Consonant clusters occur when two or more consonants are uninterrupted by vowels. English has many examples, including digraphs like ‘sh’ and ‘wh’. Some languages, like Hungarian, use the same letters as English but produce different sounds. Consonant clusters have reduced in number in English over time, and some languages have removed them entirely. Foreign language speakers may struggle with consonant clusters when learning English or German. Japanese shapes borrowed words to fit its syllable-based language by breaking up consonant clusters.
A consonant cluster occurs when a consonant cluster is not interrupted by the presence of a vowel. These clusters must also represent more than one sound. Typical English consonant clusters include ‘spl’ and ‘str.’ Longer clusters include the “fifth” part of the “twelfth”.
The English language is divided into vowels and consonants. In theory, there are 21 consonants and five vowels. Some letters, like Y, can function as both depending on the context. Many languages, especially Slavic ones, have smooth consonants like L and R that can function as vowels. Other languages like Japanese have few independent consonants – only N.
A digraph occurs when two letters form to produce a sound. For example, ‘ch’ is a digraph. Other examples of digraphs in English include ‘ng’, ‘sh’ and ‘wh.’ Digraphs can also be formed through two vowels such as “oo”, “ou” and Old English “ae”. Some languages also combine three letters to form a single sound, known as a trigram.
Hungarian uses the same letters as English, but produces different sounds. For example, a Hungarian digraph “sz” is an English monograph “s”, while a Hungarian digraph “s” is an English digraph, “sh”. What appears to be a digraph in one language is a consonant cluster in another. The Hungarian word “esszeru” is pronounced “esh-sze-ru”.
There is some disagreement among linguists about what constitutes a consonant cluster. Some believe that a consonant cluster must be kept within a syllable so that the ‘mpl’ of compliant is not a consonant cluster. Other linguists believe that such clusters must be able to cross the syllable boundary.
Consonant clusters have shrunk in number as English has developed. This often took the form of the final letter changing from a distinct sound to a silent presence used as a visual trick to separate a word from a similar sounding one, leading to whole and hole, plum and lead. African American and Caribbean English speakers further reduced consonant clusters by completely dropping the last consonant to change hand to “han” and desk to “des”.
Some languages have removed the consonant clusters entirely. Italian, Portuguese, and Catalan are three great examples of consonant cluster reduction. This led to Victoria becoming “Vittoria” in Italian. The length of the word has not changed, but the “c” has been dropped to shorten the sound.
Foreign language speakers from languages with few consonant clusters have difficulty learning languages such as English and German. Spanish, Arabic and Japanese speakers find this particularly difficult. Often these students take longer to get to grips with consonant clusters.
Japanese borrowed 10,000 English and German words in its lexicon, but had to find ways to deal with consonant clusters. Some languages absorb words without changing them, but Japanese shapes words to fit its syllable-based language. The Japanese treated the consonant cluster by breaking it so that symmetry became ‘shimetorii’, example became ‘ekusamplu’ and spring became ‘supuringu’.
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