English Syllable and Morpheme Boundaries

English syllable and morpheme boundaries are sometimes identical. The word friendly has two syllables and two morphemes. They are the word friend and the suffix -ly. However, in many cases, syllable and morpheme boundaries are different. Let us illustrate with examples.

Here are the morpheme boundaries of ten words:

coldest cold+est

nicely nice+ly

disagree dis+agree

unusual un+usual

soften soft+en

immature im+mature

acted act+ed

looked look+ed

given give+en

windy wind+y

Now we can examine the syllable boundaries:

coldest col.dest

nicely ni.cely

disagree di.sa.gree

unusual u.nu.su.al

soften so.ften

immature i.mma.ture

acted ac.ted

looked looked

given gi.ven

windy win.dy

From the examples it is clear that syllable and morpheme boundaries are often different. In many cases the number of syllables and morphemes also varies. The word looked has two morphemes but one syllable, and disagree has two morphemes but three syllables. Also, the final consonant of many morphemes is in the onset of the following syllable as is the case with windy. The result is that many syllable and morpheme boundaries are distinct from one another..

Words for Family in Hungarian

Hungarian makes distinctions in words of family that many languages do not. The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. Other languages that make the distinction are Japanese and Korean.

The Hungarian word for brother is testvér. However, the language is even more specific and has words for older brother and younger brother. The word for older brother is báty and the word for younger brother is öcs.

In Hungarian the word for sister can also be  testvér. However, Hungarian is even more specific and has distinct words for older sister and younger sister. The word for older sister is nővér and younger sister is húg. 

The Hungarian language has separate words for older brother, younger brother, older sister and younger sister. In Hungarian it is natural to specify whether the brother and sister are older or younger. For example, Hungarians say sentences such as  I have an older brother and younger sister rather than I have a brother and sister.

Italian Plurals

Italian plurals have only two endings. They are -e and -i. Unlike in English and other Romance languages such as French, Portuguese and Spanish, the plural does not end in -s. Let us look at examples of plurals in Italian.

The word libro means book and the word for books is libri.  The same patterns occur with biscotto/biscotti (biscuit/biscuits) and gatto/gatti (cat.cats). However, with the words casa/case (house/houses), birra/birre (beer/beers) and tazza/tazze (cup/cups), the plural ending is -e.

In certain cases, the noun does not change. Examples include bar/bar (bar/bars), film/film (film/films) and città/città (city/cities). Nouns do not change if they end in a consonant or in a stressed vowel.

Italian plurals can end in -e and in -i. In certain cases, the noun is the same in both the singular and plural. Another Romance language that primarily forms plurals with -e and -i is Rumanian. Italian masculine nouns form the plural with -i and feminine nouns form the plural with -e.

New Zealand Stressed Schwa

The English schwa is very common in unstressed syllables. It occurs in the first and third syllables of the word banana. However, the English of New Zealand is distinct because the schwa also occurs in stressed syllables.

The following words are pronounced with the schwa in New Zealand English:

big

fish

hill

pillow

printer

six

skin

trick

swim

window

In other dialects of English, the words have the high front unrounded lax vowel. The same vowel exists in New Zealand English, but not in the words of the list. It exists in words such as friend and when. The schwa is used more extensively in New Zealand English than in other dialects.