English phonotactics

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the phonotactic structures of English presented inThe Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, paying attention to morphological boundaries, the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables, the difference between native and non-native, and considering the distribution of vowels as well as consonants. The phonotactic status of names turns out to be unlike the status of other morphologically unanalysable words, and some new observations are made on consonant clusters as well as vowel sequences, which have previously been overlooked.