Syllabification in Spanish

Within a word, speech sounds are organized into one or more syllables. For example, dan ‘they give’ is a monosyllable (i.e. it comprises a single syllable) while andan ‘they walk’ is a disyllable (i.e. it consists of two syllables) and sombrero ‘hat’ is a trisyllable (i.e. it consists of three syllables). A syllable in Spanish consists at the very minimum of a vowel, which is known as the nucleus of the syllable. Consonants and semivowels can occur only at the syllabic margins, i.e. before or after the nucleus. Therefore, and because vowels in most languages (including Spanish) are auditorily the most prominent speech sounds, a sequence of syllables will represent a continuous undulation in prominence, with peaks at the nuclei and troughs at the margins.

Syllable boundaries in Spanish are distributed in accordance with fixed rules, as follows:
  1. A single consonant between vowels is always syllable-initial: [pa.ta.ta] patata ‘potato’.
  2. In principle, two consecutive consonants are assigned to separate syllables: [al.ɣo] algo ‘something’, [ben̪.ta] venta ‘sale’, [lis.to] listo ‘clever’.
  3. But clusters of the form /p, t, k, b, d, g, f/ + liquid are never split: [a.βlo] hablo ‘I speak’, [swe.ɣɾa] suegra ‘mother-in-law’.
  4. Three consonants come together quite infrequently. When they do, the syllable structure is usually clear from Rule 3: [am.pljo] amplio ‘wide’. Rule 3 doesn’t predict the syllabification of words like transporte ‘transport’, however. In this type of case, the boundary always comes between the second and third consonant: [tɾans.poɾ.te].
  5. Adjacent (full) vowels are in principle assigned to separate syllables: [te.a.tɾo] teatro ‘theatre’.
  6. Unstressed /i/ and /u/ will be realized as semivowels [j] and [w] when adjacent to /a, e, o/. In that case a diphthong or triphthong will arise: [aɣ.wa] agua ‘water’, [tje.so] tieso ‘stiff’, [plej.to] pleito ‘lawsuit’, [bwej] buey ‘ox’.

Exercise: transcribe the following words phonetically using IPA symbols and indicating the syllable boundaries with a full stop. Click here for the answers.

  1. esbozo
  2. carro
  3. búho
  4. patrulla
  5. deslinde
  6. soplón
  7. ejemplo
  8. constante
  9. legumbre
  10. rechazo
  11. ñoño
  12. innato
  13. irregular
  14. consorcio