Strong and Weak Syllables

1.      The  ə Vowel (“schwa”)

The vowel schwa or ə in English always associated with weak syllable. In quanlity it is mid and central and the quality of this vowel is not same. but the variation is not important.so not all weak syllble contain ə.

NO	Spelt with ‘...’ :strong pronunciation would have...	Examples
1	‘a’                                                          æ	‘ɑttend’ /ətend/ ‘barrɑcks’ /bærək/ ‘charɑcter’ /kærəktə/
2	‘ar’                                                        ɑ:	‘pɑrticular’ /pətɪkjələ/ ‘monɑrchy’ /mɒnəkI/ ‘molɑr’ /məʊlə/
3	Adjectival ending spelt ‘ɑte’:                                            eI	‘intimɑte’ /ɪntɪmət/ ‘desolɑte’ /desələt/ ‘accurɑte’ /ækjərət/
4	‘o’                                                         ɒ	‘tommorow’/təmɒrəʊ/ ‘carrot’ /kærət/ ‘potato’ /pəteItəʊ/
5	‘or’                                                       ɔ:	‘forget’ /fəget/ ‘opportunity’/ɒpətju:nɪtɪ/ ‘ambassador’/æmbæsədə/
6	‘e’                                                         e	‘settlement’/setǀmənt/ ‘postmen’ /pəʊstmən/ ‘violet’/vaɪələt/
7	‘er’                                                         з:	‘perhaps’/ pəhæps/ ‘superman’ /su:pəmæn/ ‘stronger’ /strɒƞgə/
8	‘u’                                                          ʌ	‘Autuntum’ /ɔ:təm/ ‘support’ /səpɔ:y/ ‘halibut’ /hæǀɪbət/
9	‘ough’; (there are, of course, many other pronunciations for letter-sequence ‘ough’	‘thorough’ /θʌrə/ ‘borough’ /bʌrə/
10	‘ous’	‘gracious’ /greɪʃəs/ ‘callous’ /kæləs/

2.      Close Front and Close Back Vowels

Two other vowels are commonly found in weak syllable: close front (in the general region i: and ɪ) and close back (in the general region u: and ʊ). In strong syllable it is comparatively easy to dishtinguish i: from ɪ, u: from ʊ, but in weak syllable the difference is not so clear. For the example ‘easy’/i:zɪ/ and busy/bɪzɪ/

NO		example
i	-In word- final position in word spelt with final ‘y’ or ‘ey’ -morpheme-final position when such words have suffixes begining with vowels	‘Happy’/hæpi/, ’valley’/væli/  ‘Hapier’/hæpia/,‘esiest’/i:ziəst/
ii	In a prefix such as those spelt ‘re’, ‘pre’, ‘de’ if it precedes a wovel and is unstressed	‘react’/riækt/, ‘preoccupied’/priɒkjʊpaɪd/
iii	In the suffixes spelt ‘iate’, ‘ious’ when they have two syllables	‘appreciate’/əpri:ʃiert, ‘hilarious’/hɪleəriəs/
iv	-In the following words when unstressed - the world ‘the’when it precedes vowel.	‘he’, ‘she’, ‘we’, ‘me’

3.      Syllabic Consonants

NO		Example
i	with alveolar consonant preceding	‘couple’/kæt!/, ‘bottle’/bɒt!/
ii	With non-alveolar consonant preceding	‘trouble’/trʌb!/, ‘couple’/kʌp!/