Polish Phonology - Consonants - More On Clusters

More On Clusters

Clusters are much different in Polish than English. Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants. English, on the other hand, does not allow such complex clusters to exist word-initally or word-finally because the rules are much more strict. For example, for a three-consonant cluster to exist word-initially in English, it must have the fricative /s/ followed by a voiceless stop and a liquid or glide, for example, spr, spl, skr, str, skw as in spring, splash, skream, string, squash." Clusters can also occur between two or more words in Polish. The name Anna in Polish exemplifies how consonants are also not syllabic in Polish—it is pronounced /ˈanna/ compared to /ˈana/ as it is in English. Consonant clusters do have rules in Polish as well, they are just not as strict as English. For example, a two-consonant cluster can be an obstruent followed by a sonorant, an obstruent followed by an obstruent, or m followed by a sonorant. However, it is impossible to have a sonorant followed by a sonorant or a sonorant followed by an obstruent, except in a special condition. The larger the consonant cluster, however, the more complex the rules become.