Clarification on Consonants from Thursday, 01-28-16

Dear Hellenists,

The thought occurs that, in my zeal to cover the basics of Greek consonants on Thursday, I wasn't as clear as I might have been about consonant clusters — that is, which consonants get pronounced together (and therefore kept in the same syllable), and which get pronounced separately (put in different syllables).

Let's take it from the top.

(1) CONSONANT CLUSTERS USUALLY PRONOUNCED TOGETHER

• two different stops: stop1 + stop2 (examples: βδ, κτ, φθ)
• stop + liquid (examples: γρ, τρ, πλ, κλ)
• stop + nasal (examples: πν, γμ)

(2) CONSONANT CLUSTERS USUALLY PRONOUNCED SEPARATELY

• double consonants (examples: λλ, σσ, ττ)
• liquid + stop (ex. λτ), liquid + liquid (ex. λρ), liquid + nasal (ex. ρμ)
• nasal + stop (ex. μπ), nasal + liquid (ex. μρ), nasal + nasal (ex. νμ)

(3) EXCEPTIONS

• the nasal + nasal combo μν is pronounced together
• sigma + any consonant might be pronounced together or separately

Groton explains all of this in more detail in Lesson 1 (#7–8, pp. 5–6).

DC