weak consonant
weak syllable

Most languages in this family contrast tense and weak consonants.

The verbs of this group begin with a weak consonant in the simple form of the continuative aspect of the neutral voice.

If the syllable context calls for a weak consonant, the '-mp-' becomes '-mm-'.

According to some, they are due to mistaken majuscular letters; according to others, they are later insertions of originally omitted weak consonants.

Aghul makes, like many Northeast Caucasian languages, a distinction between tense consonants with concomitant length and weak consonants.

The gemination of the consonant does not by itself create its tension, though morphologically tense consonants do often derive from adjoining two single weak consonants.

Apparent cases, such as the variation between pronominal u- and hu-, are due to the existence of two stems, one beginning with a weak consonant (3 or ?)

Deletion: When a sound, such as a stressless syllable or a weak consonant, is not pronounced; for example, most American English speakers do not pronounce the [d] in "handbag".

Written Late Egyptian was seemingly a better representative than Middle Egyptian of the spoken language in the New Kingdom and beyond: weak consonants 3, w, j, as well as the feminine ending .

Generally the glyphs used as phonetic elements were originally logograms that stood for words that were themselves single syllables, syllables that either ended in a vowel or in a weak consonant such as y, w, h, or glottal stop.

Tests indicated that the Broad speakers demonstrated a greater tendency for syllable assimilation and consonant elision, were more likely to use weak consonants or restricted intonation (narrow pitch range), were more likely to speak slowly (drawl), and further, showed a greater tendency to exhibit pervasive nasality.

In this chapter we look at the general nature of weak syllables.

In some lines, the weak syllables have been entirely suppressed.

Chapter 9 discussed the difference between strong and weak syllables in English.

The distribution of strong and weak syllables is a subject that will be met in several later chapters.

Weak syllables with close back rounded vowels are not so commonly found.

Not all weak syllables contain, though many do.

In the above sections we have looked at vowels in weak syllables.

If a weak syllable is subject to devoicing however, it can not receive an accent.

Weak syllables, on the other hand, as they are being defined here, can only have four types of peak:

Rather, most lines have five strong syllables, and most are preceded by a weak syllable.

The most frequently occurring vowel in English is, which is always associated with weak syllables.

In the rest of this chapter we will look at the different types of weak syllable in more detail.

In the second, third, and fourth feet, a weak syllable can occur only in the falling part:

Again, the first foot's structure is more free, allowing weak syllables in a rising position as well as a falling one:

The strong syllables of the remaining iambic feet each carry secondary stress, as do any final weak syllables.

("Brother dear, little brother") A weak syllable can only occur in the falling part of these feet:

Elision is a closely related subject, and in considering intonation the difference between strong and weak syllables is also important.

In strong syllables it is comparatively easy to distinguish from, from, but in weak syllables the difference is not so clear.

To understand how this could be done, let's start with a simple example: the word 'twenty' has one strong and one weak syllable, forming one foot.

This lent Old Norse verse a characteristic terseness; the lifts tended to be crowded together at the expense of the weak syllables.

Jeffrey Thomas delivered the Evangelist's narrative expertly, but dropped his voice too much for weak syllables and fast lines; they were swallowed up in the hall.

The first foot has a freer structure, allowing strong syllables in a falling position and weak syllables in a rising position:

In the table below 'W' represents Weak syllables and 'S' represents Strong syllables.

Each line has ten syllables, and (with slight and pleasant variations) they follow a pattern of weak syllables followed by strong syllables:

We can look on stressed syllables as occurring against a 'background' of these weak syllables, so that their prominence is increased by contrast with these background qualities.