Juncture

Juncture, in linguistics, is the manner of moving (transition) or mode of relationship between two consecutive sounds. It is the relationship between two successive syllables in speech. A juncture is, formally, a suprasegmental phonemic cue, a means by which a listener can distinguish between two otherwise identical sequences of sounds that have different meanings.

There are several kinds of juncture, the most widely used typology of which is:

Other less common typologies exist, such as the division (favoured by American Structuralist linguists in the middle twentieth century) into plus, single bar, double bar, and double cross junctures, denoted /+/, /|/, /||/, and /#/ respectively. These correspond to syllabification and differences in intonation, single bar being a level pitch before a break, double bar being an upturn in pitch and a break, and double cross being a downturn in pitch that usually comes at the end of an utterance.

In English, a syllable break at the plus juncture sometimes distinguishes otherwise homophonic phrases.

A word boundary preceded or followed by a syllable break is called an external open juncture. If there is no break, so that words on either side of the juncture are run together, the boundary is called an internal open juncture.

The distinction between open and close juncture is the difference between " ", /naɪt.reɪt/ with the open juncture between /t/ and /r/, and "", /naɪ.treɪt/ with close juncture between /t/ and /r/.

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