I would like to know why, when dividing the word mimic into its syllables, is it divided as "mim" and "ic" and not "mi" and "mic". Is there any rule to this?
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1Because that's the way it's pronounced. – Hot Licks May 29 '16 at 11:21
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if its any help, i say both – JMP May 29 '16 at 12:05
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"separated", not "seperated". Also, that's not the correct word. "divided" is better, but I think you were looking for "hyphenated". – Mr Lister May 29 '16 at 12:26
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It's neither, the middle m is shared by both. Where you put the hyphen is just a convention. – curiousdannii Jun 14 '16 at 00:08
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Useful reading includes http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/315838 and http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/385 – choster Jun 14 '16 at 01:21
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One rule of English pronunciation which is actually correct sometimes is that the vowel in an "open" syllable is "long" while the vowel in a "closed" syllable is "short".
Thus, if "mimic" is divided as "mi-mic" then the first syllable is "open" (has a trailing vowel) and so the "i" would be "long" (and "mi" would be pronounced "my"). If the word is divided as "mim-ic", though, the "i" is "short", and the pronunciation of the first syllable would be "mem" (as in "memory").
Like all such rules, there are many, many exceptions, but this one often works for "sounding out" an unfamiliar word (if you can first figure out the syllable splits).
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