Exponents of sonority in Slavic and Germanic languages

Abstract

The study of phonotactics has been largely based on the principle of sonority [19], which orders segments in the syllable according to their articulatory opening. This generalizing principle, however, has been challenged by languages admitting long strings of consonants. Among phonotactically complex systems, Slavic and Germanic families have been mentioned [15]. Therefore, the present contribution aims at decomposing sonority into constituent parameters, which provide more detailed insights into cluster structure. The idea goes in line with previous contribution [16,17,18], suggesting that specific parameters of place, manner and voice affect cluster structure to varying degrees, resulting in disproportionate cross-linguistic phonotactic variability. The analysis is based on large sets of word-onset clusters varying in length from CC to CCCC in Polish, Russian, English and German.