Re: Most common consonant cluster types cross-linguistically

On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:47:02 -0400, Eldin Raigmore wrote:

>If you count affricates as clusters, then homorganic stop+fricative (/ts/) and
>homorganic fricative+stop (/st/) are almost surely the most common.
My impression is that these are not common at all except for the two samples
you just mentioned. I don't know any language that'd feature homorganic /fp/
or /xk/. Not that I'd know a large number of languages, but my knowledge is
mostely restricted to Indogermanic languages, and these are rich in
consonant clusters. On the other hand, affricates such as /ts/ or /tS/ may
be fairly common, but I've learned that affricates such as /pf/ or /kx/ are
quite "exotic".

In the clusters composed of a stop and a fricative, there might be a
preference for clusters that involve dental or alveolar sounds. That is to
say, my impression is that clusters such as /st/ /ft/ /xt/ /sp/ /sk/ /ts/
/ps/ /ks/ are more common than for instance /xk/ /fp/ /fk/ /pf/ /px/.

--
grüess
mach