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I've noticed that sometimes when a word (generally a noun or adjective) gains or loses syllables, the pronunciation of the vowels will change. For example,

  • horizon vs horizontal
  • sociopath vs sociopathy
  • photograph vs photographer

What I want to know is if there is a general rule that describes why this occurs. I also know that not every time the syllable count is changed the pronunciation changes. For instance, the addition of the suffix -ly seems to maintain the rest of the pronunciation despite adding a syllable. I found this question, talking about pronunciation change in words that end in -ative, which seems to be related but more focused.

I suspect it's something to do with syllable stress, but it's difficult for me to research this without a search engine simply giving me the Great Vowel Shift or a 5th grade lesson on syllables. Of course I don't expect there to be a perfectly descriptive rule with no exceptions, but it seems to be common enough to warrant some kind of explanation.

Edit: It appears that trisyllabic laxing is what I was looking for. Questions that mention it such as this one answer my question perfectly. Thank you @tchrist

OKUMA
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    It's not so much the syllable count as it is the stress accent shifting. Most English vowels only occur when they're stressed; if the stress in the word shifts, the original vowel is apt to become unstressed, which changes its pronunciation (usually to schwa, or something like it), while previously unstressed vowels get a more precise pronunciation. This is English Phonology, Vowel Reduction subclass. – John Lawler Apr 21 '22 at 18:17
  • This is why. – tchrist Apr 21 '22 at 19:14

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