Syllable division of VCV pattern in words such as "salad" and "lemon"

In words such as salad /sæləd/, you have a VCV pattern (vowel-consonant-vowel), in which the first vowel is short. The syllable division of such words is generally done after the consonant, i.e, as VC-V. Here are a few examples:

salad /sæl-əd/
lemon /lem-ən/
never /nev-ər/
balance /bæl-əns/

This division is in agreement with the notion that generally, a short vowel do not end a syllable.

Cambridge and the American Heritage dictionaries divide these words this way. Also, phonics and spelling textbooks do the same. However, Merriam-Webster dictionaries, such as the Collegiate and the Unabridged, divide these words before the consonant. So you have:

salad /sæ-ləd/
lemon /le-mən/
never /ne-vər/
balance /bæ-ləns/

I would like to ask why there is such a disagreement between the dictionaries, and which division is natural for you. You may want to mention whether your English is American, British or other.

Syllable division in English is very complicated, and almost none of the dictionaries do it right. At least, according to John Wells, one of the experts on the subject (I assume he believes his own dictionary, the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, gets it correct. See also this blog entry of his.)

Simplifying Wells' argument drastically, I believe he is saying that in these cases, if the first syllable is stressed, the consonant affects the length of the previous vowel (e.g., high tens and heightens are pronounced differently). Thus, if the first syllable is stressed, the consonant should go with the first syllable.

Since you ask about personal use:

• In my speech, the consonant heads the following syllable: ne - ver, ba - lance. This is my idiolect, which is basically educated East Alabama speech; and it was confirmed by my speech instructors when I was a student of acting.

• In writing, however, if I were compelled to hyphenate such a word at the end of a line of text, I would place the hyphen after the consonant, because leaving the bare vowel at the end of a line would lead the reader to expect a word in which it is long. (With such short words, however, I would make every effort to avoid hyphenation.)

It would not surprise me to find that it is just such conflicting uses which leads to the disagreement between dictionaries.