A critical review of models of speech-motor control serves to illustrate the ongoing problem of elaborating an interface between speech and concepts of phonemes or “syllables” as groups of phonemes.The problem extends to neuro- and psycho-linguistic models. In addressing the issue of“the interface that never was,” several lines of evidence are presented that demonstrate syllable-size cycles as basic sequencing units of articulation, muscle activation, and representation in sequence memory. The evidence also suggests that a conceptualization of speech in terms of linguistic-type+/– features that are taken to be timed in letter-like bundles have oriented models, but fundamentally misrepresent both the timing and the graded control of muscles and articulatory motions. Instrumental records of graded control support coherent syllable-size cycles as basic sequencing units and evidence is discussed with a view on how syllable-internal timing can relate to intrinsic properties of relaxing tissues which do not imply a sequential control of closing and opening motions within a motion cycle.