What is the correct syllabification of the word "eliminate"?
What is the Authoritative Source for syllabification?
Just in case it is needed, the word is used in the sentence:
To allow more ef|fi|cient usage of paper, more reg|u|lar ap|pear|ance
of right-side mar|gins with|out re|quir|ing spac|ing ad|just|ments,
and to elim|i|nate the need to erase hand-writ|ten long words begun
near the end of a line that do not fit, words may be di|vided at the
near|est break|point be|tween syl|la|bles and a hy|phen in|serted to
in|di|cate that the let|ters form a word frag|ment, not a word.
from a test case on the automatic hyphenation tool found [here][3]
Sorry if my question is too simple, English is not my first language.
Best Answer
There is an inherent problem with your question:
There is no authority that decides the syllabification of any words. (Or anything else in the English language for that matter.)
Syllabification differs from pronunciation in English (which can vary by accent), making it challenging to decide the natural point to break a word.
For example:
In the Northeastern United States: El-im-in-ate or E-lim-in-ate. (Both without a strong stress on any one syllable.)
In the Southern United States: E-lim-in-ate would be the norm. And the accent would be strongly on the first syllable (possibly with a long E).
Neither of these pronunciations determines the proper way to syllabify the word. Rather you would do so on the basis of the orthography and morphemes of the word itself.
If you are merely looking to break words at the end of lines for paper conservation, modern word processing has largely eliminated the need to do so. Spacing and kerning have overtaken syllabification as the preferred method.