Questions tagged [consonant-clusters]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
3 votes
1 answer
161 views

Why are some consonant clusters acceptable in some languages and not others and how does this change over time?

As per the question statement: is there a resource available for quickly determining which codal (or onset) consonant clusters are attested in human language? Mark Vandam’s Word Final Coda Typology ...
Sophia's user avatar
  • 39
0 votes
2 answers
150 views

what does devanagari "RTSNY" (a conjunct consonent) look like? and what frequently used words (if any) does it occur in?

I was researching different writing systems when I came across a fact about Devanagari. the conjunct consonants of the script are fascinating yet confusing; evidently some of them may combine up to 5 ...
noah johnson's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
102 views

What commonly used words, if any, does devanagari "म्क्ब्श" (mkbsha) actually occur in?

I was researching different writing systems when I came across a fact about Devanagari. the conjunct consonants of the script are fascinating yet confusing; evidently some of them may combine up to 5 ...
noah johnson's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
190 views

Are long vowel-less consonant clusters in Georgian actually vowel-less phonetically?

As some of you may already know, in Georgian language there exist a huge strings of consonant clusters which are said to be pronounced without an intervining vowel, like for example /brdɣvnis/ and /...
LinguisticsFanatic's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
673 views

Where did the Greek consonant cluster "ps" come from

Where did the Greek consonant cluster "ps" come from? I tried finding resources to track down this fun-sounding consonant cluster but came with no information. I was thinking about a voicing ...
Jasperrolla's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
368 views

Breaking a word down into its constituent phonemes [duplicate]

How should the nonsense word 'frabjous' be broken down into its constituent phonemes (e.g. the consonant blend -fr)? I would like to determine how this word is regular in English phonotactics.
Rad Anyaz's user avatar
  • 119
3 votes
0 answers
254 views

List of initial consonant clusters in English

At a certain point in a macro I have to determine whether shifting the final consonant(s) of one syllable to the next syllable results in a valid onset. Can anyone point me to a complete list of ...
rchivers's user avatar
  • 465
2 votes
3 answers
390 views

Why are some (coda) clusters hard to pronounce in onsets?

Consider the following examples: Fact -> /fækt/ Hard -> /hɑːrd/ Paint -> /peɪnt/ In all these words, the clusters in the coda are easy to pronounce. However, when these clusters come in the onset ...
Mellifluous's user avatar
  • 1,379
3 votes
2 answers
3k views

Why are the word-initial consonant clusters /tl/ and /dl/ absent in English?

The clusters /pr/, /br/, /kr/, /gr/, /tr/, /dr/, /pl/, /bl/, /kl/, /gl/ are all pretty common. But why are /tl/ and /dl/ missing? Is there any linguistic or historical explanation?
Maigo's user avatar
  • 31
11 votes
1 answer
925 views

Are /tl/ and /dl/ rare onsets worldwide?

Onsets of stop+liquid are very common, but it seems like /tl/ and /dl/ are much rarer than other stop+liquid onsets, like /gl/ or /pr/. Are /tl/ and /dl/ especially rare compared to other stop+liquid ...
Joe's user avatar
  • 2,136
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are syllable initial consonant clusters pronounced in Ancient Greek?

A number of loan words and New Latin words derived from Ancient Greek have word initial clusters of a plosive+nasal or dissimilar phonemes like /ps/ or /pt/. I cannot avoid aspirating or inserting a ...
Anonymous's user avatar
  • 273
2 votes
0 answers
275 views

Confusion matrix for consonant clusters in English?

I was wondering if anybody knew of a confusion matrix for consonant clusters in the English language. I've seen CV, VC, and CVC phoneme/syllable confusion matrices, but never any with any sort of ...
uberpro's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
1 answer
345 views

Do languages with long clusters have minimal vowel or consonant inventories?

I assume, considering the Onset principle, that there are not many languages that have a structure with VV or VVV but are there languages that have a CV.VV structure? If there is, I would assume that ...
Drivebyluna's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
1k views

Are there languages with consonant clusters that include consonants that never occur alone?

In the languages I know more about I can't think of any cases of consonant phoneme clusters that are not made up entirely of consonant phonemes which also occur on their own in the language. But I'm ...
hippietrail's user avatar
  • 14.6k
2 votes
1 answer
289 views

Lao orthography: ວ as part of consonant cluster or part of diphtong and placement of tone marks

Lao is a little underdocumented compared to other languages, both in terms of actual linguistics and in terms of prescriptive norms. There is a semivowel letter, ວ, which has a few roles: Consonant /...
hippietrail's user avatar
  • 14.6k