Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>
> On Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:15:36 -0400, Mark E. Shoulson <mark@...> wrote:
>
> > English doesn't normally have these geminated consonants, but there are
> > a few examples in English that might help you get the idea:
> >
> > unnamed vs unaimed
> > bookcase vs bookie
> > rat-trap vs ratty
>
> I'm noticing in speech that the final "s" sound is fairly often omitted
> from "priests", "scientists" and similar word endings.
> I don't think this is necessarily part of disapppearing written plurals.
> (If we regard our written language as akin to CJK, does that explain the
> disapperance of plurals?)

Regis Philbin used to do commercials for "crisps" of some sort, and made
fun of the difficulty of pronouncing the final cluster. [s] is
problematic in phonological theory, because its sonority is low but it
often behaves like a high-sonority item.

Yet another mark against phonological theory.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...