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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek phōnḗ "voice, sound" and taktikós "having to do with arranging")[1] is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters and vowel sequences by means of phonotactic constraints.
Phonotactic constraints are highly language-specific. For example, in Japanese, consonant clusters like /st/ do not occur. Similarly, the clusters /kn/ and /ɡn/ are not permitted at the beginning of a word in Modern English but are in German and Dutch (in which the latter appears as /ɣn/) and were permitted in Old and Middle English.[2] In contrast, in some Slavic languages /l/ and /r/ are used alongside vowels as syllable nuclei.
Syllables have the following internal segmental structure:
Onset (optional)
Rhyme (obligatory, comprises nucleus and coda):
Nucleus (obligatory)
Coda (optional)
Both onset and coda may be empty, forming a vowel-only syllable, or alternatively, the nucleus can be occupied by a syllabic consonant. Phonotactics is known to affect second language vocabulary acquisition.[3]
^φωνή, τακτικός. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
^Orzechowska, Paula; Wiese, Richard (2015-01-01). "Preferences and variation in word-initial phonotactics: A multi-dimensional evaluation of German and Polish". Folia Linguistica. 49 (2). doi:10.1515/flin-2015-0016. ISSN 0165-4004.
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