Dismantling syllable structure By listing some empirical evidence and introducing theoreti- cal considerations, this paper argues for the idea that the phonological skeleton is made up of strictly alternating C and V positions. The model advocated here claims that no two consonants and no two vowels are ever adjacent in the phonological representation -- if adjacency is defined at the level of the skeleton. This is rather counterintuitive unless one accepts the possibility of empty skeletal posi- tions. If so, the claim acquires a new meaning: whenever adjacent consonants or adjacent vowels (that is to say long vowels or diphthongs, besides the obvious case of hiatus) are encountered their representation will involve an inter- vening empty vocalic or consonantal position, respectively. Accordingly, the first part of the paper shows that the ac- ceptance of empty skeletal positions is a viable idea and, if looked at from a non-Indo-European vantage point, it is in fact the null hypothesis. The second part aims at demon- strating that the arguments supporting the status of the syllabic constituent coda are rather weak, in fact, the tra- ditional syllable structure, incorporating an onset, a nu- cleus and a coda, can be dismantled in favour of a simpler model involving only consonantal and vocalic skeletal positions.