Re: Sidestepping Spelling Reform

Quoting David Zitzelsberger <DavidZ@...>:

> I don't know how accurate this is but
>
> http://www.zompist.com/kitlong.html#phono claims that "English goes as far
> as (s) + (C) + (r, l, w, y) + (V) + V + (C) + (C) + (C): sprite, thinks."
>
> If this is acurracte and I figure
>         S is about 6 (f, v, th/th, s, z, sh/zh). I'm not including both th
> because they don't seem to change the meaning of a word for me. Same for sh
> verses zh.
That (s) - notice lowercase - is one; only /s/ can occur first in English
syllable-initial clusters. And, of course, not all clusters suggested by the
above scheme are allowed - we don't get /snr-/ or the like.

Still, the number of legit English syllables is high - several thousand.

Do anyone know what lang has the highest number, and what that number might
be? I figure Georgian might be a strong contender!

Same for smallest number of syllables - some Polynesian lang, perhaps?

                                                       Andreas

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