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Next we must account for the restriction of coda\\syllabic consonants to nasals (41b).
Syllabic consonants receive an additional point in the same way as nonsyllabic consonants.
The usual way of representing syllabic consonants relies on their functional status : since they behave like vowels, they are found in nuclei.
However, these syllabic consonants do not participate in any phonological rules, including word stress and phraselevel rhythmic rules.
This, however, is precisely the challenge raised by syllabic consonants : they fulfil a vocalic function while still being consonants physiologically.
Finally, another prominent syllabic effect that is based on the division between sonorants and obstruents can be observed in the behaviour of syllabic consonants.
However, for many of these languages, alternative analyses which do not posit syllabic consonants have been put forward by other analysts.
We take this to be a significant achievement, since stress is an overtly nuclear phenomenon : only vowels (and syllabic consonants) can bear stress.
Alternatively, disyllabic minimality could be analysed as the counting of syllable nuclei, which, in languages that do not allow syllabic consonants, would be identical to counting vowels.
Epenthesis then applies to the left or right of syllabic consonants (depending on the presence or absence of onsets and allowable coda clusters), which are subsequently desyllabified.
See all examples of syllabic consonant
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