Editing Consonant cluster (section)

== Phonotactics ==
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Each language has an associated set of [[phonotactics| phonotactic constraints]]. Languages' phonotactics differ as to what consonant clusters they permit. Many languages are more restrictive than English in terms of consonant clusters, and some forbid consonant clusters entirely.

For example, [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]], like most [[Oceanic languages]], forbids consonant clusters entirely. [[Japanese language|Japanese]] is almost as strict, but allows a sequence of a [[nasal consonant]] plus another consonant, as in {{lang|ja-Latn|[[Honshū]]}} {{IPA|ja|hoꜜɰ̃ɕɯː|}} (the name of the largest island of Japan). It also permits [[Gemination|geminate]] /kk/, /pp/, /ss/, and /tt/. However, palatalized consonants, such as [kʲ] in {{lang|ja-Latn|Tōkyō}} {{IPA|ja|toːkʲoː|}}, are single consonants. 

[[Standard Arabic]] forbids initial consonant clusters and more than two consecutive consonants in other positions, as do most other [[Semitic languages]], although [[Modern Hebrew|Modern Israeli Hebrew]] permits initial two-consonant clusters (e.g. {{lang|he-Latn|pkak}} "cap"; {{lang|he-Latn|dlaat}} "pumpkin"), and [[Moroccan Arabic]], under [[Berber languages|Berber]] influence, allows strings of several consonants.<ref>The extent of consonant clusters in Moroccan Arabic depends on the analysis. Richard Harrell's grammar of the language postulates [[schwa]] sounds in many positions that do not occur in other analyses.  For example, the word that appears as {{lang|ary-Latn|ktbu}} "they wrote" in Jeffrey Heath's ''Ablaut and Ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic Dialect'' appears as {{lang|ary-Latn|ketbu}} in Harrell's grammar.</ref> 

Like most [[Austroasiatic languages|Mon–Khmer languages]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]] permits only initial consonant clusters with up to three consonants in a row per syllable. [[Finnish language|Finnish]] has initial consonant clusters natively only on South-Western dialects and on foreign loans, and only clusters of three inside the word are allowed. Most spoken languages and dialects, however, are more permissive. In [[Burmese language|Burmese]], consonant clusters of only up to three consonants (the initial and two medials—two written forms of {{IPA|/-j-/}}, {{IPA|/-w-/}}) at the initial onset are allowed in writing and only two (the initial and one medial) are pronounced; these clusters are restricted to certain letters. Some [[Burmese dialects]] allow for clusters of up to four consonants (with the addition of the {{IPA|/-l-/}} medial, which can combine with the above-mentioned medials).

At the other end of the scale,<ref name="easterday">{{Cite book | author=Easterday, S. | title =  Highly Complex Syllable Structure: A Typological and Diachronic study  | place = Berlin | publisher = Language Science Press | date = 2019 | format = PDF | url = http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/249 | url-access=| isbn = 9783961101955| access-date = 30 July 2022| page = }}{{page needed | date = July 2022}}</ref> the [[South Caucasian languages|Kartvelian]] languages of Georgia are drastically more permissive of consonant clustering. Clusters in [[Georgian language|Georgian]] of four, five or six consonants are not unusual—for instance, {{IPA|/brtʼqʼɛli/}} (''flat''), {{IPA|/mt͡sʼvrtnɛli/}} (''trainer'') and {{IPA|/prt͡skvna/}} (''peeling'')—and if grammatical [[affix]]es  are used, it allows an eight-consonant cluster: {{IPA|/ɡvbrdɣvnis/}} (''he's plucking us''), {{IPA|/gvprt͡skvni/}} (''you peel us''). Consonants cannot appear as syllable nuclei in Georgian, so this syllable is analysed as CCCCCCCCVC. Many [[Slavic languages]] may manifest almost as formidable numbers of consecutive consonants, such as in the [[Czech language|Czech]] tongue twister {{lang|cs|Strč prst skrz krk}} ({{IPA|cs|str̩tʃ pr̩st skr̩s kr̩k|pron|Prst a krk.ogg}}), meaning 'stick a finger through the neck', the [[Slovak language|Slovak]] words {{lang|sk|štvrť}} {{IPA|/ʃtvr̩c/}} ("quarter"), and {{lang|sk|žblnknutie}} {{IPA|/ʒbl̩ŋknucɪɛ̯/}} ("clunk"; "flop"), and the [[Slovene language|Slovene]] word {{lang|sl|skrbstvo}} {{IPA|/skrbstʋo/}} ("welfare"). However, the [[liquid consonant]]s {{IPA|/r/}} and {{IPA|/l/}} can form syllable nuclei in West and South Slavic languages and behave phonologically as vowels in this case.

