“Suddenly saddened by a friend, he will soon meet the enemy again ...” But why was the reader sad of these lines too? Empathy with the lyrical hero? Of course. But there is also something imperceptible at first glance. And if you try to read the sentence out loud? Get ready for a shake and a blast of tongue. Let’s figure out what a concourse of consonants is. It will be interesting.
Confluence: how much?
“Vdr”, “vzgr”, “stn”, even a strange “cdr” at the junction of words ... Such a number of consonants per centimeter square is an obvious search for the language of the average person. And this phenomenon is called simply and figuratively: a concourse of consonants. What is this?
To clearly explain what a concourse of consonants is, we’ll look at what is called a norm and a deviation from it in any language. From the point of view of phonetics, the most convenient pronunciation scheme is the alternation of vowels and consonants. It is no coincidence that words like “mother”, “woman”, “bibi” are most quickly and easily picked up from adults by kids. Such words are convenient for learning in any foreign language.
And how are they?
Italian is not in vain considered one of the most melodic. The abundance of vowels and their frequent alternation with consonants makes the speech ringing and iridescent, which is worth only the famous "amore" or "cinema".
Also within the norm is a cluster of two consonants. Many Russian words, for example, “friend”, “enemy”, “ringing”, “scream”, are included in this group. German is known for its diverse combinations of consonants. “Schmetterling”, “Duft”, “Shritt” - these words are expressive in their own way, beautiful in their clarity and are also easy to remember.
But Serbian and Czech languages ​​were less fortunate. “Chrley vrh”, which means just “black peak”, sounds infernal. And behind the ominous "trdlo" lies an appetizing bun. And this is not an exception.
Records for unpronounceable words breaks the Georgian language. What does “gvprtskvnis” stand for - nine consecutive and separately pronounced consonants.
In English, there is the word latchstring (rope from the heck) - 6 consonants in a row. It is worth noting that the sounds in this combination are 5 [le tchstr ing]. We hasten to reassure all students of English that such a confluence of consonants is rare. The maximum here is 4 consonants in the plural: attempts, bursts, as well as in ordinal numbers sixth, twelfth.
Words with three consonants are also common for the Russian language. "Sigh", "scream", "adult", "strive", "revenge" ... You can easily notice that such noisy trios are found (and here is another example!) At the beginning of the word. This option is even more or less acceptable. But the short forms of some adjectives can cause a smile. Round, kind, dull, callous - how can one say about a person "He is callous" and not smile? Even if this characteristic is true. Why is this so?
Where consonants merge
The whole point is where the concordance of consonants takes place: at the end of a word, in its middle or at the beginning. As a rule, the beginning of any word is pronounced with greater voice power and speed. This facilitates the articulation of several consonants in a row, as if they were flying through the air. Hence the hidden energy of the word “explosion” - a concourse of consonants here describes this phenomenon as well as possible. The words “take-off”, “shot” are similar in effect. Very often, such words indicate a sharp, choppy and short-term action. Agree that such a concourse of consonants is very justified. And beautiful.
On the contrary, words with a concourse of consonants sound heavy. Cedar, beaver, fact ... However, it becomes worth the vowel sound at the end of the word - the confluence of consonants is almost lost: "tundra". The same thing happens with the plural forms: "cedars", "facts". But the forms of the genitive plural of some nouns may well slow down the pace of speech: "feelings", "actions", "sets".
You can change the meeting place
Speaking about the “meeting place”, one cannot but mention the random combination of consonants at the junction of words or morphemes . A classic example from a bad poem for children: "Baby doll is furious." With such a crowd of deaf consonants, not only the baby doll will be furious! Whistling [s] and [h] completely dissolve the innocent [in] between them, erase the boundary of words and, when pronounced quickly, make the phrase obscure.
Counterstrategy, filterpress, burgomasterism, denationalization ... These monsters in letter form are just words that were not very lucky with prefixes and suffixes. Often the foreign origin is either the prefix (counter-), or the root (burgomaster), or both roots (filter and press). It is worth rejoicing that such words, as a rule, have a narrow specialization.
Clip out
Hello! To say this word is so easy. And to write is not very. Three consonants in the beginning and four in the middle make one of the friendliest words impregnable in appearance. But what did human language do? Very simple. I threw out a slurred sound [in] from the pronunciation. Some go even further, shortening to "health", "grow up" or "gift". The bottom line is that if a word is very often used in everyday speech, its pronunciation should not impede the conversation. “Sun”, “late”, “heart”, “godfather” in oral speech have safely lost uncomfortable consonants that unduly strain the language. But look at the one-root "sunny," "late," "cordial," "christening." Very similar, but different words. The concordance of consonants in them is divided into two parts by vowels, and each consonant sound gets its portion of power.
There is never too much publicity?
We have already figured out that many consonants in a row are bad and inconvenient for smooth human speech. But what about long lines of vowels?
Audio equipment, hydroaeroionization, radioactivity ... It is easy to notice that vowels meet at the junction of the foundations in compound words. As a rule, these are complex scientific terms that we rarely use in everyday life. If you try to read such words aloud, you can hear that they are involuntarily divided into two or three shorter ones (according to the number of stems). Still, vowels are easier to handle due to the greater participation of the voice in their utterance.
Tongue Twisters
It would seem that a concourse of consonants is ideal for tongue twisters. That's where everyone smashes their tongues! Let us analyze the most popular tongue twisters in Russian.
- Sasha walked along the highway and sucked the dryer.
- Grass in the yard, firewood on the grass. Do not chop wood on the grass of the yard.
- Stranded, we lazily caught burbot and we changed the burbot to you for a tench. About love, didn’t you kindly pray me, in the mists of Lyman beckoned me.
A very motley picture turned out. Well-known tongue twisters, it turns out, do not contain a single furious concourse of consonants! The maximum here is two consonants in a row [dr], [tr], [shk]. But these combinations are widespread and not cause difficulties.
Basically tongue twisters are aimed at honing simple consonant-vowel syllables that are similar to each other. Thus, the tongue twister improves the pace and fluency of speech at the same time.
There are several tongue twisters and a concourse of consonants. However, they are not so famous.
- Wipe the portrait. Wipe the portrait anxiously.
- Maintaining a vehicle is more expensive than spending money on transportation.
- The routed route was routed but not routed.
From such verbal exercises speech will not become more elegant, and therefore it is better to still use the old tried and tested fruits of folk art.
Summarize
The confluence of consonants is a phenomenon that exists in many languages ​​of the world. For some languages, it is the norm, in others it is unacceptable. Very often, the abundance of consonants makes speaking difficult and impairs understanding (especially at the junction of words). Nevertheless, to some words this phenomenon gives expressiveness, especially if it is used at the beginning of the token. Shaking and exploding for the tongue are sometimes very useful.