How to distinguish between long vowel and short vowel in stressed syllable

Question

Dear folks:I have a pronunciation problem that's been confused me for a long time.As we may know,it is very important for paying more attention on stressed syllable,especially the vowel within it in a multi-syllable word.Here comes the question:How can we distinguish whether it's a long  or a short vowel in the stressed syllable because it will make huge sound differences.Some of my teachers told me that I need to distinguish if it's a open or close syllable first in that we make long vowel sound in open syllable while short vowel sound in close syllable.However,I find myself hard to distinguish between close and open syllable.For instance,the word helium,the e plays a long vowel sound in stressed syllable ('he-lium).However,that's the result after I looked up the dictionary.In this case,e is in a open syllable to make itself long.Another sample word such as in'voluntary,the stressed vowel is o;However,in this case,the o is a short vowel sound.My question is what if somebody else in the world segment helium like 'hel-ium in which e makes a short vowel and involuntary  like in'vo-luntary in which o makes a long vowel?I am thinking if there is a rule or a tip that can deal with this problem or unfortunately, the only way is to check with dictionary?I appreciate for any postive answer.

Buddhaheart · Accepted Answer

There’re phonic generalizations; there’re no hard-and-fast rules. There’ll always be exceptions. Syllabification is a very controversial and contentious subject. Unfortunately your final answer - I hate to admit - lies in any authoritative pronunciation dictionaries taking into consideration any social, regional dialectal variants.

I’ve used the Maximal Onset Principle as followed by the EPD (D. Jones) and rule assumed by LPD (JC Well) to look at your examples. I got contradictory answers.

I think they can be explained by etymology. The origin of the word ‘helium’ comes from the Greek ‘h‘lios’. Note that the ‘e’ is uttered with its long sound /i+/. The first syllable of the word is therefore an open syllable. The noun use of the example ‘voluntary’ meaning ‘volunteer’ has its Latin root velle (present stem vol).The 1^st syllable of ‘voluntary’ may therefore be considered ‘vol’ and not ‘vo’. It’s a closed syllable and the stressed ‘o’ is pronounced as the short sound in ‘rock’ or ‘hot’.

The Painkiller · Answer

Just check this out
You are gonna find the ultimate answer for your question
It is the greatest site i'v ever seen specilaized in Phonetics.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

I hope u are gonna be satisfied with it.

Mno3195 · Answer

Thank you Buddhaheart.I got your point.I also noticed a phenomenon in American English that is in stressed syllable;usually,the vowels will make short sounds.As we can't rely on Syllabification ,I strongly suspect that there is a relationship between stress pattern and the length of vowels.In addition, the r sound also affects the length of vowel that precede it.I would like to know more details.Thanks

CalifJim · Answer

How can we distinguish whether it's a long or a short vowel in the stressed syllable?

A more basic question is how we can distinguish which syllable is stressed in the first place.

Presumably, you've heard the word spoken, so you know where the stress is and whether the vowel in the stressed syllable is short or long just from hearing it. Alternatively, if you've never heard the word spoken before, you've looked the word up in a dictionary to find out where the stress is. While you're there, why wouldn't you note whether the vowel is long or short at the same time?

Maybe you want guidelines for how to determine both stress and vowel quality just by looking at an English word. Not easy. There are many groups of words where some general rule can be developed, but very few such groups where the rule is universally applicable. Here are some examples.

Words ending in a vowel plus tion, sion, tian, sian, cian, tious, cious, tial, cial, cier, zier
The vowel takes the stress and is long unless it's i.
Asian, glazier, deletion, specious, ambitious, initial, precocious, crozier, crucial
Exceptions: ration, precious, special

If the ending is a vowel and a consonant plus tion, sion, etc., the vowel takes the stress and is short.
action, Sebastian, compression, question, fiction, concoction, eruption, luscious

Words ending in consonant plus ic, ical, ish, id
The syllable preceding the ic(al), ish, id ending takes the stress and is short unless it's u.
valid, rapid, radish, endemic, blemish, impish, timid, solid, polish, comic(al), musical, humid
Exceptions: punish, Danish, Polish
But note u followed by two consonants is short: rustic.

Three-syllable words ending in ate, ize, ise, ify
Stress on first syllable. Short vowel unless it's u. Secondary stress on last syllable.
graduate, analyze, gratify, deputize, edify, estimate, minimize, iterate, populate, colonize, crucify, utilize
Many exceptions. Again note u with two consonants is short: nullify.

Two-syllable words ending in al. First syllable stressed and long.
modal, oval, naval, rival, tribal, sepal, opal, venal, lethal
With ending el. First syllable stressed and short.
model, gravel, novel, panel, camel, level
Many exceptions metal, petal, yodel, navel

CJ

Mno3195 · Answer

Thanks C.J.

You are totally on the right track and yes,I am trying to tell the vowel quality just by looking at English words.I've been studying phonetics and IPA(K.K) for many years as I grew up in a non-English speaking country.From your point of view,looking them up in dictionary seems more efficient than memorizing those undependable rules.Again,thanks for your feedback.

How to distinguish between long vowel and short vowel in stressed syllable

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