Timeline for What English word has the most consecutive consonants?
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10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| yesterday | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Jul 13, 2015 at 22:35 | comment | added | H Stephen Straight | @JanusBahsJacquet Thank you for helping me apply the (to me previously opaque) fortis/lenis distinction. I accept your transcription in full, but I still believe that a voiceless [g], no matter how lenis, will stick out for many if not all listeners as an epenthetic /k/, just as the lenis [p] in the pronunciation of the word pumkin gave rise to the respelling of the word. | |
| Jul 11, 2015 at 21:45 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @HStephenStraight Voiceless but lenis [ɡ̊] is phonetically different from voiceless, fortis [k], though the difference is of course entirely unphonemic (in all languages, as far as I know). In a position between [ŋ] and [θ], a voiced stop will inevitably get unvoiced, but not fortis. As for the bars, [dθ] (no bars right now, typing on phone) is of course an affricate, but I use them also in narrow phonetic transcription for monomoraic vowels that nonetheless change their quality throughout their duration. | |
| Jul 11, 2015 at 21:28 | comment | added | H Stephen Straight | @JanusBahsJacquet Your use of IPA differs from mine, it seems. I take voiceless [g] to be [k], even in the narrowest of transcriptions. Also, I use tie bars to indicate that the tied symbols constitute a single phone even in the narrowest of transcriptions, the best examples being affricates. More significantly, perhaps, I have always seen the [k] in this word as a synchronic example of epenthesis, in this case resulting in what sounds like a /k/ inserted between [ŋ] and [θ]. Of course, the [k] is not phonemic in this case, but a novice phonemic transcriber might easily mistake it for such. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 22:56 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | If we’re talking narrow phonetics, then probably five: [sʈɻʷε͜ẽŋɡ̊d̥͡θs] (unless you consider affricates like [d̥͡θ] to be only one consonant phonetically, which I wouldn’t). But at least when I say the words, the release of the [ŋ] is no more perceptible or salient than the pre-fricative stage of the intradental articulation, if it’s there at all, which it isn’t always (the [ŋ] is sometimes more like [ɰ̃] with no closure). Neither is audible or prominent to warrant being included in any but quite narrow phonetic transcription. | |
| Jul 8, 2015 at 22:15 | comment | added | H Stephen Straight | @JanusBahsJacquet Phonemic consonants, maybe not (if [ŋ] is not phonemically /ng/), but phonetic consonants, definitely yes, in every pronunciation of these words I have ever heard that contains [ŋ] (as opposed to [n]). | |
| Jul 7, 2015 at 11:51 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @HStephenStraight Strengths and lengths do not have four consecutive phonemic consonants, though—at least to me, they are /strεŋθz/ and /lεŋθz/, with no /k/ in either. | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 10:04 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | Twelfths also ends in four consonant sounds: l, f, th, s. So does sixths: k, s, th, s. | |
| May 15, 2012 at 23:59 | comment | added | H Stephen Straight | BTW, strengths and lengths might also be among the words with the longest sequence of phonologic consonants: 4. Specifically, eng, k, th, s | |
| May 15, 2012 at 23:56 | history | answered | H Stephen Straight | CC BY-SA 3.0 |