Consonant Clusters

In Linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/are consonant clusters in the word splits

Consonant Clusters in an English Textbook (English File Intermediate Plus, 3rd Edition)

Many languages forbid consonant clusters entirely. Hawaiian, like most Malayo-Polynesian languages, is of this sort.

At the other end of the scale, the Kartvelian languages of Georgia are drastically more permissive of consonant clustering. Clusters in Georgian of four, five or six consonants are not unusual—for instance, ბრტყელი /brtʼqʼɛli/ (flat) and მწვრთნელი /mt͡sʼvrtnɛli/ (trainer). The neighboring, but unrelated, Armenian language also allows for long consonant strings. For example, the classic transliterations k̕rt̕mndzhal and khghchmtank̕ of քրթմնջալ /kʰɾtