🚀 go-pugleaf

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    To Walter R.:  I tried to send mail, but it bounced.  I don't
have a list of English syllables, but I do have a list of consonant
clusters and vowels.  If you want it, I'll post it; however, it is
about 250 lines.
    Actually, I made the list when I was trying to understand why
a Navajo friend was having trouble with some English words.
    I wrote all the English consonant clusters I could think
of, including those that occur only in the *final* positions of
words.  I came up with about 197 consonants and consonant clusters!
And the list is probably not be conclusive.
    Since Navajo has only about 35 consonants and clusters, of which
about 15 intersect the English set, I gained a lot of sympathy for
anybody learning English as a second language.  I've heard that
Polish has a lot of clusters; anybody know how many?  Cherokee has
only 13 consonants (no clusters), I seem to recall.  Tlingit
(related to Navajo) is  reputed to have a great many phonemes (50
compared to English 35); but these figures do not include clusters.
By the way, Cherokee is about the prettiest language I've ever
heard. It was once a tonal language, but the tones lost their
meaning in most words, at least in the western dialect.  However, a
light, musical quality remains.
    Shut me up, please!  If you want the list, let me know.

Krista Anderson, ihnp4!ihlpa!krista, but we may be shutting down email?