Christopher Aruffo, MFA, MBA, MSc, PhD
Syllable length depends on verbal speech. A short syllable can be spoken quickly, and a long syllable can't. A long syllable takes more time because its letters require your mouth to keep moving.
Long syllables require more effort.
More movement requires more effort. Producing a long syllable is, therefore, physically strenuous. Consequently, a long syllable is stressed.
In verbal speech, you can hear the effects of physical stress. Syllables become higher in pitch and louder in volume. You can hear this happen by sustaining a vowel and then applying extra muscular energy— either by tightening your chest muscles or pressing on your chest with your hand.
In written English, however, you can’t hear stress. Pitch changes can’t be written down; and, although it is possible to indicate loudness with italics or ALL CAPS, it is not POSsiBLE to INdiCATE the LOUDness of every SINgle STRESSED syllaBLE and STILL write COMprehensiBLY. But all English syllables have natural lengths. In written English, length is the factor that produces stress.
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Here is an example of how length creates stress. The word record can be stressed on either syllable: either to reCORD a video or break a world RECord. But the stress changes because of natural vowel length, not loudness or pitch. |
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When the first vowel is longer than the second, the first syllable feels stressed: REC'rd. |
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When the second vowel is longer, the second syllable feels stressed: r'CORD. It doesn't matter how loudly you speak either syllable. You hear r'CORD or REC'rd depending on vowel length, not loudness. |
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Consonants can also create stress. If you lengthen the second r instead of the vowel, its length makes the second syllable feel stressed (although the word is now recurred). |
Length is an integral feature of English syllables. In written English, syllables may be long or short. In verbal speech, syllables may be stressed or unstressed. Because length creates stress, these are one and the same thing.
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