Re: Extra Syllabic Consonants

Shreyas Sampat wrote:

>>Are there examples in actual spoken languages (besides, of course,
>>interjections like 'pst')?
>
>Um, well, how's French? I have heard (and in fact pronounced) 'je' as a
>syllabic nucleus, as in "je pense que..." /S=pa~sk@/ (I reserve the right
>to forget what the precise vowel symbols are). I'm probably thinking too
>hard about it, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear /Z=/ or nonsyllabic /S/
>in that position either.
>
No, the /S/ is not syllabic, it is simply /Spa~sk/ or /Spa~sk@/ (depending
if the next word begins with a vowel or a consonnant), it would need a
glottal stop in front to be syllabic and I'm sure there is not.

But I think and it makes me thing a a few consonnants clusters that can
result of French contractions.

"que je travaille" (that I work) that contracts in /kStRavaj/. Isn't /kStR/
an interesting cluster?


Concerning an other point that has been raised but that I don't really want
to search among the posts because it would be too long, I think that any
consonnant can be syllabic, even voiceless fricatives, even plosives.

But the trouble is that a syllabic voiceless plosive makes almost no sound,
don't you think?


In Vbazi, the longest consonnant cluster whithout syllabics that I've create
is /mzglw/ in the root /tamzglwal/ (to miss/lack something one absolutely
needs). But longer clusters are easily pronounceable between vowels such as
[m_0skthlw] that can be pronounced easily with /a/'s. It is hard to
pronounce fast but not because it is unpronounceable but only because it is
hard to remember. The best way to make it is pronouncing /alwa/ /ahlwa/,
/athlwa/, /akthlwa/, /askthlwa/, and then /am_0skthlwa/. Pretty funny!

Another question is, how much consonnants can bepronounced without be
precede/followed by a vowel/syllabic?

- Max

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