in English. The division is therefore preferred. If assigning a consonant or consonants to the following syllable would result in the preceding syllable ending in an unreduced short vowel, this is avoided. Thus the word comma (in RP) should be divided and not *, even though the latter division gives the maximal onset to the following syllable. In some cases, no solution is completely satisfactory: for example, in British English (RP) the word hurry could be divided or , but the former would result in an analysis with a syllable-final (which is held to be non-occurring) while the latter would result in a syllable final (which is said not to occur in this accent). Some phonologists have suggested a compromise analysis where the consonant in the middle belongs to both syllables, and is described as ambisyllabic. In this way, it is possible to suggest an analysis of hurry which comprises the syllables and , the medial being ambisyllabic. Where the division coincides with a word boundary, or the boundary between elements of a compound word, it is not usual in the case of dictionaries to insist on the maximal onset principle in a way that divides words in a counter-intuitive way; thus the word hardware would be divided by the M.O.P., but dictionaries prefer the division . In the approach used by the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, Wells claims that consonants syllabify with the preceding rather than following vowel when the preceding vowel is the nucleus of a more salient syllable, with stressed syllables being the most salient, reduced syllables the least, and full unstressed vowels ("secondary stress") intermediate. But there are lexical differences as well, frequently but not exclusively with compound words. For example, in dolphin and selfish, Wells argues that the stressed syllable ends in , but in shellfish, the belongs with the following syllable: → , but → , where the is a little longer and the is not reduced. Similarly, in toe-strap Wells argues that the second is a full plosive, as usual in syllable onset, whereas in toast-rack the second is in many dialects reduced to the unreleased allophone it takes in syllable codas, or even elided: → ; likewise nitrate → with a voiceless (and for some people an affricated tr as in tree), vs night-rate → with a voiced . Cues of syllable boundaries include aspiration of syllable onsets and (in the US) flapping