Somebody wrote...
> if "Gaulle" has two syllables, we have different definitions of
> "syllable".
And Alain said...
> All French-speaking pupils are taught (at least when I went to school) what
> is a syllable in the French language in their 1st year of elementary school
Even foreign students of French are taught this. I was taught this in
middle-school French classes. The pattern becomes very obvious if you listen
to any French songs -- the final vowels of these words which end with vowels
are invariably sung... (Well, unless it's a melodie by that incorrigible
rebel, Maurice Ravel...)
légere
fougére
farouche,
are all three syllable words.
Similarly in Japanese, the pre-consonantal "n" is always a separate
syllable. I.e., "Honda" is a three syllable word.
I suspect other languages have their own definitions.
Rick
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