Generalisation of templates

A generalisation over consonants and vowels allows a template of a German monosyllable to be defined as follows:

CCCVCCCC

All the Cs are optional. This template is often represented by its canonical form:

C V C

• Such a CV-template only gives an indication of the length but does not give any information on the distribution of consonants and vowels within the syllable substructures.
• The template structure alone overgeneralises, providing no restrictions as to which consonants are permitted in which position.
• Such templates thus place very loose constraints on possible syllables of a language.