Syllabification (Pronunciation: /sɨˈlæbɨfɨˈkeɪʃən/ si-LAB-i-fi-KAY-shən) or syllabication (/sɨˈlæbɨˈkeɪʃən/ si-LAB-i-KAY-shən) is the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken or written.The written separation is usually marked by a hyphen when using English orthography (e.g., syl-la-ble) and with a period when transcribing in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) (e.g., [ˈsɪl.ə.bᵊɫ]).