Re: USAGE: Schwa and syllabification

From: Chris Palmer

> Mark J. Reed writes:
>
> > There's no such thing as a syllabic 'k' - only continuous sounds can
> > be syllabic, which rules out stops.
>
> For what little it's worth, my phonology professor once gave us this
> anecdote: Supposedly there is a word /tk=tf=t/ in Berber.
The word _tktft_ and similar words do occur in Tashelhit (Shilha) Berber,
and there's even one word made up of eight consonants and NO vowels:
_tftktstt_ "you sprained it" (both subject and object are feminine). See
here:

http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/~jcoleman/TPS.html

I honestly don't see how a stop can be syllablic. A fricative like [f=] can,
obviously. More likely the word would be pronounced more like [t@ktf=t] with
a barely-noticeable schwa.

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