Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Juncture

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Juncture, in linguistics, is the manner of moving (transition) or mode of relationship between two consecutive sounds. It is the relationship between two successive syllables in speech. A juncture is, formally, a suprasegmental phonemic cue, a means by which a listener can distinguish between two otherwise identical sequences of sounds that have different meanings.

Contents

Typology

There are several kinds of juncture, the most widely used typology of which is:

plus juncture
Also known as open juncture, this is subdivided into internal open juncture and external open juncture. It is the juncture that occurs at word boundaries. In phonetic transcription open juncture is transcribed /+/, hence the name plus juncture.
close juncture
Also known as a normal transition, this is a transition between segments (sounds) within a word.
terminal juncture
Also known as falling, clause terminal or terminal contour, this is the juncture at the end of a clause or utterance with falling pitch before a silence.

Other less common typologies exist, such as the division (favoured by American Structuralist linguists in the middle twentieth century) into plus, single bar, double bar, and double cross junctures, denoted /+/, /|/, /||/, and /#/ respectively. These correspond to syllabification and differences in intonation, single bar being a level pitch before a break, double bar being an upturn in pitch and a break, and double cross being a downturn in pitch that usually comes at the end of an utterance.

Examples from English

In English, a syllable break at the plus juncture sometimes distinguishes otherwise homophonic phrases.

  • "a name" /ə.neɪm/ and "an aim" /ən.eɪm/
  • "that stuff" /ðæt.stʌf/ and "that's tough" /ðæts.tʌf/

    • A word boundary preceded or followed by a syllable break is called an external open juncture. If there is no break, so that words on either side of the juncture are run together, the boundary is called an internal open juncture.

    The distinction between open and close juncture is the difference between "night rate", /naɪt.reɪt/ with the open juncture between /t/ and /r/, and "nitrate", /naɪ.treɪt/ with close juncture between /t/ and /r/.

    Oronyms

    In recreational linguistics, an oronym is a pair of phrases which are homophonic. When pronounced without a pause between words (internal open juncture), phrases which differ in meaning and spelling may share a similar pronunciation. Examples include "ice cream" /aɪs+kriːm/ and "I scream" /aɪ+skriːm/ (This is employed in the chant "I scream; you scream; we all scream for ice cream" that is familiar to many English-speaking children.) The label oronym was suggested by Gyles Brandreth and first published in his book The Joy of Lex (1980).

    References

    Juncture Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA