UniLang

Hi there,
I'm writing a thesis on Latvian morphology, and I have realised I don't know something quite central:

Where are the syllable boundaries in masculine dative plural words, e.g. 'draugiem'? Is it draug-i-em (3 syllables) or draug-iem (2 syllables, with the i before another vowel functioning as a kind of consonantal j?

Many thanks!

Manu

As a native speaker, who last heard about methods for counting syllables in the first grade - I don't think you're supposed to split up diphtongs