Winter's day - Page 2

Fascinating explanations!! Thanks, all, for these discussions. I am thinking that I need to take some kind of class in the "History of the Spanish Language". :)

I must add that there are some combination of consonants that can't be divided: b/c/f/p + l/r, d/t + r:

Fran-cia, es-cla-vo, re-do-ble, dra-ma, a-trac-ti-vo.

I don't know the reason, but it sounds goo to my ears :thinking:

If Steven Spielberg were to be divided in Spanish syllables, it should be:

S·te·ven
S·piel·berg

"S" alone is unthinkable and impossible to pronounce for a Spanish speaker with no training in foreign languages, so the first impulse is to add an "e" to that lonely "s".

Therefore, Esteban Espielberg. :)

Impensable quizás, pero imposible no. He oído a españoles probar micrófonos con un "sí" extendido que es casí todo /s/. Fácilmente podrían parar antes de la /i/.

I guess the difficulty consists of "s" before a plosive (sp, sk, st, ...). It's easy to say "sssssí", it's difficult to say "Sssssspielberg".

No it's not, it's very easy. :D:D:D .

In English, you can have more consonants in one syllable, for example scream is one syllable. (So is chthonic, but that doesn't really count)

But thanks anyway for the explantions. :)

It must be easy, but not for me :D

But... chthonic? :confused: Does it exist?

I've never heard the word "chthonic" either, but if you type "define:chthonic" into Google, you'll get some interesting definitions. And ...... it seems to be closely related to a Greek word, so I'm not sure that Perikles is playing fair when he uses that as an example of an English word with a bunch of consonants in one syllable.......... :)

I also found this website that says the word for you: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?wor...&submit=Submit - sounds like it doesn't even pronounce the initial "ch" sound........

I thought it was "gin tonic" with "drunk" accent :D

- W(rrr)aittter! Annnnother chthonic, pleassse! :lol:

By the way, I can't find this definition.

Sorry, yes, I can :)

Strength. One syllable, one vowel.

Hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Of course it does! An adjective relating to the Earth.

Hay, I did say that it didn't count :rolleyes: It (of course) derives from Greek χθόνος which has two consonants at the beginning. But you need two consonants in the Roman alphabet for χ=ch and two for θ=th
So it really only counts as 2 consonants.

By the way, this is the reason that you get 'h' letters in English words which don't get pronounced, because they derive from Greek consonants which need 2 letters in the Latin alphabet. So (Jesus) Christ from χριστος :)

Actually, I have just found the same word contained in a word in Spanish: autóctonos except that the spelling has been modified so that the ch-> c and the th-> t.

This simplified spelling hides a lot of things, for example tanatorio where the first t hides a th but the second one doesn't. :)

The first one is right.

chthonic counts - good one.