SYLLABLE

(Gr. ovlXnGi;, from ov\\au6avu>, I collect), is defined by Girard. the celebrated French grammarian, " a simple or compound sound, pronounced with all its articulations by a single impulsion of the vwice." The principal difficulty in arranging the syllabic construction of language is to ascertain in what cases two or more consonants following each other may be joined in a syllable; which can only be done by investigation of the mechanism of speech. (See a learned article on this subject in the Encyclopedic) [s. 1222]