Questions tagged [phonotactics]
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14
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Why are long e and o most prone to be diphthongised by English speakers?
As a teacher of languages, it has struck me how English vowels love not just diphthongs, but even triphthongs, and this tendency presents itself in how native English speakers generally tend to ...
- 804
2
votes
1
answer
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Rule of English phonology that prevents /j/ and /w/ from occurring in the ends of syllables
I'm quite sure I've seen a rule in English phonology that says that /j/ (the "y" sound) and /w/ (the "w" sound) should not occur in the ends of English syllables, but I haven't had ...
user387044
0
votes
1
answer
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Why are there so many restrictions on /ŋ/ in English?
In (GA, SSBE) English, the phoneme /ŋ/ (in ring) seems to have so many restrictions:
it rarely occurs after /u:/, if at all: the only word that I have been able to find in which /ŋ/ occurs after /u:/ ...
user387044
1
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1
answer
230
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Does English allow /eɪʃ/ in the end of a syllable (in the same syllable)?
The sound /ʃ/ is almost always spelled with more than one letter i.e. with a digraph unlike, say, /p/ which is spelled with a single letter (pan, pen, pie). I have noticed a particular pattern: vowels ...
user387044
2
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3
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Why do certain consonant clusters occur only at the start of a syllable but others only at the end?
You may have noticed that in English, some consonant clusters
can occur only at the start of an English word while other consonant
clusters can occur only at the end.
For example, the com...
user387044
4
votes
1
answer
278
views
Voicing of sibilants before liquids, after voiced vowels?
I just ran across an interesting question from a friend about
the voicing of sibilants in English. She was asking why English
speakers pronounce the word muslim as muZlim (with a voiced
sibi...
- 49
4
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1
answer
305
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Can a plosive consonant in a word be pronounced as an unreleased consonant?
ESL teachers always tell people to suppress the normal release of the consonant "p b k g t d" if it's at the end of a word and the next word also begins with a consonant.
But what about words with a ...
- 41
0
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1
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What's an elegent way to describe a phrase that flows nicely because its vowels and consonants alternate?
What know ye of an elegant way to describe a word or phrase that either perfectly or close-to-perfectly alternates vowels and consonants, either in sound or spelling?
Usage of such a word might ...
- 11
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5
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Are there any English words starting with an "ny" sound? [closed]
Plenty of English words have an "ny" sound (/nj/) in the middle, like onion and canyon.
Are there any American English words that start with this sound?
My native-speaker intuition tells me this is ...
- 1,229
16
votes
5
answers
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Are there any words in English pronounced with /e/ at the end?
In first-language English pronunciation (Australian, British, American, etc., not Indian, Malaysian, etc.) are there any words with the /e/ (or /ɛ/) sound in "bed" /bed/ at the end of a word? As a ...
- 5,085
6
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3
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1k
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Dialect "rules" and the pronunciation of individual words
Consider an American actor who is tasked with mastering British Received Pronunciation for an upcoming role. If he has a talent for vocal mimicry, as many actors do, he should have no trouble picking ...
- 18.2k
3
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2
answers
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Can vowels be combined in English without forming diphthongs?
Usually all combinations of vowels in English function as diphthongs. Are there any combinations of vowels in English that do not function as diphthongs? if there are no such examples - I would be ...
- 47
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5
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Are there any "-nk-" or "-nc-" words in English where there isn't a "ng" before the "k" sound?
In words like think and lank, we actually seem to be saying "thing-k" and "lang-k." Can anyone thing-k of any words or rules for sound use where this doesn't happen?
- 497
45
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4
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Why does "orange" rhyme with (almost) nothing in English?
Joel Spolsky asked what rhymes with orange. The official answer is, "Nothing," although a creative poet can get close by using half words, just the -nge part or resorting to place names and foreign ...
- 2,474