opinions sought

[Zondrae]

I thought that woulld get some attention.

I have been asked to 'look' at a few poems by a new writer and I need some assistance.
I know many people don't do sllable counts but... are there two syllables in tail, toil, soil etc. and what is the common thought on wagtail - is that three syllables or only two?? I am confused.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Well I would say wagtail was two, cant squeeze any more out of it and the others are one

Cheers

Maureen

[manfredvijars]

YEP, only two wags in that wagtail ...

There may be considerably more wags in other tales though ...

[Terry]

Hi Zondrae,
I would say that Maureen is spot on, 2 in Wagtail and one in the others.

Terry

[Heather]

Agreed.

[Zondrae]

Thanks folks.

I am confused about the rule that a syllable is a vowel and its associated consonants. I don't know where I got this definition from.
My Macquarie says "A segment of speech uttered with a single impulse of air pressure from the lungs and consisting of one sound of relatively great sonority." whatever that means.
I await our mother hens definition. (please)

[Neville Briggs]

G'day Zondrae, the ai and oi in tail, toil, soil, are called diphthongs.

A dipthong is two vowels sounded as one syllable. Easy peasy. One syllable, just like the ae in Zondrae.

[Glenny Palmer]

All good advice so far Zondrae. I have emailed you 2 pages from Carmel Randle's excellent instruction book, 'Help'. I'm sure this will indeed help you no end.
Good luck
Cheeers
Glenny

[Zondrae]

Thank you Glenny,

But my pm box is full and I can't get to my messages til I find out how to empty it.

[Glenny Palmer]

I didn't pm it dear. I emailed it. But it's only just gone now as some nimno sent me a file bigger than Ben Hur that would'nt download. So I've been logging off & ending now etc etc, grrr, & whatever it was is now in the ether.
Goodo
Glenny