Each syllable contains at least a consonant and a vowel.

This stress, or arsis, is usually placed on a syllable containing a long vowel.

A short syllable contains a short vowel with no following consonants.

When it contains a vowel that may have been either short or long in Classical Latin, stress is ambiguous.

Harmonizing suffixes added to such words contain front vowels.

Heavy syllables contain short vowels followed by a semi-vowel.

There is also considerable disagreement between the languages (both between the two families, and within them) in whether certain words contain a rounded vowel.

A word can contain only one phonetically long vowel, but numerous unstressed short vowels.

The high tone occurs in penultimate syllables when the final syllable contains a short vowel.

But this concise procedure cannot be applied in every case, since the syllable may not contain a suitable vowel for modification.