Asyllabic consonant orvocalic consonant is aconsonant that forms thenucleus of asyllable on its own, like them,n andl in some pronunciations of theEnglish wordsrhythm,button andawful, respectively. To represent it, the understrokediacritic in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet is used,⟨U+0329◌̩COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW⟩. It may be instead represented by an overstroke,⟨U+030D◌̍COMBINING VERTICAL LINE ABOVE⟩ if the symbol that it modifies has adescender, such as in[ŋ̍].^[1]

Syllabic consonants in most languages aresonorants, such asnasals andliquids. Very few have syllabicobstruents (i.e.,stops,fricatives, andaffricates) in normal words, but English has syllabic fricatives inparalinguistic words likeshh! andzzz.

In many varieties ofHigh andLow German, pronouncing syllabic consonants may be considered ashibboleth. In High German andTweants (a Low Saxon dialect spoken in theNetherlands; more Low Saxon dialects have the syllabic consonant), all word-finalsyllables in infiniteverbs and feminineplural nouns spelled-en are pronounced with syllabic consonants. The High Germaninfinitivelaufen ('to walk') is pronounced[ˈlaʊfn̩] or (in some accents) even[ˈlaʊfɱ̍] and its Tweants counterpartloopn is pronounced[ˈlɔːʔm̩]. Tweants scholars even debate whether or not this feature should be incorporated in spelling, resulting in two generally accepted spelling forms (eitherloopn orlopen).

Standard German spoken inLuxembourg often lacks syllabic sonorants under the influence ofLuxembourgish, so thatlaufen is pronounced[ˈlaʊfən], rather than[ˈlaʊfn̩].^[2][3]

Many dialects ofEnglish may use syllabic consonants in words such aseven[ˈiːvn̩],awful[ˈɔːfɫ̩] andrhythm[ˈɹɪðm̩], whichEnglish dictionaries' respelling systems usually treat as realizations of underlying sequences ofschwa and aconsonant (for example,/ˈiːvən/).^[4]

InDanish, a syllabic consonant is the standard colloquial realization of combinations of thephoneme schwa/ə/ and asonorant, generally referred to as schwa-assimilation,^[5] e.g.katten ('the cat')/ˈkatən/ =[ˈkʰætn̩],dame ('lady')/ˈdaːmə/ =[ˈtɛːm̩],cykel ('bike')/ˈsykəl/ =[ˈsykl̩],myre ('ant')/ˈmyːrə/ =[ˈmyːɐ],sove ('sleep')/ˈsɒːʋə/ =[ˈsɒːʊ],reje ('shrimp')/ˈraːjə/ =[ˈʁɑːɪ], orhuset ('the house')/ˈhuːˀsəð/ =[ˈhuːˀsð̩ˠ].

In all four dialect groups ofNorwegian, a syllabicalveolar nasal,/n/, may be heard. It is syllabic when following otheralveolar consonants and occurs most often in thedefinitesingular form ofmasculine nouns (seeNorwegian grammar) where the schwa haselided, e.g.bilen ('the car')[biː.ln̩], where it was originally[biː.lən]. With some speakers, the schwa may be reinserted, especially for words already ending in/n/ where the syllabic/n/ may have been entirely elided afterward, e.g.mannen ('the man') can either be pronounced like[mɑ.nn̩],[mɑn] or[man.nən].^[6][7] In addition to this, a syllabic/n/ always occurs in words likevatn ('water')[ʋa.tn̩] andbotn ('bottom')[bɔ.tn̩]. This syllabification of alveolar nasals also appears in norrland and svealand dialects ofSwedish. In all cases where the alveolar sound becomesretroflex,/n/ also becomes retroflex/ɳ/, e.g.barten ('the moustache')[ba.ʈɳ̩] (seeNorwegian phonology#Consonants). In some Norwegian dialects, a syllabicalveolar lateral approximant/l/ may be heard in the same circumstances as syllabic/n/, e.g.puddel ('poodle')[pʉ.dl̩], though it is not as common as syllabic/n/. A syllabic/l/ may also be heard in Bergen, where a following syllabic/n/ has elided completely, e.g.solen ('the sun')[suː.l̩].^[8] In dialects that havepalatalisation of some alveolar consonants like Northern Norwegian andTrøndersk, the following syllabic/n/ is also palatalised,^[9] e.g.ballen ('the ball')[ba.ʎɲ̩].

All of the consonants syllabicized in Germanic languages are sonorants. However, the only timeobstruents are used syllabically in English is inonomatopoeia, such assh![ ʃ̩ː] (a command to be quiet),sss[s̩ː] (the hiss of a snake),zzz[z̩ː] (the sound of a bee buzzing or someone sleeping), andtsk tsk![ǀ] (used to express disapproval or pity), though it is not certain how to define what a syllable is in such cases.

Sanskritऋṛ[r̩], ऌḷ[l̩] are syllabic consonants,allophones of consonantalr andl. This continues the reconstructed situation ofProto-Indo-European, where bothliquids andnasals had syllabic allophones,r̩, l̩, m̩, n̩ (the last two had becomea). By the era ofMiddle Indo-Aryan languages, the remaining syllabic consonants unpredictably became eithera,i, oru, causingṛ andḷ to be limited intotatsama words in modern languages.

