Xref: utzoo sci.lang:2751 comp.ai:2004 sci.psychology:590 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ihlpa!krista From: krista@ihlpa.ATT.COM (Anderson) Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.ai,sci.psychology Subject: Re: syllables of English Message-ID: <8450@ihlpa.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Jul 88 19:22:34 GMT References: <125@gollum.UUCP> <2115@hubcap.UUCP> <2029@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 25 <> To Walter R.: I tried to send mail, but it bounced. I don't have a list of English syllables, but I do have a list of consonant clusters and vowels. If you want it, I'll post it; however, it is about 250 lines. Actually, I made the list when I was trying to understand why a Navajo friend was having trouble with some English words. I wrote all the English consonant clusters I could think of, including those that occur only in the *final* positions of words. I came up with about 197 consonants and consonant clusters! And the list is probably not be conclusive. Since Navajo has only about 35 consonants and clusters, of which about 15 intersect the English set, I gained a lot of sympathy for anybody learning English as a second language. I've heard that Polish has a lot of clusters; anybody know how many? Cherokee has only 13 consonants (no clusters), I seem to recall. Tlingit (related to Navajo) is reputed to have a great many phonemes (50 compared to English 35); but these figures do not include clusters. By the way, Cherokee is about the prettiest language I've ever heard. It was once a tonal language, but the tones lost their meaning in most words, at least in the western dialect. However, a light, musical quality remains. Shut me up, please! If you want the list, let me know. Krista Anderson, ihnp4!ihlpa!krista, but we may be shutting down email?