An example of a true initial cluster is the [[Polish language|Polish]] word {{lang|pl|wszczniesz}} ({{IPA|/fʂt͡ʂɲɛʂ/}} ("you will initiate"). In the [[Serbo-Croatian]] word {{lang|sh|opskrbljivanje}} {{IPA|/ɔpskr̩bʎiʋaɲɛ/}} ("victualling") the {{angbr|lj}} and {{angbr|nj}} are [[Digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] representing single consonants: {{IPA|[ʎ]}} and {{IPA|[ɲ]}}, respectively. In [[Dutch language|Dutch]], clusters of six or even seven consonants are possible (e.g. {{lang|nl|angstschreeuw}} ("a scream of fear"), {{lang|nl|slechtstschrijvend}} ("writing the worst") and {{lang|nl|zachtstschrijdend}} ("treading the most softly")).

Some [[Salishan languages]] exhibit long words with no vowels at all, such as the [[Nuxálk language|Nuxálk]] word {{IPA|/xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ/}}: ''he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant''.<ref>Hank F. Nater (1984), ''The Bella Coola Language'', Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service (No. 92) (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada), cited in Bruce Bagemihl (1991), "Syllable Structure in Bella Coola", in the ''Proceedings of the New England Linguistics Society'' 21: 16–30</ref> It is extremely difficult to accurately classify which of these consonants may be acting as the syllable nucleus, and these languages challenge classical notions of exactly what constitutes a [[syllable]]. The same problem is encountered in the [[Northern Berber languages]].

There has been a trend to reduce and simplify consonant clusters in [[Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area|the Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area]], such as [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]. [[Old Chinese]] was known to contain additional [[Syllable medial|medials]] such as {{IPA|/r/}} and/or {{IPA|/l/}}, which yielded retroflexion in [[Middle Chinese]] and today's [[Mandarin Chinese]]. The word {{lang|zh|江}}, read {{IPA|/tɕiɑŋ˥/}} in Mandarin and {{IPA|/kɔːŋ˥⁻˥˧/}}in [[Cantonese]], is reconstructed as ''*klong'' or ''*krung'' in [[Old Chinese]] by Sinologists like [[Zhengzhang Shangfang]], [[William H. Baxter]], and [[Laurent Sagart]]. Additionally, initial clusters such as "tk" and "sn" were analysed in recent reconstructions of Old Chinese, and some were developed as palatalised [[sibilant]]s. Similarly, in [[Thai Language|Thai]], words with initial consonant clusters are commonly reduced in colloquial speech to pronounce only the initial consonant, such as the pronunciation of the word {{lang|th|ครับ}} reducing from {{IPA|/kʰrap̚˦˥/}} to {{IPA|/kʰap̚˦˥/}}.<ref>{{Cite journal | author=Beebe, Leslie M. | title =  Occupational Prestige and Consonant Cluster Simplification in Bangkok Thai | journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language | date = 1975 | issue = 5 | format = PDF | url = https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1975.5.43 | url-access=subscription|access-date = 23 January 2023| page = | doi = 10.1515/ijsl.1975.5.43 }}{{page needed | date = January 2023}}</ref>

Another element of consonant clusters in Old Chinese was analysed in coda and post-coda position. Some "departing tone" syllables have cognates in the "entering tone" syllables, which feature a -p, -t, -k in Middle Chinese and Southern Chinese varieties. The departing tone was analysed to feature a post-coda sibilant, "s". Clusters of -ps, -ts, -ks, were then formed at the end of syllables. These clusters eventually collapsed into "-ts" or "-s", before disappearing altogether, leaving elements of [[diphthongisation]] in more modern varieties. Old Vietnamese also had a rich inventory of initial clusters, but these were slowly merged with plain initials during Middle Vietnamese, and some have developed into the palatal nasal.