nuclear/nucular

[Dennis R. Preston]

Yep. They all do. The truth is, real human languages hate two
consonants in a row, and only really shameful ones allow more. You
could even argue that honest, upright human languages don't even like
coda consonants, since their effect is to produce "clusters" across
word boundaries. (Check the spelling and pronunciation of that last
word!)

dInIs



>>What you want to note is simply
>>insertion (of a schwa) to break up the clumsy consonant-to-consonant
>>transition (or "cluster") of l+t. IN fact, although it is slightly
>>more complex, that is, after all, whjat is going on in the "nuclear"
>>example as well (where k+l is the villain).
>
>And I suppose "athaletic", "parapalegic", "masonary" (= "masonry") also
>show this trend?
>
>I see a few cases of "trocular" (= "trochlear") and "cocular" (=
>"cochlear") on the Web.
>
>-- Doug Wilson

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290