Re: Initial /sp/ vs. /ps/ (Was: Comparison of philosophical languages)

In a message dated 1/23/2003 11:47:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
yonjuuni@EARTHLINK.NET writes:


> > ¿Como el estado actual en español, especialmente?
> 
> Well, in the vocabulary derived from Latin, you don't have word-initial
> s-stop clusters, unless there's some e-dropping that I'm unaware of.
 "The vocabulary derived from Latin"? You mean Spanish may keep the initial 
s-stop in some words . . . from OTHER languages?
> 
> > I guess you're thinking of affricates when you say that.
> 
> No.  /ps/ isn't an affricate.  /ts/ may be depending on the language.
 The idea I originally had of an affricate (before someone on here a month 
ago wanted to classify /kp/ or /ks/ or something as an affricate, I forget 
who it was) was that it conficted of a dental plosive followed by a sibilant. 
That would give us /tS/ ("ch"), /dZ/ ("j"), /ts/ or /tz/, and /dz/.


> while the fricative-before-stop beginning is confined to the /sk/,> 
> > /sp/, /st/ group in longtime-English words (although Yiddish and
> > Italian give us more recent examples with "spiel", "schtick",
> > "sgraffito" and other /S/ and /z/ words).
> 
> So, the prohibition on s-stop clusters is no longer active, apparently.
> :-)
 Maybe they'll spread around to other languages. Apparently English's most 
commonly cited example of an initial prohibition, initial /s/+/R/, is no 
longer active either, now that we have "Sri Lanka".

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