<p>Syllabic consonants and </p><p>phonotactics </p><p>Syllabic consonants </p><p> Consonants that stand as the peak of the syllable, and perform </p><p>the functions of vowels, are called syllabic consonants. </p><p> For example, in words like sudden and saddle, the consonant <br>[d] is followed by either the consonant [n] or [l] without a vowel intervening. </p><p> The [n] of sadden and the [l] of saddle constitute the centre of the second, unstressed, syllable and are considered to be syllabic peaks. </p><p> They typically occur in an unstressed syllable immediately following the alveolar consonants, [t, s, z] as well as [d]. </p><p>Examples of syllabic consonants </p><p> Cattle [kæțɬ] </p><p> Couple [kʌpɬ] </p><p> Panel[pæņɬ] wrestle [resɬ] </p><p>knuckle [nʌkɬ] </p><p>petal [petɬ] </p><ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">pedal [pedɬ] </li><li style="flex:1"> Parcel [pa:șɬ] </li></ul><p> It is not unusual to find two syllabic consonants together. Examples are:  national  literal <br>[næʃņɬ] <br>[litrɬ] <br> visionary  veteran <br>[viʒņri] </p><p>[vetrņ] </p><p>Phonotactics </p><p> Phonotactic constraints determine what sounds can be put together to </p><p>form the different parts of a syllable in a language. </p><p> Examples: </p><p> English onsets /kl/ is okay: “clean” “clamp”  /pl/ is okay: “play” “plaque”  */tl/ is not okay: *tlay *tlamp. We don’t often have words that begin </p><p>with /tl/, /dm/, /rk/, etc. in English. <br> However, these combinations can occur in the middle or final positions. </p><p><strong>So, what is phonotactics? </strong></p><p> Phonotactics is part of the phonology of a language.  Phonotactics restricts the possible sound sequences and syllable structures in a language. </p><p> Phonotactic constraint refers to any specific restriction </p><p> To understand phonotactics, one must first understand </p><p>syllable structure. </p><p>Permissible language structures </p><p> Languages differ in permissible syllable structures. Below </p><p>are some simplified examples. </p><p> Hawaiian: V, CV  Japanese: V, CV, CVC </p><p> Korean: V, CV, CVC, VCC, CVCC </p><p> English: V CV CCV CCCV VC CVC CCVC CCCVC VCC CVCC </p><p></p><p>CCVCC CCCVCC VCCC CVCCC CCVCCC CCCVCCC </p><p><strong>English consonant clusters sequences </strong></p><p> English allows CC and CCC clusters in onsets and codas, but they are highly restricted. </p><p> English Onset Clusters (simplified)  CC stop, fricative + liquid, glide [s] + voiceless stop, nasal </p><p> CCC [s] + voiceless stop + liquid, glide </p><p><strong>Resolving constraint violations </strong></p><p> In codas, nasals may precede voiceless plosives, but only if they share the same place of articulation. jump [ʤʌmp], stunt [stʌnt], stink [stIɳk] </p><p> Prohibited sounds sequences may arise for various </p><p>reasons, including: borrowing from another language, e.g. </p><p>tsunami [sunami] or [tsunami], from Japanese [tsuinami] </p><p> Putting affixes, words together sequentially cost + s→*sts </p><p>next store→*stst </p><p><strong>Resolving identical constraints </strong></p><p> Consider the constraint *sts from some dialects of English.  Dialect A: resolve via deletion ghosts /gəʋst/→[gəʋss]  Dialect B: resolve via insertion ghosts /gəʋst/→[gəʋstəz] or [gəʋstəsəz] Constraints have different scopes in different dialects. e.g. a constraint may apply within a </p><p>word only, across word boundaries, or both. </p>