Calculating the number of English syllables

[Peter Gordon]

The rules are a bit circular or redundant.  The second-vowel-deletion rule
assumes you can tell the difference between one syllable and two syllables
in a two vowel sequence, so it's a bit circular.  Further, the rule about
subtracting vowels from diphthongs is a bit murky.  Most diphthongs are
often written as long vowels with an 'e' at the end of the word or some
irregular spelling (site, fight) or else when they are written as two vowels
(bait), it seems that the second vowel deletion rule would handle this
anyway, so it's a bit redundant.


Peter Gordon, Associate Professor
Biobehavioral Sciences Department
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 W 120th St. Box 180
New York, NY 10027

E-mail: pgordon at tc.edu
Phone:  212 678-8162 (Office)
        212 678-8169 (Lab)
        212 678-8233 (Fax)

Webpage: http://www.tc.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=pg328






On 10/26/09 11:22 AM, "Gareth" <gpmorgan12 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> Hello everyone,
> Thank you for the great responses. They have been very helpful and
> have answered some of my questions. I have a related issue that I
> would like to pose the group. When calculating the number of syllables
> in a word in English, what do you think about the following set of
> rules:
> 
> ---count the vowels in the word,
> ---subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent "e" at the end of a
> word or the second vowel when two vowels a
>    together in a syllable)
> ---subtract one vowel from every dipthong, (diphthongs only count as
> one vowel sound.)
> ---the number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of
> syllables.
> 
> Can any see any major flaws or additional rules/exceptions that may
> need adding?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gareth
> 
> PS. the rules were taken from http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/syllables.html
> > 


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