The relative sonority theory or the prominence theory

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 2374.

The chest-pulse or breath puff theory

According to this theory, syllables are formed by breath-puffs. At present this theory is considered as not scientifically grounded; it has been proved experimentally that speakers take a new breath at the end of a syntagm and no increase of breath force necessarily accompanies every syllable.

It is based upon the fact that each sound has a different carrying power which is based on their sonority. The sonority of a sound is its relative loudness compared to other sounds, everything else (pitch, etc.) being equal.

The creator of this theory, the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, has proved that the least sonorous sounds which have the least carrying power, are those for which the mouth is closed (voiceless oral stops), while the most sonorous sounds are those for which the mouth is wide open (low vowels).

All other sounds are ranked in between these two extreme points of the sonority scale (from the highest degree to the lowest):

Low vowels (a:, o, ...).

High vowels (і:, і, ...)

Semivowels (j,w)

Liquids (l, r)

Nasals (m, n, ŋ)

Fricatives (voiced) (v, z, ð)

Fricatives (voiceless) (f, s, θ)

Oral stops (voiced) (b, d, g)

Oral stops (voiceless) (p, t, k).

By this theory the syllable is treated as the combination of a more sonorous sound with a less sonorous one.