答案:Syllable:it refers to a unite of spoken language that is bigger than a speech sound. It consists of 1one or more vowel sounds alone or of 2a syllabic consonant alone or of 3either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following.
A syllable can be divided into two parts, the rime and the onset. As the vowel within the rime is the nucleus,(peak) the consonant(s) after it is the coda. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all of them have an onset and a coda. A closed syllable has a coda, while an open syllable has no coda. Take the word cracked for example. Its syllabic structure can be shown as follows: