Re: [tied] Dniestr has nothing on Klallam

----- Original Message -----

From: Glen Gordon

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2000 12:51 PM

Subject: [tied] Dniestr has nothing on Klallam

Ah, but nothing beats the Russian phrase /zdrastvutye/...

It's actually /zdrastvujt'i/ (with initial stress) or, informally, /zdrass't'i/, /dras't'/ or the like (' = palatality). Clusters like /zdr/ or /zgl/ are very common in Slavic -- in fact, they are easier than other word-initial consonant combinations resulting from the loss of "yers" (reduced vowels) in initial syllables. Polish has these monstrosities, among innumerable others:

 

krtan' (larynx) -- r is devoiced and non-syllabic, n' = French "gn";

 

chrzciny [xSt$inI] (baptism) -- x = Scottish "ch", S is postalveolar, t$ is like English "ch", but more emphatically palatal;

 

mgLa [mgwa] (mist) -- L stands for Polish "l with a cross-stroke";

 

chrza,szcz [xSo~StS] (beetle) -- , = Polish "underhook", ~ = nasality

 

rte,c' [rten't$] (mercury) -- monosyllabic

 

Stop the presses! I know the language that takes the prize for impossible
consonant clusters!

..... Klallam! It's a language spoken (erh, or mumbled) in British Columbia,
Canada. I think it's classified as "Salish", not sure. There have been many
a white man who've choked to death attempting to speak it. Some words don't
look like they have vowels. I believe that the Klallam-speaking people were
created by benevolent linguistic elves! Teehee :)

What about the Berber languages, where vowels are so few and far between that ALL consonants (including voiceless stops) can be syllabic?

Piotr