in the middle of words?

Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0

13 events

when toggle format	what		by	license	comment
Dec 8, 2015 at 21:00	review	Suggested edits
Dec 8, 2015 at 21:13
Oct 20, 2015 at 10:29	history	edited	hunter	CC BY-SA 3.0	thought of another exception
Jul 29, 2014 at 19:52	comment	added	user230		The convention is to use angle brackets for graphemes, square brackets for phones, and forward slashes for phonemes.
Jul 29, 2014 at 11:33	comment	added	Nico		Thanks for the link. Now, I realise what syllabic consonant means.
Jul 29, 2014 at 11:31	comment	added	hunter		ah I did not even think of those examples (chestnut, gristly)... it's too much! thanks.
Jul 29, 2014 at 11:30	comment	added	hunter		this article is better: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Jul 29, 2014 at 11:30	comment	added	Nico		More examples: in chestnut it is possible to drop the "t", because is preceded by an "s" and followed by "n". In "listen", the "t" is preceded by an "s" and followed by an "en". Similarly, in "gristly", the "t" is preceded by an "s" and followed by "li".
Jul 29, 2014 at 11:28	comment	added	hunter		yes. the nucleus of the syllable in abstention is /$\epsilon$/ and not the n. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabic_consonant
Jul 29, 2014 at 10:51	comment	added	Nico		I think I don't understand what you mean by syllabic /n/ or /l/. Does the condition syllabic /n/ exclude "abstention"?
Jul 29, 2014 at 10:45	comment	added	hunter		yes, [st] prononuced /s/ is exactly when the next syllable is syllabic /n/ or syllabic /l/; this is what was already written above and is consistent with all your data (except Leicester -- place names are hopeless! I was going to add a bunch more place names to the "exceptions" rule and then gave up.)
Jul 29, 2014 at 10:43	comment	added	Nico		+1 for thoroughness. The rule for "st", though, feels more like an exception than a rule, e.g.: "paste", "trust", "abstention", "assist", "assisted", "blustering"... I found "christendom", "chastened", "fasten" are like "listen". Another exception is Leicester... I think this is a tough one to describe!
Jul 29, 2014 at 10:24	comment	added	hunter		as to your other question, orthographic [c] always represents an unvoiced consonant (exception: czar, I'm sure there are others if we allow relatively recent borrowings from Slavic languages). Whether that consonant is /s/, /k/, or /ʃ/ will depend on the next letter: if it is written [a, o, u] the c is /k/; if it is written [e, i, y] the c is /s/, except that as usual /sj/ assimilates to /ʃ/; so, cell, call, ocean.
Jul 29, 2014 at 10:06	history	answered	hunter	CC BY-SA 3.0