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In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus.
The segmental structure of a syllable begins with an onset, followed by a rime or final.
Depending on the phonotactics of a language, the onset can consist of a single consonant or a consonant cluster, or be null.
If a syllable begins with a vowel or another syllabic sonorant, then the syllable is said to have no onset, or a null onset. (Most languages allow this possibility.) The terms null initial and zero initial are used as well. Some abjads, abugidas, and alphabets have a special zero consonant to represent a null onset. For example, in Hangul, the alphabet of the Korean language, a null onset is represented with ㅇ at the left or top section of graph, as in 역 ("south," pronounced yeok, where the diphthong yeo is the syllable nucleus and k is the coda).
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