Native speakers of any language intuitively know what sounds can be put together. As a vowel is usually the nucleus of a syllable and it may be preceded and/or followed by a consonant or consonants, the sequence of phonemes vary mostly with onsets and codas. The longest onset in English may be composed of three consonants. The initial is /s/, the second is a voiceless stop( /p/, /t/, /k/) and the last is a liquid or glide, as shown below (only /spw/, /stl/, /stw/ are not found in words):
/p/ /l/
/s/ + /t/ +
/r/
/k/ /j/
/w/
If the onset is made up of two consonants, it will be combination of
any two consonants from left to right (/m/
and /n/ can also follow /s/;
/f/ is followed by both liquids, /
/
followed by /r/ only).
The longest coda in English may contain four consonants, as shown by
prompts. The order of consonants within a coda is different from that
of an onset. Generally, if sonorant consonants (nasals, lateral liquid)
appear, they are next to the nucleus, followed by other consonants, as
shown by [splint], [lmp ], [klt
]. Sibilants (/s/ /z/
/
/ /
/
/
/ /
/)
do not combine. This explains why another syllable [iz]
is added to form the plural or to mark the third person singular verb
in simple present tense if the noun or the verb ends in a sibilant, such
as watches, bridges, classes, oozes,
splashes, garages.
Some sequences are not possible in English. /ps/
is not a possible onset in English, but it is in Greek. When Greek words
with this onset, such as psychology, were borrowed into English,
the initial consonant is dropped. /fpr/ is
impossible in English, but it appears in Russian. Those impossible sequences
are systematic gaps.
Sequences that are possible but do not occur yet are called accidental
gaps. /blik/, /bilk/,
/klib/, /kilb/
are all accidental gaps, because they do not represent any meaning. When
new words are coined, they may fill some accidental gaps but they will
never fill systematic gaps.
