Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Vowel Shortening in English 2.1. Vowel Shortening due to Resyllabification: Myers (1987) 2.2. Vowel Shortening in Optimality Theory: Prince and Smolensky (1993) and Sherer(1994) 3. Maximizing Segments in a Stressed Syllable 4. Resyllabification in Barra Gaelic 4.1. Syllabification in Barra Gaelic 4.2. Resyllabification in Barra Gaelie 5. Theoretical Implications and Conclusion References