How many syllables are there in English?

[Hua Lin]

Dear all,

Does anyone know how many syllables are there in English?
One source (De Francis 1984?) seems to have said that English has over 8000
syllables. Can anyone verify this? What is the exact number? Or even better,
does anyone know a table or a list of all the actually occurring syllables in
English?

Thanks so much for your help.

Hua LIN
from Victoria, Canada