"fire"

Rho   Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:01 pm GMT
Doesn't this word have two syllables? I had a guy who argued that "fire" had one syllable, yet he himself was clearly saying "fye er" when he pronounced it. I just don't see how you can pronounce an "ye" sound before an "r" in the same syllable. It doesn't seem possible to me.
cubeeggs   Fri Apr 16, 2010 9:36 pm GMT
It does sound a lot like “fye er” to me, but I found this:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/112732.html

“Because phonemes like /r/ have such a high sonority, they easily take
on the role of vowels in syllables (depending on the formation of the
word). If you listen very carefully to the word "fire", you will
notice that there is no real separate vowel sound assigned to the
second syllable. Some people would tack a "schwa" (a neutral "uh"
sound, symbolized by an upside-down "e") before the /r/ sound, but
really it's not a separate phoneme: Play the following game: Go "fff,
eye, rrr" and gradually run the sounds together by saying them faster
and faster in sequence. Compare this to trying to run together "fff,
eye, uh, rrr." The first definitely sounds like "fire" (but
notice--only three phonemes) and the second sounds like some
ridiculous thing. Really /r/ is acting as its own vowel.”