non-syˈllabic, a. and n. Linguistics.
[non- 3, 2.]
A. adj. a. = asyllabic a.; spec. denoting a speech-sound that does not constitute the predominant sonority of the syllable in which it occurs. b. Not syllable-timed. B. n. A non-syllabic speech-sound.
| 1909 Webster, Nonsyllabic, a. 1933 L. Bloomfield Language vii. 120 Some of the phonemes are more sonorous than the phonemes (or the silence) which immediately precede or follow... Any such phoneme is a crest of sonority or a syllabic; the other phonemes are non-syllabic. Thus the [e] in red and the [r] in bird are syllabics, but the [r] in red and the [d] in red and bird are non-syllabics. 1947 K. L. Pike Phonemics 30/1 The acoustic quality is quite similar to that which is found when they are acting as nonsyllabics. 1957 H. Whitehall in N. Frye Sound & Poetry 143 The first distinction would be drawn between syllabic and non-syllabic rhythms. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts xvii. 382 Such monosyllabic complexes employing nonsyllabic suffixes as truth and fourth. 1965 Language XLI. 32 Since the first element of these clusters always represents the syllable peak.., I have not separately indicated the nonsyllabic nature of the second element. Ibid. 476 According to their function in the syllable, the consonants are non-syllabics or syllabics. |