Matt wrote:
> > But see, I'm not sure that that's really a certain guide, since even
> > educated English speakers do not always agree on the syllabification
> > of English words they use everyday.
>
> Actually, syllabification in English seems to be abnormally tricky because
of the problem
> of ambisyllabic consonants. My impression is that in most languages,
speakers have no
> trouble at all agreeing on how to syllabify a word.
I tend to see English syllabification as a sort of a nightmare. When I
started studying English in the Elementary School we were told to avoid
writing a word on two lines because of the problems engendered by
syllabification... so I've grown up without knowing how Englishmen actually
break up words. Italian syllabification, OTOH, is really simple.
Amongst all the languages I've some knowledge of, English is surely the one
with the most difficult system.
Luca