CHAPTER V.
ON THE FORMATION OF SYLLABLES.
[§ 135]. In respect to the formation of syllables, I am aware of no more than one point that requires any especial consideration.
In certain words, of more than one syllable, it is difficult to say to which syllable an intervening consonant belongs. For instance, does the v in river, and the e in fever, belong to the first or the second syllable? Are the words to be divided thus, ri-ver, fe-ver? or thus, riv-er, feve-r?
The solution of the question lies by no means on the surface.
In the first place, the case is capable of being viewed in two points of view—an etymological and a phonetic one.
That the c and r in become, berhymed, &c., belong to the second syllable, we determine at once by taking the words to pieces; whereby we get the words come and rhymed in an isolated independent form. But this fact, although it settles the point in etymology, leaves it as it was in phonetics; since it in nowise follows, that, because the c in the simple word come is exclusively attached to the letter that succeeds, it is, in the compound word become, exclusively attached to it also.
To the following point of structure in the consonantal sounds the reader's attention is particularly directed.