Practice question · Select all that apply
English allows exactly one shape of three-consonant onset: /s/, then a voiceless plosive, then an approximant. Which follow from that fact?
Hints
- Ask whether the forbidden combinations are impossible to pronounce.
- If other languages use them, the restriction is not physical.
Show the answer
- A. The restriction is phonotactic rather than a limit on what can be articulated
- B. English speakers can learn to produce the forbidden sequences with practice
- D. Other languages use three-consonant onsets that English forbids
Why
A restriction that is this specific cannot be a limit of the tongue: the other combinations are perfectly pronounceable, other languages use them, and English speakers manage them in foreign names with a little practice. That makes it a phonotactic rule of English, exactly the kind of thing phonology exists to describe.
Practise Transcription and Connected Speech
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