The constant taking the place of the vowel in a syllable is known as a syllabic consonant. Normally, a syllable is defined as more sonorous as compared to surrounding less sonorous sounds.
Sonority is associated with vowels, as they make loud sounds, but in some cases, it is associated with consonants as well. Those consonants playing the part of sonorous vowels are syllabic consonants. It is usually observed that the nuclei of syllables are a vowel. But in some instances, syllabic consonant plays the part of this nucleus. Nasals and liquids occur as syllabic consonants, and there are four of them in the English language. They are L, R, M, N.
To appropriately clarify this, we need to characterize another term: schwa (addressed by the image ? in the phonetic letters in order). A model is “capable”— the letter “a” is the schwa, as it isn’t focused. The equivalent is valid for the letter “a” in “back.”
A syllabic consonant replaces the schwa.
Take “father.” The letter “r” replaces the need to articulate the letter “e.” If we articulated the schwa (the “e”) here, the verbally expressed word would seem like “fath-uh-r.” It doesn’t however, isn’t that so? The word just has two syllables. The syllabic consonant (for this situation, the letter “r”) replaces the vowel or schwa. We can say this word just and all the more rapidly as a result of the syllabic consonant.
Allow us to take a gander at another model: the syllabic consonant “m” in “human.”
Here, the letter “m” makes it workable for the initial syllable to mix into the second. Say the accompanying for all to hear: “human.” When we say this word in English, we skirt the strict way to express the letter “a” the schwa, and go directly to the keep going letter, “n.”
Examples of Words with Syllabic Consonants:
| Little | Junction | Gentle | Couple |
| Local | Northern | Medicine | Election |
| Important | Student | Variation | Complaint |
| Often | Cultural | Bitten | Problem |
| Possible | Absence | Sudden | Employee |
| Able | Sentence | Crippled | From |
| Education | Listen | Person | Important |
| Person | Gentleman | Police | Imagine |
| Certain | Tradition | Scrambled | Something |
| Human | Capable | Disabled | Definite |
| Hospital | Wonderful | Personally | Relationship |
| Sent | Metal | Socialise | Even |
| Model | Terrible | Chemicals | Seven |
| Certainly | Enterprise | Totally | Aggression |
| Suddenly | Fuel | Bottle | Urban |
| Garden | Valuable | Button | Until |
| Successful | Foundation | Mutton | Recreation |
| Humane | Struggle | Counselling | Accordance |
| Region | Efficiency | Animal | Reason |
| Title | Threatened | Penalty | Commission |
| Responsible | Remarkable | Allowed | Inclined |
| Medical | Written | People | Engage |
| Trouble | Awful | Isolated | Manage |
| Function | Tables | Journalism | Heaven |
| Radical | Kitten | Double | Chemically |
Sentences:
- Sham is in big trouble after a fight at school.
- No one has seen heaven, but everyone aspires for it.
- We have a beautiful garden near our home.
- She was interested in journalism since her college days. \Reeta is a wonderful dancer.
- My daughter is a professor in a medical college.
- Chemicals used in pesticides are harmful to soil health.
- I have to complete an important assignment by tonight.
- The sudden demise of the son left mother broke.
- Education is essential for the personal growth of a person.
- Police caught the thief after a long search.
- Kuldeep works in the hospital as a nurse.