Monosyllables

A monosyllable (also called monosyllabic or monosyllabum ) is a word in linguistics that consists of one syllable , in German for example Blech (noun), sein (verb), lang (adjective), we (pronoun), das (article) , there (adverb) or yes (answer particle).

About the syllable structure

The individual languages differ in terms of the permitted syllable structures, which means the structure of the syllables from the sounds of the language. For German, the syllable can contain up to 3 consonants in the initial margin and up to 4 consonants in the final margin. Such clusters of consonants in the beginning or end of the syllable are not allowed in many languages. This is the reason why, for example, the Japanese word “ryukkusakku” has changed from the German word “backpack”.

Occurrence in texts and in the dictionary

In many languages one can observe that the monosyllables appear more frequently in texts than words with 2, 3 or more syllables. This also applies to German. This applies to languages that tend to be of the analytic language type ; in more synthetic languages such as Finnish or Latin, the two- and three-syllable words are usually more common. The frequency with which monosyllables occur in relation to words of other length in texts is governed by the law of the distribution of word lengths .

The occurrence of monosyllables in dictionaries can be observed as follows: The monosyllables are also most common in the German frequency dictionary , which depicts the relationships in texts; in alphabetical dictionaries, on the other hand, the three-syllable words are most common in German. The same applies to the alphabetically arranged dictionary of Dutch and Hungarian.

The analysis of a German pronunciation dictionary with 20453 keywords showed that 2245 monosyllabic words were found.

If one considers the different lengths of syllables , measured for example according to the number of phonemes per syllable, then these follow the law of the distribution of syllable lengths . For German it has been observed that syllables can contain between 1 and 6 phonemes. Various observations have been made in the Slavic languages; Thus, in Old Church Slavonic texts there were up to 4 phonemes per syllable, in Bulgarian up to 5 and in Russian and Slovenian up to 6 phonemes per syllable.

literature

Helmut Glück (Ed.), With the collaboration of Friederike Schmöe : Metzler Lexikon Sprache. 3rd, revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-476-02056-8 (article: "Einsilber").
Theodor Lewandowski : Linguistic Dictionary. 4., rework. Aufl. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg 1984. ISBN 3-494-02020-5 . Article: "Einsilbler".
Thomas Stolz, Nicole Nau, Cornelia Stroh (eds.): Monosyllables. From Phonology to Typology . Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-05-005925-9 .

Individual evidence

↑ If affricates are valued not as 1 sound but as a sound sequence, up to 5 consonants can appear in the end margin.
↑ Duden. The grammar. 7th, completely new and expanded edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim a. a. 2005, p. 40f .: The general syllable construction law . ISBN 3-411-04047-5 .
^ Peter Eisenberg: Outline of the German grammar. Volume 1: The Word. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, p. 102. ISBN 3-476-01639-0 .
↑ Andrea Stiberc: Sauerkraut, Weltschmerz, Kindergarten and Co. German words in the world. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1999, p. 44. ISBN 3-451-04701-2 .
↑ Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts. Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-933043-08-5 . The book contains several articles on counting in German including some dialects as well as on other languages.
^ Folke Müller: Word lengths in Finnish e-mails and letters . In: Göttinger Contributions to Linguistics 8, 2001, pages 71-85.
^ Winfred Röttger: The Distribution of Word Length in Ciceronian Letters. In: Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 3, 1996, pages 68-72.
^ Karl-Heinz Best : Quantitative Linguistics. An approximation . 3rd, heavily revised and expanded edition. Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2006, page 41f. ISBN 3-933043-17-4 .
↑ Nicole Rheinländer: The word length frequency in Dutch . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.), Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Goettingen 2001, pages 142-152; to the dictionary page 148f.
^ Gejza Wimmer, Reinhard Köhler, Rüdiger Grotjahn & Gabriel Altmann: Towards a Theory of Word Length Distribution. In: Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 1, 1994, pages 98-106; to the Hungarian dictionary page 102.
^ Paul Menzerath: The architecture of the German vocabulary. Dümmler, Bonn 1954, page 12, 70/71.
^ Karl-Heinz Best : Syllable lengths in reports in the daily press . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, pages 15-32.
↑ Falk-Uwe Cassier: Syllable lengths in reports in the German daily press . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, pages 33-42.
^ Otto A. Rottmann: Syllable Length in Russian, Bulgarian, Old Church Slavonic and Slovene . In: Glottometrics 2, 2002, pages 87-94. (PDF full text )

Web links

Wiktionary: Monosyllable - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: Monosyllables - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wiktionary: monosyllabic - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

[1] If affricates are valued not as 1 sound but as a sound sequence, up to 5 consonants can appear in the end margin.

[2] Duden. The grammar. 7th, completely new and expanded edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim a. a. 2005, p. 40f .: The general syllable construction law . ISBN 3-411-04047-5 .

[3] Peter Eisenberg: Outline of the German grammar. Volume 1: The Word. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, p. 102. ISBN 3-476-01639-0 .

[4] Andrea Stiberc: Sauerkraut, Weltschmerz, Kindergarten and Co. German words in the world. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1999, p. 44. ISBN 3-451-04701-2 .

[5] Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts. Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-933043-08-5 . The book contains several articles on counting in German including some dialects as well as on other languages.

[6] Folke Müller: Word lengths in Finnish e-mails and letters . In: Göttinger Contributions to Linguistics 8, 2001, pages 71-85.

[7] Winfred Röttger: The Distribution of Word Length in Ciceronian Letters. In: Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 3, 1996, pages 68-72.

[8] Karl-Heinz Best : Quantitative Linguistics. An approximation . 3rd, heavily revised and expanded edition. Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2006, page 41f. ISBN 3-933043-17-4 .

[9] Nicole Rheinländer: The word length frequency in Dutch . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.), Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Goettingen 2001, pages 142-152; to the dictionary page 148f.

[10] Gejza Wimmer, Reinhard Köhler, Rüdiger Grotjahn & Gabriel Altmann: Towards a Theory of Word Length Distribution. In: Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 1, 1994, pages 98-106; to the Hungarian dictionary page 102.

[11] Paul Menzerath: The architecture of the German vocabulary. Dümmler, Bonn 1954, page 12, 70/71.

[12] Karl-Heinz Best : Syllable lengths in reports in the daily press . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, pages 15-32.

[13] Falk-Uwe Cassier: Syllable lengths in reports in the German daily press . In: Karl-Heinz Best (Ed.): Frequency distributions in texts . Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2001, pages 33-42.

[14] Otto A. Rottmann: Syllable Length in Russian, Bulgarian, Old Church Slavonic and Slovene . In: Glottometrics 2, 2002, pages 87-94. (PDF full text )