Plato, Theaetetus, section 203c

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[203c]

Socrates
But have we been right in laying down the principle that whereas the letter is unknowable, yet the syllable is knowable?

Theaetetus
Probably.

Socrates
Well then, shall we say that the syllable is the two letters, or, if there be more than two, all of them, or is it a single concept that has arisen from their combination?

Theaetetus
I think we mean all the letters it contains.

Socrates
Now take the case of two, S and O. The two together are the first syllable of my name. He who knows it knows the two letters, does he not?

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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