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E.g. /knank stjajts smoms/ even they do follow the Sonority Sequencing Principle

curiousdannii
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wodemingzi
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2 Answers2

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There are several reasons conspiring to make palindromic syllables rare in natural languages

  • Most languages have certain restrictions on the beginning and ending consonant clusters of syllables, and those restrictions are typically not symmetrical, i.e., in general a reversed syllable needn't be legal
  • a diphthong at the syllable core cannot occur in a palindromic syllable
  • there are also some consonants (e.g. affricates like /ts/ or /pf/) that cannot be reversed
  • diachronic processes like dissimilation tend to get rid of double occurrences of the consonants /l, n, r/ in one syllable

Nevertheless, simple palindromic syllables occur and some frequent words (like English a, did) are examples of them.

Sir Cornflakes
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  • Isn't assimilation also at work? – amI Apr 12 '18 at 21:30
  • Assimilation usually affects neighbouring consonants, while dissimilation works over the syllable core. I don't think that assimilation does much to the probability of palindromes. – Sir Cornflakes Apr 13 '18 at 09:22
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    Perhaps also mention asymmetry with affricates; it is not unusual for e.g. /ts/ to be an affricate but /st/ to not be one. – tripleee Apr 14 '18 at 12:21
  • I don't mean they can't be reversed; but the sound in aufpassen doesn't sound like the reverse of Pfad; and the one in zucchini doesn't sound and often isn't perceived as the reverse of the one in bistro, as even the Italian orthography indicates. – tripleee Apr 14 '18 at 18:26
  • @tripleee Your comments made me curious to ask a new question on that: https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/27738/are-there-languages-featuring-reversed-affricates-as-phonologocal-segments – Sir Cornflakes Apr 17 '18 at 10:23
  • I thought there was also assimilation in single syllable words, where the onset primes for the final consonants, regardless of intervening vowel. It is a force that we resist due to the usefulness of short words, but it does affect speech, encouraging: mom, dad, pop, tot, bub, etc. – amI Apr 17 '18 at 21:51
  • @aml I don't see assimilation (of what precedent?) in words like mom or dad. They look like reduplication to me. – Sir Cornflakes Apr 24 '18 at 09:45
  • See also this question and its answers: https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/q/29752/9781 – Sir Cornflakes May 09 '19 at 13:23
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No language has a significant tendency to exclude palindromic syllables: if plarg and gralp are possible syllables, plalp and grarg are as well.

user6726
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    Hmm... at least dissimilation is an anti-palindromic process working against plalp and grarg – Sir Cornflakes Apr 12 '18 at 16:44
  • I think not, that is, dissimilation does not care about palindromicity, it cares about broader similarity. Place dissimilation for example may ban multiple velars in a syllable, which is distinct from an actual anti-palindrome principle. Place dissimilation more broadly targets *klaks", which is not a palindrome – user6726 Apr 12 '18 at 17:14
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    Yes, it affects non-palindromes as well as palindromes. But the net effect is a deprecation of palindromes. – Sir Cornflakes Apr 12 '18 at 17:21
  • I would agree to a different question: are there any languages that deprecate syllables with similar consonants? That possibility is not "general" in languages, it is rare but not non-existent. – user6726 Apr 12 '18 at 17:34