At the start of a word, both English and German have one sibilant that can appear in some positions where no other consonant can appear. That sibilant is /s/ in English but /ʃ/ in German (pronounced roughly like <sh-> in English she). The position where only English /s/ or German /ʃ/ can appear is at…… Continue reading English and German sibilants at the start of words
Tag: Syllable
Rhotic consonants
Sounds similar to the English sound spelled with the letter <r> are called rhotics. This post looks at rhotics. Rhotics are named after the Ancient Greek letter ρ (rho). Rhotics vary greatly in their: manner of articulation; and place of articulation. Manner of articulation Different rhotics are produced in different manners: as a trill (repeated…… Continue reading Rhotic consonants
‘Syntactic doubling’ of Italian consonants
Single Italian consonants become pronounced as double (long) consonants (‘geminates’) if they follow: a stressed vowel some short unstressed words The Italian name for this process is raddoppiamento syntattico (‘syntactic (re)doubling’), or sometimes rafforzamento fonosyntactico (‘phonosyntactic stregntening’). ‘Syntactic’ refers to the fact that the doubling crosses word boundaries, unlike in word-internal geminate consonants as in [gattto] ‘cat’…… Continue reading ‘Syntactic doubling’ of Italian consonants
The future of German noun plurals
Native German nouns typically form their plurals with a variety of markers, including vowel changes (‘Umlaut’), -(e)n, -(e) and (-er). The marker -s is used for some words borrowed from other languages and for items such as acronyms, abbreviations and some proper names. Janda (2021) predicts (perhaps surprisingly) that -s will ultimately become the regular…… Continue reading The future of German noun plurals
Trains, chains and terrains
Both English and Polish permit syllables to start with a cluster /tr-/ or /dr-/, but the two languages treat these clusters differently. In English, these clusters are affricated, so for example the cluster /tr-/ in train sounds quite similar to the initial consonant in chain. On the other hand, in Polish, an initial cluster /tr-/…… Continue reading Trains, chains and terrains
Vowels and consonants, vocoids and contoids
Most people probably have a rough idea of what vowels and consonants are. But drawing the line between them isn’t that easy. So, in 1943, American Linguist Kenneth Pike introduced the terms vocoid and contoid to help clarify the distinction. In essence: a contoid is a sound produced without narrowing the vocal tract enough to…… Continue reading Vowels and consonants, vocoids and contoids
Two ways to write some Japanese sounds
The 2 Japanese syllabaries (syllabic wiring systems) known as kana have 2 different ways of writing the sound [(d)ʑi] and also have 2 different ways of writing the sound [(d)zɯ]. I will first show how this works in the hiragana syllabary and then show briefly what the symbols are in the other syllabary (katakana). Hiragana…… Continue reading Two ways to write some Japanese sounds
Shapes of male and female English names
In English, male names differ from female names, and both male and female names differ from other nouns: male names tend to be shorter than other nouns. female nouns tend to be longer than other nouns. female names are more likely than male names to contain stressed vowels with [i] and less likely to…… Continue reading Shapes of male and female English names
Mainland Southeast Asian languages
Mainland Southeast Asia is home to speakers of around 280 languages spread across 5 families: the Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic (including Vietnamese and Khmer) Sino-Tibetan (including Mandarin and other Sinitic languages, and Burmese and other Tibeto-Burman languages) Tai-Kadai (including Thai and Lao) Hmong-Mien (languages of southwest China) Austronesian (languages spoken mainly in Oceania, but represented…… Continue reading Mainland Southeast Asian languages
The many vowels of German and English
Browsing chapter 2 of the World Atlas of Linguistic Structures (WALS, Maddieson, 2013), I came across a statement that surprised me. In the sample of 564 languages surveyed in that chapter, only 3 languages contrasts as many as 13 different vowels. What surprised me was that 2 of those languages were German (14 vowels) and…… Continue reading The many vowels of German and English