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

In article
<6661c14a-78f3-4284-acd1-1d929b459ab3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
analyst41@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

On Oct 12, 7:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<d1fca8d2-3b81-4b29-b0ec-4c3e962d8...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,





 analys...@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

anecdote is a borrowed

That's a new requirement that you didn't specify before. Why the
moved goalpost?

compound word

I don't think "compound word" means what you want it to mean.
"Anecdote" is not a compound word, because, at the very least, "anec"
is not a word.

("Dote" does happen to be a word, but the word "dote" has nothing to
do with "anecdote".)

and "anegdote" in everyday speech
wouldn't be noticeable, IMO.

Your opinion has no bearing on reality, which is that native English
speakers would notice.

Nathan

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

Relevant Pages

  • Re: k-like sounds in English and other European languages
    ... - all the others can only occur in compound words or at word ... anecdote is a borrowed compound word and "anegdote" in everyday speech ... amygdala doesn't have the unvoiced-voiced apposition conflict and ... 'divine fruit' or 'holy fruit'. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: k-like sounds in English and other European languages
    ... someone were to say breagdown or iddoes in everyday speech I doubt ... while a voiced coda is never glottalized. ... - all the others can only occur in compound words or at word ... surprisingly) but 'amygdala' doesn't look like a monomorphemic IE ...
    (sci.lang)