 The syllable is often considered the phonological building block of words. It is represented by the Greek letter σ and can be shown in two ways, as a binary tree or in a flat hierarchical representation. The component parts are in both cases an optional onset that starts the syllable, an optional coda at the end and an obligatory peak in the middle. In the binary tree notation, peak and coda constitute the so-called rhyme. Since the peak is normally represented by a vowel and the onset and the coda by a consonant, phonologists often use a CVC shorthand notation where v represents the vocalic or more precisely, the highly sonorant peak, and c stands for an element of low sonority, in most cases, a consonant. Let us look at some examples. The simplest syllable, for example the first person singular pronoun I, consists of a vowel in the peak position and no onset and no coda. In plant we have two consonants in the onset position, a peak and two consonants as coda. Strength exhibits the maximum syllable length in present day English. It has three consonants in the onset position, a peak and two consonants realising the coda. When words consist of more than one syllable, we may be confronted with a problem. In hammer it is not clear whether the M is the coda of the first syllable, the onset of the second syllable or both. This phenomenon is referred to as ambi-syllabicity.