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Re: English syllable structure (was, for some reason: Re: Llirine: How to creat a language)

From:Cheng Zhong Su <suchengzhong@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 4, 2001, 22:59
 --- Muke Tever <alrivera@...> wrote:
> > Syllables? Assuming twenty possible onsets, ten > > possible centers (vowels) and twenty possible > codas (all underestimates of > > the English inventories), we land on 4000 possible > syllables. > > Well... A [Gen-Am] English syllable can start with: > > (zero) > p b t d tS dZ k g m n r f v T s z S h w j l > [and, probably not productively, D Z x] > gl gr kl kr Sr dr Tr fr fl br bl > tw dw Tw > [hw for some people too, > and gw, generally only in names] > kw kr skw skr tr str pr pl spr spl > sk st sl sn sf sp sm sw > [also: hj kj gj fj vj pj bj mj before u] > > which is... 54 that can occur freely. > > Vowels can be, I think, > > i I u U e E o A { V > > which is... ten. > > Codas can be, heek... > p b t d tS dZ k g m n r f v T s z S Z N l r > [again with the D Z x, also w j restrictedly] > lb lm lf lp lk lt ld ls mp sk st sp nk nt nks nts nd > ns > ltS ldZ ntS ndZ > kT ksT nT tT dT lT nT fT pT mT mpf > [with the plural/present morpheme s/z, the past > morpheme t/d, and the archaic > st/zd addable to most of these] > > I know there's more (offhand I can think of: lS > ('welsh') nS ('mensch') Nst > ('angst') N). > > About 54, 55... (This is not counting most /r/..) > > But as it stands that's at least 30,000 possible > English syllables, from "uh" to > "straurmphst". > (Ack! I didn't even count diphthongs!) > > > *Muke!
The target, we sparate sounds into unit is link linguistics with math. So we try to saparted it timely in equal. If we can separate it timely equal then we can understand what will happened in life time. The word 'beast' is one syllable, word 'be' also one syllable. They are different in time length. Su Cheng Zhong http://shopping.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Shopping - Get organised for Christmas early this year!

Replies

Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
Dan Jones <dan@...>