Re: k-like sounds in English and other European languages

In article
<d1fca8d2-3b81-4b29-b0ec-4c3e962d8c97@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
analyst41@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Oct 12, 11:09 am, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article
<3cf71891-3aaa-4387-a926-c686d9ddc...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
 analys...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

"breakdown" with a k-sound will break down - it is unstable.  If
someone were to say breagdown or iddoes in everyday speech I doubt
that anybody would find it noticeable.

A voiceless coda, like the [k] in "breakdown" is typically
glottalized, while a voiced coda is never glottalized.

Furthermore, a voiced coda causes the preceding vowel to be much
longer than a vowel preceding a voiceless coda.  The difference in
vowel length is so noticeable to English speakers that it allows for
distinguishing between words like "beat" and "bead" in whispered
(unvoiced) speech.

If you look at the following consonant clusters in English, it seems
to me that

(1) kt
(2) kd
(3) gt
(4) gd

Only (1) Where k can stand for (c, ck etc.) can occur in a single word
- all the others can only occur in compound words or at word
boundaries.

(2) anecdote
(4) amygdala

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/
.

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