the curious phonology of Wisconsin

[Mark A. Mandel]

Larry Horn sez:

>>>

At 6:13 PM -0500 11/21/04, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>wI - skan - s at n

or more accurately w at -

        [...]

I've always regarded that as a kind of familiarity-breeds-least-effort
effect, not unanalogous to "loovull" below.

<<<

"Least effort" is notoriously (?) subjective. For me, syllable-initial /sC/
takes MORE effort, not less, than coda /-s/ followed by onset /C-/. And if
/sC-/ is more efficient to produce, why hasn't it spread across the whole
lexicon?


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