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OT: Long Consonant Clusters (Berber)

From:David Peterson <thatbluecat@...>
Date:Saturday, January 3, 2004, 18:43
I had an entertaining homework assignment this past quarter concerning the
causative prefix in Imdlawn Tashlhiyt Berber.   I don't think I can beat
ernstskts (8 in a row!), but I can give you words of five consonants in a row with no
vowels (though anything that's not a stop in this language can act like a
nucleus):

SbrbS "to cause to be gaudy"
ZZnZm "to cause to escape an accident" (and, of course, /nZm/ is just "to
escape an accident")
ssrkz "to cause to dance"
SSkSm "to cause to enter"

Honorable Mentions:

ZmmZdawl "to cause to slip" (has a vowel and a glide)
SfZZiZ "to cause one to distract oneself by walking"

This last word doesn't have that long a cluster, but man!   Four fricatives
in a row?!   What's more, check out that definition.   The non causative, of
course, is "to distract oneself by walking".   That's a great word!   I don't
know if I'd associate /fZZiZ/ with that act automatically right off the top of
my head (or /nZm/ for escaping an accident, for that matter), but, hey, it's
cool!

-David