Phonological Analysis part deux: Consonent Clusters Rob Zook Tue, 04 Nov 1997 14:59:30 -0600 Saul and I have discussed this a bit, and I think we both agree that the beginning and ending consonent clusters seems pretty obvious. Neither of us want to touch figuring out the mid-syllablic consonent clusters until we can get info from Marketa or Prof. Zvelebil on how to extract a syllable in a written word. Until then there are two many variations on how to divid the syllables and some syllables will produce consonent clusters and some will not. Beginning Consonent Clusters: br tc dr kn lhm mn pl sb tr wv wh kr pr sk tv kj sp Ending Consonent Clusters: rtc dth wl kht* tc ct rn rc rk * /xt/ maybe? A couple of rules which seem obvious to me: [any stop]+[any fricative, nasel, lateral, approximate or aspirated stop] br, kn, or dth Just about anything can go next to a stop, except another stop. [any fricative or nasal]+[any consonent] rn, mn, wl rtc seems to follow both rules sequentially. Here are some possible mid-syllabic consonent clusters: vn1 mn pr whln st rt tr kl cr dr gr ltr mt wj sp rk tl ktr sk tmn kw skp thhy str None of these words seem to conflict with those two general rules, so even if they are not in the words in the dictionary as consonent clusters we still might use them. Rob Z. -------------------------------------------------------- No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars. -- J. Michael Straczynski (in his guise as Jeffrey Sinclair, commander of Babylon5)