From
Main Entry: syl·la·ble
1 : a unit of spoken language that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following
2 : one or more letters (as syl, la, and ble) in a word (as syl·la·ble) usually set off from the rest of the word by a centered dot or a hyphen and roughly corresponding to the syllables of spoken language and treated as helps to pronunciation or as guides to placing hyphens at the end of a line
3 : the smallest conceivable expression or unit of something
Main Entry: hire note single syllable
Syllabalism conspiracy? Perhaps. Out loud, say “hire”. Now say “higher”. Damn close, eh? Even Webster states, “a syllabic consonant alone”. Are the i and the r not sounded alone? Have I been wasting precious time saying hire with too many syllables? Or is my Michigan accent (that’s no accent!) to blame and my friends from Kentucky had it right all along?