Coda (linguistics)

A coda is the final consonant sound or sounds that follow the nucleus of a syllable in phonetics. It plays an essential role in defining the overall structure of syllables and affects the phonotactic rules of a language, which govern permissible combinations of sounds. A coda interacts with the onset and nucleus to create a complete syllable.

Coda is the name of a syllabic constituent. The nucleus and the coda together make up the rhyme.Please see Rime for information about rhyme.

The coda can consist of one or more consonants, but not all languages permit codas in every syllable.

In some languages like English, syllables can be open syllables or closed syllables, with codas only present in closed syllables.See open and closed syllables for more information about open and closed syllables.

Certain phonotactic constraints determine which consonants can appear in the coda position based on surrounding sounds.

Languages differ in their tolerance for complex codas; for example, some languages allow multiple consonants while others restrict them to single sounds or consonants.

Any language may choose to use codas or allow them; for example Hawaiian does not allow coda at all.

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