Juncture, in linguistics, refers to the way sounds change when moving from one syllable to the next during speech. A key type of juncture is a clue that helps listeners tell apart two groups of sounds that are the same but have different meanings.

Typology

There are different types of junctures, with one common system being:

Another system, less often used, divides junctures into four types: plus, single bar, double bar, and double cross. These are written as /+/ , /|/ , /||/ , and /#/ respectively. Each type relates to how words are divided into syllables and changes in tone. A single bar shows a flat pitch before a pause, a double bar shows a rising pitch with a pause, and a double cross shows a falling pitch that usually happens at the end of a sentence.

Examples from English

In English, a pause between syllables at the plus juncture can sometimes help distinguish words that sound the same.

When a pause happens between syllables at the start or end of a word, it is called an external open juncture. If there is no pause and the words are spoken without a break, the boundary is called an internal open juncture.

The difference between open and close juncture can be seen in "night rate," /n aɪ t . r eɪ t/, where there is an open juncture between /t/ and /r/, and "nitrate," /n aɪ . t r eɪ t/, where the juncture between /t/ and /r/ is closed. In some English dialects, only "nitrate" includes an affricate.

In wordplay and games

In the study of word games, different types of pauses between words are often used to create or highlight similar sounds in phrases that are spelled differently but sound the same. When words are spoken without a pause between them (called an internal open juncture), phrases that have different meanings and spellings can still sound alike. For example, "ice cream" (/aɪs+kriːm/) and "I scream" (/aɪ+skriːm/) sound similar when spoken quickly. This is shown in the chant "I scream; you scream; we all scream for ice cream," which many English-speaking children know.

A comedy sketch called "Four Candles" from The Two Ronnies uses phrases that sound the same. In the sketch, a quiet customer asks for "fork handles," which is heard as "four candles" by others.

In word games, phrases that sound the same are sometimes called "oronyms." This term was first suggested by Gyles Brandreth in his book The Joy of Lex (1980). However, the word "oronym" was already used in linguistics to describe names of places like mountains or hills. Because of this, some scholars did not agree with using the term in word games.