ManySlavic languages allow syllabic consonants. Some examples include:

• Czech andSlovakr[r] andl[l], as in the phraseStrč prst skrz krk 'stick your finger through the throat' (in both languages). Slovak also has long versions of these syllabic consonants, ŕ and ĺ, e.g.:kĺb[kɫ̩ːp] 'joint',vŕba[ˈvr̩ːba] 'willow',škvŕn[ʃkvr̩ːn] '(of) spots'. Czech also has m̩ and n̩, e.g.:sedm[sedm̩~sedn̩] 'seven'.^[10]
• Slovene[m̩],[n̩] and[l̩] in non-native words, e.g.Vltava.^[11]
• Serbo-Croatianr[r̩], as intrčati 'to run';l[l̩], as inVltava 'Vltava';lj[ʎ̩], as inŠtarklj; andn[n̩], as inNjutn 'Newton'. Most Torlakian dialects of south-eastern Serbia exhibit a regular syllabicl[l̩] which corresponds tou[u] in the standards. For example, invlk ("wolf",vuk in the standard) andslza ("tear";suza in the standard). In dialects between theKupa river andVelebit of pre-war Croatia, other consonants are also syllabic. For example,t[t̪], such as inmostć (which ismostić 'small bridge' in standard Croatian); andč[tʃ], such as inklinčć (which isklinčić ('clove') in standard Croatian).^[12]
• Macedonianр[r], such as inпрв[ˈpr̩f] 'first',срце[ˈsr̩t͡sɛ] 'heart',незадржлив[nɛˈzadr̩ʒlif] 'irrepressible',рбет[ˈr̩bɛt] 'spine',рѓа[ˈr̩ɟa] 'to rust',рчи[ˈr̩t͡ʃi] 'to snore', etc.

SeveralSinitic languages, such asCantonese andHokkien, feature both syllabicm ([m̩]) andng ([ŋ̍]) that stand alone as their own words. In Cantonese, the former is most often used in the word meaning 'not' (唔,[m̭̍]) while the latter can be seen in the word for 'five' (五,[ŋ̬̍]) and the surnameNg (吳,[ŋ̭̍] or伍,[ŋ̬̍], depending on thetone), among others.

A number of languages havesyllabic fricatives orfricative vowels. In severalvarieties of Chinese, certain high vowels following fricatives or affricates are pronounced as extensions of those sounds, with voicing added (if not already present) and a vowel pronounced while the tongue and teeth remain in the same position as for the preceding consonant, leading to the turbulence of a fricative carrying over into the vowel. InMandarin Chinese, this happens for example withsī,zī,shī, andrī. Traditional grammars describe them as having a "buzzing" sound. A number of modern linguists^[13][14] describe them as true syllabic fricatives, although with weak frication and voicing.^[15] They are accordingly transcribed ⟨sź̩,tsź̩,ʂʐ̩́,andʐʐ̩́⟩ respectively.^[16]

However, for many speakers, the friction carries over only into the beginning of the vowel.^[17] The tongue and teeth remain where they were, but the tongue contact is lessened a bit to allow for a highapproximant vowel with no frication except at the beginning, during the transition.John Wells^[18] uses the detailed transcriptions ⟨sz̞ᵚ⟩ forsi and ⟨ʂʐ̩ᶤ⟩ forshi (ignoring the tone), with the superscript indicating the "color" of the sound and a lowering diacritic on thez to indicate that the tongue contact is relaxed enough to prevent frication. Another researcher suggests ⟨s͡ɯ⟩ and ⟨ʂ͡ɨ⟩ forsi andshi, respectively, to indicate that the frication of the consonant may extend onto the vowel.^[19] Some speakers have even more lax articulation, opening the teeth and noticeably lowering the tongue, so thatsī shī rīare pronounced[sɯ́ʂɯ́ʐɯ́], with the same vowel[ɯ] in each case and no r-coloring^{[citation needed]}.

TheNuosu language has two similar "buzzed" vowels that are described as syllabic fricatives,[β̩,ɹ̝̍^{[citationneeded]}]. The former may even be trilled[ʙ̞̍].

Sinologists and linguists working in the Chinese analytical tradition frequently use the termapical vowel (舌尖元音shéjiān yuányīn) to describe the sounds above and others like them in variousSino-Tibetan languages. However,this is a misnomer, as the tongue is actuallylaminal^{[citation needed]}. Thenonstandard symbols ⟨ɿʅʮʯ⟩ are commonly used to transcribe these vowels in place of ⟨z̩ʐ̩z̩ʷʐ̩ʷ⟩ or ⟨C͡ɯC͡ɨC͡uC͡ʉ⟩, respectively. The termapical vowel should also not be taken as synonymous withsyllabic fricative, as e.g., the bilabial syllabic fricative[β̩] in Liangshan Yi is not pronounced with the tongue.

Berber,Salish,Wakashan andChemakuan languages have syllabic obstruents in normal vocabulary, such asNuxálk[p̍ʰ.t̩ʰ.k̩ʰ.ts̩ʰ],[s̩.pʰs̩] "northeast wind",[ɬ̩.q̍ʰ] 'wet',[ť̩.ɬ̩.ɬ̩] 'dry', or[nu.jam.ɬ̩] 'we (ɬ̩) used to sing (nu.jam.ɬ̩)'.

InStandard Yoruba, the consonantsm andn may be syllabic and carry tone like vowels. However, they always stand alone as syllables and cannot stand as syllable nuclei.

InBaoulé,m orn may be syllabic. As a stand-alone word, it means 'I' (first person subject pronoun), as inN ti baule[n̩̄tɪ̄bāūlē] 'I speak Baoulé'. Its quality varies with the consonant following it, as inM bá aiman[m̩̄báāɪ̄mān] 'I will come tomorrow'.

TheHungarian words[ʃ̩], a high-register variant ofés 'and', is a syllabic consonant, although it usually cliticises:s ettem/ʃ̩ɛtːɛm/[ʃɛtːɛm] 'and I had eaten'.

• ⟨Ƞ⟩N with long right leg