29
You mention the pronunciation /ˈfɹæb.dʒəs/ in the comments; this is how I would pronounce it too.
Phonotactics are usually explained in terms of constraints ("you can't do this"), so the short answer is that it doesn't violate any of those constraints.
If we look at all the parts individually:
/fɹ/ is a valid onset, as in "frog"
/æb/ is ...
5
As a new contributor myself, I have to post this as an answer, though it's slight enough that it should really be a comment on Draconis' excellent answer (specifically a response to TKR's comment on it).
I think the spelling makes <frabjous> look a bit less English than it sounds. Draconis enumerates lots of good reasons for why it's phonotactically ...
5
By definition yes. They're called the a-colouring and o-colouring laryngeals entirely because of the effect they had on adjacent *e.
Denying phonemic status to *a/ā is not universal, but it is done by the Leiden school, who analyse every *a as *h₂e and every *ā as *eh₂. This leads to a reconstructed language with very few vowels, but there are decent reasons ...
3
You don't "break down" words into phonemes, you first transcribe a spoken word into a language-neutral alphabet which represents how the word is actually pronounced, and then you analyze the transcriptions according to some principles of phonemic analysis to decide what phonemes are present. The first task is extremely difficult (requires extensive ...
1
There are no such scientifically reliable online tests, though as you may know you can find some online tests for just about anything. One could participate in an offline test (if someone else were to set it up for you). There are a number of kinds of tests, which test different things (so you have to decide more precisely what you want to test), though your ...
1
You cannot look at the phonology of a language and predict the phonetic realization of its low vowel. The horse is the phonetics and the cart is the phonology: you start with knowledge of how a vowel is pronounced, which determines the final phonological analysis – if the vowel is [a] then the phonology produces a front vowel, if the vowel is [ɑ] then the ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
