SS/PS question

[Carol]

Carol earlier: 
> > But isn't the accent on the second syllable in Alicia, as you
pronounce it (Ah LISS ih a), rather than the first syllable, as in
Alice (AH liss), with "ah" indicating a short "a" as in "cat" and "ih"
a short "i" as in "pit"?
> > 
> > I can't quite "get" the short "i" in "i-a," though, because, to
me, it sounds like long "e" (ee) even in the British pronunciation (Ah
LISS ee uh, with the "uh" representing a schwa).
<snip>
> 
> Geoff:
> I stress the same syllable in each. Having a long e sound as you 
> describe it would shift the stress to the third syllable.
>
Carol:

Why would a long vowel move the stress, which I've indicated through
capital letters is on the *second* syllable in the British
pronunciation as I hear it? I've also indicated, or tried to indicate,
that the vowel in that second syllable is short (LISS to rhyme with
"bliss").

I know of no rule that says a long vowel indicates a stressed
syllable. Of course, "long" and "short" are rather inadequate terms
for the phenomenon we're discussing, since English, unlike ancient
Greek, doesn't hold some vowels for a longer time than others. In
American English, at least, a long vowel "says its name," so a long
"e" sounds like the letter E (which is what the vowel in the
third--unstressed--syllable of the British pronunciation of alicia
sounds like to me. Again, it sounds like Ah LISS ee uh to me, not Ah
liss EE uh.

I could be wrong, of course, not being British. But I'm quite sure
that a long vowel does not, in itself, indicate a stressed syllable,
and you said that you pronounced that syllable with a short "i" (as in
"pit," "sit," "kit"), so it wouldn't be stressed according to your
rule in any case.

In any case, I can't "hear" "ia" pronounced "ih ah," with the vowel
sounds of Kit Kat, the candy bar). To me, it's either "yuh" (with "uh"
rather inadequately indicating an unaccented vowel or schwa) or ee-uh
(with both the long "e" sound and the schwa unaccented).

I'm wondering whether the terms long vowel and short vowel are used
differently in Britain than they are in the U.S.

I'll do a table to see whether we agree:

    Long     Short

A   ate      at
E   Pete     pet
I   I        it
O   hoe      hot
U   huge     hug

Does that match the British conception? And to show that a long vowel
doesn't necessairly indicate stress, wouldn't you pronounce "identity"
as "i DEHN tuh tee," with a long "i" (pronounced "eye") but the stress
on the second syllable, in which the vowel is short (pronounced
exactly like the word "den"?

Carol, wishing that English letters, especially vowels, didn't have so
many sounds