31. In some traditions the short vowel tended to shift to in unstressed closed syllables : this is known as the law of attenuation. 32. The difference in quality is often reinforced by a difference in length ( but the difference is contrastive in final closed syllables ). 33. For instance, and are found in closed syllables ending in, and only is found in closed monosyllables before,, and. 34. Speaking entirely for myself, I'm a speaker of GenAm and have very monophthongal values for those vowels in closed syllables . 35. Only three vocalic phonemes occur in unstressed final syllables : in open syllables only, and and in both open and closed syllables . 36. The general practice was to write long vowels with a single letter in an open syllable and with two letters in a closed syllable . 37. Long vowels in closed syllables are doubled, and consonants are doubled following short vowels in open syllables even when this is not etymological. 38. However, often it is used in a loose sense, as a cover term referring to all shortening of long diphthongs in closed syllables . 39. The close vowels and and the close portions of the diphthongs are slightly centered to and in closed syllables , i . e . before and. 40. In writing out a poem's poetic metre, open syllables are symbolized by " . " and closed syllables are symbolized by " ".
