How these sounds are organized plays a greater role in communication than the sounds themselves. Two major organizing structures are rhythm and intonation. The rhythm of English is created by the contrast in syllable lengths within words as well as across word boundaries. When we focus on the timing of syllables, we can see that the rhythm of the word English is identical to the rhythm of the words after and vision. In fact, many novice learners of English have actually written festival when they heard first of all.
English speakers rely as much on rhythm to identify words as on the consonant and vowel sounds.
Sometimes, they pay attention to the rhythm more than to the sounds. A San Francisco newspaper columnist reported that a student went to the library to ask for a copy of John Steinbeck s novel, Of My Cement. When we compare the rhythm of this mishearing to the rhythm of the actual title, Of Mice and Men, we can see that they are identical. The lengthening of a syllable is conditioned by stress. Equally important as stressing a syllable is not stressing a syllable.