Error in Truespel dictionary?

[sagehen]

on 4/6/08 9:32 PM, Benjamin Zimmer at bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU wrote:

> On Sun, Apr 6, 2008 at 7:43 PM, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:
>>
>> In "tradspel" the cluster /dsp/ is nearly unspeakable(!); an added
>> /i/ would have helped.
>
> Of all the complaints one could make, that's an odd one. My middle name is
> Goodspeed (a family name), and I don't recall the /dsp/ cluster ever being
> difficult for anyone. Nor, I imagine, would native speakers have much trouble
> with more complex clusters like the /ldsp/ of "feldspar" or the /ndspr/ of
> "handspring", since they straddle syllable boundaries in the usual fashion.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
You're quite right:  it was a hasty conclusion. The examples you give
(Goodspeed, feldspar, handspring) are helped along by the familiarity of
their parts, however, whereas tradspel doesn't really offer this clue.
AM

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org