A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them. In English consonants are found to be clustered in word initial, medial and word final positions. The consonant clusters/ sequence belonging to a single syllable are known as intra syllabic clusters whereas the consonant clusters belonging to two different syllables in a single word are known as inter-syllabic clusters. Thus, in linguistics, a consonant cluster also known as consonant blend is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowels in between them. The maximum possibility of consonant cluster is three consonants in the beginning and four in final position.
Some examples:
Tray – /tr/ are clustered in word initially in a single syllable. Thus it is intra syllabic cluster.
Doctor-/kt/ are clustered word medially in two different syllable. Thus it is a inter syllabic cluster
Apt-/pt/ are clustered word finally but in a single syllable.
1. Word Initial Clusters
If consonants are sequenced word initially, the cluster is known as word initial cluster.
a) CC cluster: It also has two sub-types.
They are:
• One of /p,t,k,b,d,g,m,n,l,α, f, v, h, l/ + one of /l, r, w, j/.
as for example: play, prey, cry, dry, view, etc.
• /s/ + one of /p, t , k, f, m, n, l , w, j/.
As for example, speak, sky, stick, snail, swim, skim, Shrine, snakes, sticks, sphere, stair, skeet, slope, snow, etc.
b) CCC Cluster: In the word initial position three consonants occur together.
The structure of this cluster is the following:
/s/ + one of /p, t, k/ + one of /l, r, w, j/. As for example,
Splash, Spring, Strong, Stupid, Screen, Square, Spurious, Screw, Skewer
2. Word Final Clusters
The sequence of consonants in the final position of a word is called word final position consonant cluster. The following types of word final consonant clusters can be found:
a) – CC Cluster: As for example, Slept, taps, caps, depth, jobs, robbed, books, looks, bags, watched, draft, craft, graphs, etc.
b) – CCC cluster: As for example, Pushed, gasp, ask, test, restCamp, ramp, warmth, terms, rent, dent, bench, pens, gulp, bulb, film, gold, sold, told, solve, etc.
c) – CCCC Cluster: As for example, Milked, tempt, arranged, whilst, jumps, months, acts, amongst, texts, sixths, prompts, etc.
3. Word Medial Clusters
The cluster of consonants in the middle position of the word is called word middle consonant cluster. There are two types of word medial consonant clusters.
They are:
a) Intra-syllabic consonant cluster: The sequence of consonants in the word medial position which belong to the same syllable is called intra-syllabic cluster.
As for example, camping, reply, windy, extra, etc.
b) Inter-syllabic cluster: If the consonant belonging to different syllables occurs together, the cluster formed is called inter-syllabic cluster.
As for example:
movement /vm/,
description /skr/
import /mp/
blackboard /kb/
extra /kstr/
Some more examples of consonant clusters:
a) Nasal + stop – camp, bend, stamp, etc.
b) Nasal + fricative – length, warmth, terms, kings, etc.
c) Stop + stop – packed, begged, kept, tract, etc.
d) Stop + nasal – written, bitten, certain, etc.
e) Stop + lateral – middle, cattle, bottle, huddle, etc.
f) Nasal + affricate – change, bench, lunch, etc.
g) Fricative + stop – best, test, ask, draft, etc.
h) Lateral + fricative – health, wealth, solve, etc.
4. Vowel Sequences
Like consonant clusters, if two or more vowels occurring next to each other in a single syllable with no intervening consonant, then it is called a vowel sequence. So the combination of more than one vowel forms a vowel sequence. Sometimes, two pure vowels are grouped together but sometimes a diphthong is sequenced with another pure vowel. It should be noted that like pure vowel, a diphthong is also monosyllabic. Let’s see
some examples:
Vowel+Sequence
Sawing, being, doing, react, bluish, beyond
Diphthong+ Sequences
/ai/ + /Ó™/
Buyer, flyer, quite, iron, hire, tyre
/au/ + /Ó™/
Bower, coward, flower, tower, ours, vowel
/ei/+/Ó™/
Player, betrayal, grayer
/Ó™u/+/Ó™/
Grower, follower, thrower
/oi/+/Ó™/
Employer, royal
Other Sequences across the words
In connected speech or across words, many other vowel sequences can be found as:
I am/ai+ei/
Go out/Ó™u+ au/
My own/ai+Ó™u/
Gray eyed/ei+ai/
Many such possibilities are found in connected speech.
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