Sȳl'la-ble1, n.
n. [Fr. syllabe, Pr., Pg., & It. sillaba, Sp. silaba, Lat. syllaba, Gr. συλλαβή, that which is held together, several letters taken together so as to form one sound, a syllable, from συλλαμβάνειν, to take together, from σύν, with, and λαμβάνειν, to take.]
Sense 1. An elementary sound, or a combination of elementary sounds, uttered together, or at a single effort or impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word; the smallest separately articulated portion of a sentence.
☞ The more precise theory and definition of the syllable may be succinctly set forth as follows: Syllables are the successive portions or instants into which the listening ear apprehends articulate speech as divided, and their distinction depends upon the contrast of opener and closer articulations—or, in the main, that of vowels and consonants. In uttering abracadabra, for instance, there is an uninterrupted emission of intonated breath from the throat, a continuous effort or impulse, and the mouth-organs take up successively eleven different positions of articulation, yet the ear receives the impression of five successive unities, as it is struck by the five clear and open vowel-sounds, one after another, which seem to be parted asunder by the closer and less distinct consonants. The effect is the same as if a were uttered by five separate successive impulses of the voice, with a slight pause or cessation of utterance between each two. The norm of a syllable, then, is a vowel, alone or accompanied by one or more consonants, and separated by these or by an hiatus from a preceding or following vowel, if such be present. As to what sounds shall be allowed vowel value in making syllables, and as to how many and what consonants shall be combinable with a vowel in the same syllable, and in what order they shall be combined, the usage of different languages is at variance. The English allows l (as in able, ā'bl, feeble, fee'bl) and n (as in prison, priz'n, reckon, rek'n) to form syllables; such value is given elsewhere to r, m, and even z. Some languages, as the Hawaiian, permit only the simplest combination of a vowel with a single preceding consonant; the English stands nearly at the other end of the scale, in allowing the aggregation to the vowel of as many as three consonants before it, as in strike, scream, and as many as three or four after it, as in bands, hearts, lurk'st, worlds, twelfths, sixths, so that one syllable may contain six or seven consonants, as strands, splint'st (forms like the latter only by harsh and unnatural contraction). When opener and closer consonantal elements are combined with the same vowel, there should properly be a gradual increase of openness to the vowel, and decrease after it, as tramp, not rtamp; only an exception is allowed in favor of the sibilants, as being by their nature easily uttered in connection with consonants, while yet they are not open enough to give to the ear the impression of an independent syllable. So also, surd consonantal sounds must precede sonant in beginning a syllable, and must follow them in closing one, as in fled'st, shrunk.
Sense 2. In writing and printing, a part of a word separated from the rest, and capable of being pronounced by a single impulse of the voice. It may or may not correspond to a syllable in the spoken language. [See Prin. of Pron., § 129.]
Sense 3. A small part of a sentence or discourse; any thing concise or short; a particle. “Before a syllable of the law of God was written.” — Hooker.