This research examines the effects of vowel quality (high vs. low) and postvocalic place of articulation (labial, dental, velar) on the relative timing of syllable-internal components, concentrating on the duration of prevocalic consonants. Results indicate that the duration of a prevocalic consonant tends to approximate compensate for the inherent duration of a following vowel. And although postvocalic place of articulation was not found to affect the duration of a prevocalic consonant in a CVC syllable, a relatively an inverse relationship was observed between the duration of a vowel and postvocalic consonant. These effects lead to durational patterns for the rhyme which result in a relatively stable overall syllable duration.