Consonent Clusters at the End of Words
Rob Zook 
Wed, 12 Nov 1997 12:33:26 -0600

We have discussed the consonent clusters at the beginning of words
pretty thoroughly, and that leaves the one at the end of words. The
examples we have again are:

rtc dth wl  kht  tc  ct
rn
rc
rk

It seems like an opposite rule in effect here for the ending clusters:
r and stops and r and fricatives. Also rtc and tc ct imply that one
can use these as well.

So I would suggest that one can have:

[any tap]+[any stop]:

rp   rb   rt   rd   rk   rg   rq

another:

[any tap]+[any fricative]:

rf   rv   rs   rz   rc   rj   rx   rh

and any of the normal [stop]+[fricative] combinations following
Sauls voicing rule:

pf		ps		pc		px	ph
	bv		bz		bj
tf	     (ts)	     (tc)		tx	th
	dv		dz	     (dj)
kf	     (ks)		kc		kx	kh
	gv		gz		gj
qf		qs		qc		qx	qh

[fricative]+[stop] at the end of words, these would also need to
follow Sauls voicing rule, I think:

fp            sp           cp            xp     hp
       vb            zb           jb
ft            st           ct            xt     ht
       vd            zd           jd
fk            sk           ck            xk     hk
       vg            zg           jg
fq            sq           cq            xq     hq

Finnally, we have <dth>, <wl>, and <kht>. <dth> only makes
sense to me as a final consonent if <th> was a dental fricative
instead of the aspriated alveolar stop it would normally represent.

Nor do any other combinations of voiced and voiceless stops of the
same or similar area of articulation seem to work:

pb   bp   kg   gk   kq   qk   td

Perhaps, these clusters exist but at the end of the word, in the
form of voiced stop + voiceless stop if the final stop mutates 
into it's voiceless fricative?

In which case we could have:

bf   dth!  gch*

th! the voiceless dental fricative (like <th> in English "thin")
ch* the voiceless alveolar fricative (like the <ch> in the German "ich")

but I don't think the voiceless stop + voiced fricative could work

pv   tdh!   kgh* 

dh! the voiced dental fricative (like <th> in English "the")
gh* the voiced aveolar fricative (like the <gh> in tlhIngan Hol "ghob")

Unfortunately, this does not seem quite consisant either, because
p -> f and k -> ch does not have the same relationship as t -> th.
So maybe one should transcribe kai'idth, as kai'id'th instead.

<wl> appears in k'wawl, and in this case the aw could be some kind
of vowel dipthong maybe /ao/? If not, perhaps you can have an
[approximate]+[lateral] at the end of a word: yl   wl. Or if /w/
does indeed represent a voiced bilabial fricative as Saul suggests
it could mean you can have [fricative]+[labial] at the end of a
word: fl   vl  sl   zl  cl   jl   xl   hl.

Did I understand you aright Saul? In your last message you suggested
/w/ was also a fricative. Since /wh/ is already the voiceless, that
would seem to make /w/ voiced. Frankly, I'd rather see a voiced 
approximate with a voiceless allophone.

In any case that brings us to <kht> which could mean [aspirated stop]+
[stop] are ok at the end of a word. Pronounced that way it make the
combination just as pronouncable as k't. Since we only know of three
aspirated stops that would give us:

khp   khb   kht   khd   khk   khg   khq
th    thb   tht   thd   thk   thg   thq
dh    dhb   dht   dhd   dhk   dhg   dhq

I kind of like these simply because of their exoticness. That could
give us words like qyoodhk or kakhg which look nice and tricky to
pronounce ;-)

To summarize, I propose the following for consonent clusters at the
end of a word:

[any tap]+[any stop]
[any tap]+[any fricative]
[stop]+[fricative]
[fricative]+[stop]
[approximate]+[lateral]
[aspirated stop]+[stop]

Rob Z.
--------------------------------------------------------
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid
by education.
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