Advances in Syllabic Structure: Where Are the Syllables in the World’s Languages?

Dear Colleagues,

In the Festschrift for Roman Jakobson published in 1956, Einar Haugen wrote that “[t]he syllable has become something of a stepchild in linguistic description”; in spite of its handiness to study a wide variety of structures and phenomena, the syllable then lacked a set of well-defined phonetic and/or phonological criteria, not to mention the very status of a phonological unit in its own right. In his Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology, John Goldsmith (1990) still recalled the clear remarks of Haugen (1956). On the 70^th anniversary of Haugen's words, it is our aim to offer a comprehensive set of studies dealing with different, complementary perspectives about syllables. The general framework of this volume acknowledges that

• Throughout this time span, research about the syllable has proven to be one of the most outstanding developments of phonological theory and description,
• Not only syllable has gained a place in the catalogue of phonological units, but its study has also evolved into a well-defined chapter of phonological inquiry,
• Yet, much is still to be studied to incorporate syllables at the core of explanations dealing with language typology, language learning and acquisition, language change and variation, language processing, etc.

Therefore, contributions from any theoretical or disciplinary orientation illustrating these achievements and/or fostering future developments are most welcome. Topics like the following are particularly appreciated, although any other approaches are also encouraged:

• Can we still conceive of a syllable-free phonology?
• Beyond Onset-Rhyme models of syllable structure
• The typology of syllables across the languages and language families of the world
• The role of the syllable in language acquisition and language learning
• Syllables and speech impairments
• Syllable-sensitive phonological processes
• The phonetics of syllables
• Sonority and the syllable
• Phonological models and the syllable
• How language change and variation affect, or is affected by, syllables
• Syllables and the prosodic organization of languages
• Syllables and other prosodic constituents
• Syllabic scripts and syllabic writing

This Special Issue, covering as many languages as possible, will include 12–15 original papers (10,000–12,000 words in length, each), covering, preferentially, one or more of the abovementioned topics.

The expected timeline for the volume is as follows:

• Abstract submission deadline: 1 December 2025 (ca. 200 words summarizing their intended contribution)
• Notification of abstract acceptance: 16 February 2026
• Full manuscript deadline: 1 June 2026

Prof. Dr. João Veloso
Guest Editor

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• syllable structure
• phonological theory
• prosody
• phonological models
• phonological typology