consonant or a cluster of
  consonants, eg. staw, pod-recz-nik

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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.

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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

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PARTICULARITIES OF POLISH PHONOTACTICS

• In Polish syllable there can be up to 5
  consonants at the beginning and at the end of the
  syllable, eg
• nastepstw / nastempstf /
• Strwiaz / strfj NS /
• In comparison to other European languages, in
  Polish the QUANTITY, LENGTH and FREQUENCY of
  occurrence of consonantal groups is the HIGHEST

c
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THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE ONSETS OF POLISH
SYLLABLES

• 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...)

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OTHER COMBINATIONS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE

• even combinations of the type SO- (as opposed
  to many other European languages)
• eg lze, lsni, mgla
• and combinations of the type OSO-
• eg krwawy, trwoga, plwac, plciowy

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RESTRICTIONS ON INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF POLISH
SYLLABLE

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

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METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY

• no research concerning all possible combinations
  of consonants and vowels in the Polish syllable
  is known
• the analysis made on the basis of 240 words (out
  of 20.000) occurring most frequently on WWW pages
  on the Internet. Therefore, the study does not
  fully reflect reality
• only onsets of Polish syllables analysed

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Tree representation of Polish CCCCV onsets
krwiak from to through 1 22 k 22 33 r
33 43 f 43 51 j 51 6 a
skrwawiony from to through 1 21 s 21
32 k 32 42 r 42 51 f 51 6 a
wstrzas from to through 1 23 f 23 34
s 34 44 t 44 21 S 52 6 o
40
w
b
dz'
wspierac from to through 1 23 f 23 34
s 34 45 p 45 53 j 53 6 e
30
f
41
r
20
50
o
z'
t
31
s
f
a
42
zdzblo from to through 1 20 z 20 30
dz 30 40 b 40 50 w 50 6 o
r
51
21
k
6
1
32
j
strwozony from to through 1 21 s 21 3
1 t 31 41 r 41 50 f 50 6 o
k
o
f
22
r
43
52
33
f
e
S
t
s
53
23
44
34
p
j
45