A syllable nucleus is the central constituent around which a syllable is organized. It is commonly a vowel, but a syllabic consonant can fill that role. The term describes organization in phonology, rather than a requirement that every nucleus have one particular articulatory mechanism.[ref]
Essentials of Linguistics (2nd edition) by Catherine Anderson and others. §3.10, nucleus and syllabic consonants
In a simple pronunciation of “cat”,
[æ] is the syllable nucleus, between the syllable onset [k] and syllable coda [t]. A vowel-only syllable can have a nucleus without either margin. Finding the loudest sample in a recording does not define its nucleus: acoustic amplitude, duration and abstract constituency are different descriptions of speech. Articles by others on the same topic
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