Syllabic consonants
In general, every syllable needs a vowel. However, some consonants can serve as syllables on their own without a vowel because they can carry their own vowel sounds. These consonants are called syllabic (or vocalic) consonants. In English, syllabic consonants are found in nasals (/əm/, /ən/ and /əŋ/), and liquids (/əl/ and /ər/). Words with syllabic consonants are pronounced longer due to the inherent vowel sound the consonants carry.
Syllabic consonants are most commonly found in words that end in ‘le.’ If a consonant precedes ‘le,’ the ‘le’ becomes a syllabic consonant, /əl/. That is, the consonant and the syllabic consonant together make a syllable. So, we divide one letter before the '-le.' For example,
a-ble, ca-ble, fa-ble, mum-ble, rum-ble, ta-ble, fum-ble, syl-la-ble
hur-dle, rid-dle,
an-kle, cy-cle,
ap-ple, ma-ple, sim-ple,
cas-tle, hus-tle, this-tle,
chor-tle, lit-tle, tur-tle, ti-tle,
puz-zle
In the following words, ‘-le’ stands its own syllable since the preceding consonants are consonant digraphs.
tack-le, freck-le, tick-le, pick-le, buck-le
That is, ‘ck’ makes /k/ sound, and the preceding vowels are all short vowels.
Spelling combinations other than ‘-le’ are also possible, as the following examples show:
nick-el, pet-al, met-al, du-al, du-el, fu-el, ac-tu-al
The ‘-le’ ending in words that have a vowel sound immediately before ‘-le’ are not syllabic consonants. So, the following words are one syllable words:
ale, scale, sale, file, tile, whale, while
The following words also have syllabic consonants:
/əm/: rhy-thm, pri-sm,
/ən/: pri-son, hu-man, sud-den, cot-ton, heav-en, sev-en, muf-fin, o-ven
/ər/: sa-bre, fi-ber,
The above words are two syllable words since the consonant and syllabic consonant together makes a syllable.
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