8.7.1 MOP (Maximum Onset Principle)
The MOP says simply always make the onset as long as it can be.
When confronted with a string of consonants like /-kstr-/ in extra, the longest possible onset for the second syllable is /str-/. This is because */kstr-/, though longer, is not a possible onset, and both /tr-/ and /r-/, though possible, are shorter than /str-/.
While this principle is very simple indeed, to apply it we need to know what a possible onset is. All GA consonants can be a syllable onset. (Although /ŋ/ and /ʒ/ are not permitted in the onset of the first syllable in a word.) As a result, connect, hammer, pleasure are cut as follows by the MOP:
connect: /(kə)(ˈnɛkt)/
hammer: /(ˈhæ)(mər)/
pleasure /(ˈplɛ)(ʒər)/.
When there is more than one consonant, we can equate ‘possible onset’ with ‘possible beginning of a word’.
Here are a couple of words for practice. Ask yourself where the MOP would make the syllable cuts, and then transcribe the words before you attempt to syllabify them.
| bodkin | Bedford | happy | Washington |
| abstract | contrive | transpire | afflicted |
| salty | Arkansas | praying | husband |
| gospel | correct | poultry | gastronomy |
| after | latex | Jeffrey | belfry |
In an artificially careful style of speech, this is the way in which you would pronounce these words. In this style, syllabic consonants are unlikely to occur. So we assume that /ə/ is present in the second syllables of words like uncle, eater, cotton, rhythm when MOP applies (/(ˈʌŋ)(kəl)/, /(ˈiː)(tər)/, etc.), even though in natural speech the pronunciation /ˈʌŋkl̩/ etc. would be used.
