12) BREVE. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
...in printing to indicate the pronunciation of a short vowel, as in br ve (BREV). The breve is also used in scanning poetry, where it marks an unstressed syllable....

13) an 1. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
...very little or no stress. Sound changes that affected unstressed syllables elsewhere in the language affected it also. First, the vowel was shortened and eventually...

14) a, an. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
...uh when unstressed) before words beginning with consonant sounds, as in a dog, and an (pronounced uhn or occasionally an, especially at higher levels of speech) before...

15) definite, definitive, definitely, definitively. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
...as in The Supreme Court s decision answered the questions definitively. 1 The final unstressed vowel in definite and its relatives is frequently misspelled: the final...

16) § 1. a / an. 3. Word Choice. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 1996
...alternative before words beginning with a consonant sound but spelled with a vowel (an one, an united appeal), but this usage is now entirely obsolete. 1 An was also...

17) STRESS. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
...and the primary plus tertiary pattern indicates that raincoat is a compound. 2 Dictionaries indicate stresses in their pronunciations by various diacritical marks...

18) short. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
...such as the vowel sound (a) in pat or () in put, that is descended from a vowel of brief duration. 14a. Unstressed; unaccented. Used of a syllable in accentual prosody....

19) a 2. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
...a word beginning with a vowel sound (an orange, an hour). An was once a common variant before words beginning with h in which the first syllable was unstressed; thus...

20) §1. Old English Verse. XVIII. The Prosody of Old and Middle English. Vol. 1. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21
...consonant or any vowel, as in this line (29) of The Wanderer: Wenian mid wynnum. Wat se [char]e cunna[char]. 1 Around or between the pillar or anchor stresses, unstressed...