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Reduplication of the final syllable of a disyllabic word, where the added syllable is created from the first consonant of the first syllable and the last consonant of the second syllable; e.g. kaliskis ("[fish] scale"), from kalis ("to scrape") Reduplication of the initial syllable of the root; e.g. susulat ("will write"), from sulat ("to write")
West Germanic gemination also operated inconsistently on consonants followed by /l/ or /r/, e.g. Old English æppel 'apple' < Proto-Germanic *aplaz.In some cases this led to doublets, e.g. West Saxon Old English tēar 'tear (of the eyes)' < *tæher < Proto-Germanic *tahraz (without gemination) vs. Northumbrian Old English tæhher 'tear (of the eyes)' (with gemination).
Doubled orthographic consonants do not always indicate a long phonetic consonant. In English, for example, the [n] sound of running is not lengthened. Consonant digraphs are used in English to indicate the preceding vowel is a short (lax) vowel, while a single letter often allows a long (tense) vowel to occur.
For example, the English suffix -s is pronounced [s] when it follows a voiceless phoneme (cats), and [z] when it follows a voiced phoneme (dogs). [1] This type of assimilation is called progressive, where the second consonant assimilates to the first; regressive assimilation goes in the opposite direction, as can be seen in have to [hæftə].
English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, [1] [2] allowing readers and writers to associate written graphemes with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. [3] English's orthography includes norms for spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and ...
In English, a stop consonant is often added as a transitional sound between the parts of a nasal + fricative sequence: English hamster / ˈ h æ m s t ər / often pronounced with an added p sound, GA: [ˈhɛəmpstɚ] or RP: [ˈhampstə] English warmth / ˈ w ɔːr m θ / often pronounced with an added p sound, GA: [ˈwɔɹmpθ] or RP: [ˈwɔːmpθ]
In English, for example, while plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix -s, certain words use nonconcatenative processes for their plural forms: foot /fʊt/ → feet /fiːt/; Many irregular verbs form their past tenses, past participles, or both in this manner: freeze /ˈfriːz/ → froze /ˈfroʊz/, frozen /ˈfroʊzən/.
Likewise, the plural suffix -s on the word books has the same grammatical function as the presence of the vowel ee in the word geese (where ee alternates with oo in the pair goose/geese). Consonants, too, can alternate in ways that are used grammatically.