Quantity

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A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, Second Edition
Preface · What's New · Conventions
The Indo-European language family
Traditional views · The Theory of the Three Stages · Urheimat · Other theories · Relationship to other languages · Schleicher's fable · Northern (Europe's IE) and Southern} (Greek, Armenian, Aryan) dialects · Anatolian languages · Modern Indo-European
Letters and Sounds
Classification of sounds · Sounds of the letters · Syllables · Quantity · Accent · Vowel change · Consonant change · Peculiarities of orthography · Kindred forms
Words and Their Forms
Inflection · Root, stem and base · Gender · General rules of gender ·Vowel grade · Word formation · Compound words · Names of persons
Nouns
a-Declension · o-Declension · Nouns in i, u and diphthong · Nouns in consonant · Heteroclites · Vocalism before the declension · Vocalism in the plural · Accent in declension
Adjectives
Inflection of adjectives · The motion · Adjective specialization ·Comparison of adjectives · Numerals
Pronouns
Personal · Reflexive · Possessive · Anaphoric · Demonstrative · Interrogative and indefinite · Relative · Other
Verbs
Forms of the verb · The conjugations · The four stems · Mood stems · The voice · Noun and adjective forms · Conjugated examples · The verbal accent
Particles
Adverbs · Derivation of adverbs · Prepositions · Conjunctions
Syntax
The sentence · Morphosyntax · Sentence modifiers · Verbal modifiers · Nominal modifiers · Modified forms of PIE simple sentences · Syntactic categories

2.5.1. Syllables are distinguished according to the length of time required for their pronunciation. Two degrees of Quantity are recognized, long and short.

NOTE. In syllables, quantity is measured from the beginning of the vowel or diphthong to the end of the syllable. Such distinctions of long and short are not arbitrary and artificial, but are purely natural, a long syllable requiring more time for its pronunciation than a short one.

2.5.3. A syllable is long usually,

1. if it contains a long vowel; as, mā-tḗr, mother, kē-lā-jō, hide,
2. if it contains a diphthong; as, lai-wós, left, oi-nos, one,
3. if it contains any two non-syllabic consonants (except a mute followed by l or r); as, pneu-sō, breathe strongly, tmā-mi, cut.

2.5.4. A syllable is short usually,

1. if it contains a short vowel followed by a vowel or by a single consonant; as, pel-nis, skin, or e-í-mi, go,
2. if it contains a vocalic sonant; as, qṛ-mis, worm, cṃ-tis, march.

References

• Quiles, Carlos, López-Menchero, Fernando, A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, Second Edition, Indo-European Language Association, 2009, ISBN 9781448682065