Syllable divisionS

Juan   Sunday, August 15, 2004, 23:32 GMT
When it comes to pronunciation I have a still a lot to learn. I've done most of my learning by listening which has been very useful. But now I have come to the realisaton that that alone is not enough. One of the thing that I've come to learn is that syllable divisions are vastly different from my language and that of English which I thought were the same. For so long I thought syllable divisions were identical in Spanish and English and because recently I've been checking the pronunciation of words out of curiosity (to see if they were actually as I though they were) I found that certainly was not the case. I was shocked! Seems I have a lot to catch up on.

i.e.

AMERICA ---> Spa: A-ME-RI-CA Eng: A-MER-I-CA

This completely threw me!

CHARACTER ---> What I thought: CHA-RAC-TER Actual: CHAR-AC-TER

SYLLABLE ----> Me: SY-LLA-BLE Actual: SYLL-A-BLE

I wonder has had this problem?
Juan   Monday, August 16, 2004, 01:46 GMT
POWER ---> Me: PO-WER Actual: POW-ER.
Dulcinea del Toboso   Monday, August 16, 2004, 03:53 GMT
It appears that English prefers to create a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) pair when possible, at least initially.
CalifJim   Monday, August 16, 2004, 06:23 GMT
The English vowels frequently attract a following R or L or N into the same syllable. In fact, in American English a vowel followed by R forms an "R-colored" vowel. You can be sure that vowel + R belongs to the same syllable.
Paul   Monday, August 16, 2004, 17:59 GMT
Syllable breaks very significantly different between British Accents and the American Accent.
Interesting as either in-trest-ing or in-ter-es-ting
The American accent frequently minimizes the number of syllables in the word.
Damian   Monday, August 16, 2004, 18:06 GMT
Paul:

Interesting..... I usually say ['in-tres-ting] 3 syllables with stress on the 1st and the 2nd swiftly glided over.
Juan   Monday, August 16, 2004, 22:54 GMT
Are you sure? I thought it was the other way round.

CATEGORY ----> GenAm:CAT-E-GOR-Y, U.K: CAT-E-GRY
INVENTORY -----> GenAm: IN-VEN-TOR-Y, U.K: IN-VEN-TRY
MILITARY ------> GenAm: MIL-I-TAR-Y, U.K: MIL-I-TRY
CONTEMPORARY ------> GenAm: CON-TEM-PO-RER-Y, U.K: CON-TEM-PRY
TERRITORY ----> GenAm: TER-I-TOR-Y U.K: TER-I-TRY
ETC...
Random Chappie   Tuesday, August 17, 2004, 00:32 GMT
I agree with Damian and Juan. British English, not American English has a tendency to reduce the number of syllables in a word.

Like Damian, I say 'in-tres-ting, not in-te-res-ting.

I also say...
'cat-e-gree (category)
'in-ven-tree (inventory)
'mi-li-tree (military)
'te-ri-tree (territory)
luh-'bor-uh-tree (laboratory)