Syllable Matcher

The syllable matcher, denoted by the small character sigma σ (Unicode character U+03C3), will match a syllable, or the remainder of a syllable. IPA transcripts must be correctly syllabified (see Syllabification & Alignment) for this matcher to work correctly. To type the syllable matcher in expressions use the autocomplete feature available by pressing Tab inside phonex input fields.

A range of syllable constituent types may be specified to restrict the portion of the syllable potentially matched. The range of constituent types is specified using the following syntax:

σ/X..Y/

Where X and Y are single character constituent type ids from the list:

S - syllable stress
L - left appendix
O - onset (include OEHS)
N - nucleus
C - coda
R - right appendix

Including a constituent type in the range does not necessarily mean that the matched portion or the transcript must include that constituent type.

Examples:

Match a single syllable (including stress):
```
σ
```
Match one or more syllables (any word):
```
σ+
```
Use bounded quantifiers to match words of specific, minimium or maximum length:
```
σ<2,3>
```
Match a poriton of a syllable from the onset to the nucleus (do not include stress). Both the onset and nucleus characters are optional (may not exist in the syllable.)
```
σ/O..N/
```
Match a syllable which begins with one or more onsets, here the syllable matcher takes on the 'remainder of' action and will match all phones from the syllable rhyme.
```
\c:O+σ
```
Match a syllable which ends with one or more codas. This demonstrates the use of constituent range to match a portion of the syllable starting with the stress marker and ending with the nucleus:
```
σ/S..N/\c:C+
```
Supplementary matcher may be applied to the syllable matcher. For example, stress matching may be used to query word shape such as in the following example which will query any word with initial primary stress:
```
σ!1 σ!U+
```