There has been some dispute as to how to count the syllables in such words, what, if anything, constitutes the nuclei of those syllables, and if the concept of 'syllable' is even applicable to Nuxalk. However, when recordings are available, the syllable structure can be clearly audible, and speakers have clear conceptions as to how many syllables a word contains. In general, a syllable may be , (where F is a fricative), , or . When C is a stop, CF syllables are always composed of a plain voiceless stop (') plus a fricative ('). For example, ' 'thick' is two syllables, ', with a syllabic fricative, while in ' 'stone', ' 'salt', ' 'crooked', ' 'to see' and ' 'wet' each consonant is a separate syllable. Stop-fricative sequences can also be disyllabic, however, as in ' 'strong' (two syllables, at least in the cited recording) and ' 'rough' (one syllable or two). Syllabification of stop-fricative sequences may therefore be lexicalized or a prosodic tendency. Fricative-fricative sequences also have a tendency toward syllabicity, e.g. with ' 'bad' being one syllable or two, and ' 'seal fat' being two syllables (') or three. Speech rate plays a role, with e.g. ' 'you spat on me' consisting of all syllabic consonants in citation form (') but condensed to stop-fricative syllables ("") at fast conversational speed.