Re: Extra Syllabic Consonants

R A Brown wrote:

> The comment on obstruents is also interesting. Indeed Pike's
> definition of vocoids would seem to exclude fricatives. But AFAIK
> voiced fricatives can and do act as syllabic nuclei in some languages
> so, presumably, should be classed as vocoids. But cannot voiceless
> fricatives also act as syllabic nuclei? The nucleus of the exclamation
> 'pst!' is surely [s]. IIRC it has been posited that Etruscan allowed
> /s/ and /f/ to serve as syllabic nuclei - but of course we have no way
> of checking (without time travel). 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.

> Um - I don't see a problem with more conventional approach in English.
I seem to recall a similar argument that hinges on languages that permit
either:
a) syllable-final consonants except word-finally, or
b) word-final consonants but no codas otherwise
In either of these cases, the argument claims, there's some special
property of word-final syllables such that either those syllables don't
have codas, or they can have unpronounced nuclei. The English case might
have something to say about the big heavy consonant clusters we have at
the ends of words.


--
The "Million Style Manual" is a set of sixty-four jade stones marked with pieces
of Chinese characters. It expresses the kung fu of the void, as taught by P'an
Ku's axe.

Shreyas Sampat
http://njyar.blogspot.com

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