An elementary sound, or a combination of elementary
   sounds, uttered together, or with a single effort or impulse of the
   voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word. In other terms, it
   is a vowel or a diphtong, either by itself or flanked by one or more
   consonants, the whole produced by a single impulse or utterance. One of
   the liquids, l, m, n, may fill the place of a vowel in a syllable.
   Adjoining syllables in a word or phrase need not to be marked off by a
   pause, but only by such an abatement and renewal, or reenforcement, of
   the stress as to give the feeling of separate impulses. See Guide to
   Pronunciation, /275.