hardest to pronounce

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:55 AM -0500 10/22/04, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>  > >in which case one oft-cited example of the hardest
>>  monosyllabic word is
>>  >"sixths" with the final -[ks(th)s] cluster.
>>
>>  My first thought was along those lines; "strengths".
>>  --
>>
>For me, "sixths" is harder than "strengths".  I think it's because when you
>say "strenghths", the toungue moves along the roof of the mouth from front
>to back and then back to front more smoothly than when you say "sixths" (in
>which the movement of the toungue is jumpier).

It might also be that the former's final cluster does involve one
more consonant than the latter's, although the move from a velar
nasal to an interdental oral fricative isn't the easiest transition
around, and indeed I typically adjust it to [strEn(th)s] or
[stren(th)s], assimilating the nasal.  (Of course I tend to do that
with the singular too.)  With "sixths" there doesn't seem to be any
such out, so I do produce it as [sIks(th)s], but not without
difficulty.  (I know there are some who have a [t] instead of [(th)]
for the ordinal, and I assume they would have less of a problem with
[sIksts].)

larry