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In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the word splits. In the education field it is variously called a consonant cluster or a consonant blend. [1] [2]
Where the final cluster /mn/ occurred, this was reduced to /m/ (the him-hymn merger), as in column, autumn, damn, solemn. (Compare French automne, where the cluster has been reduced to /n/.) Both sounds are nonetheless still pronounced before vowels in certain derivatives, such as columnar, autumnal, damnation, solemnity.
NG-coalescence – reduction of the final cluster [ŋɡ] to [ŋ], in words like hang, which has occurred in all but a few English dialects. G-dropping – reduction of the final cluster [ŋɡ] to [n] in weak syllables, principally in the verb ending -ing, which has occurred in many English dialects, although not in the modern standard varieties.
An example of this occurs in the word silk, which Nigerian English speakers may say /silik/ instead. [5]: 348 Unlike Singapore English, /k/ and /t/ clusters are generally reduced to [t]. [5]: 354 A common simplification process in Chicano English is word-final cluster simplification. For example, "ward" would sound like "war," and "start" would ...
An example from the history of English is the lengthening of vowels that happened when the voiceless velar fricative /x/ and its palatal allophone [ç] [2] were lost from the language. For example, in the Middle English of Chaucer 's time the word night was phonemically /nixt/ ; later the /x/ was lost, but the /i/ was lengthened to /iː/ to ...
Persian also does not allow clusters at the beginning of a word and typically uses /æ/ to break up such clusters in borrowings except between /s/ and /t/, when /o/ is added. [citation needed] Spanish does not allow clusters at the beginning of a word with an /s/ in them and adds e-to such words: Latin species > especie, English stress > estrés.
The Nilotic language Dholuo, spoken in Kenya, shows mutation of stem-final consonants, as does English to a small extent. Mutation of initial, medial and final consonants is found in Modern Hebrew. Also, Japanese exhibits word medial consonant mutation involving voicing, rendaku, in many compounds.
The following table shows the 24 consonant phonemes found in most dialects of English, plus /x/, whose distribution is more limited. Fortis consonants are always voiceless, aspirated in syllable onset (except in clusters beginning with /s/ or /ʃ/), and sometimes also glottalized to an extent in syllable coda (most likely to occur with /t/, see T-glottalization), while lenis consonants are ...