Tautosyllabicity


Two or more segments are tautosyllabic if they occur in the same syllable. Take for instance the English word "cat",. Since this word is monosyllabic, the three phonemes, and are tautosyllabic. They can also be described as sharing a 'tautosyllabic distribution'. However, in the French word "être", only the three last phones and are tautosyllabic, all members of the second syllable. Phonemes which are not tautosyllabic are heterosyllabic. For example, in the English word "mustard", and are heterosyllabic, as they are members of different syllables.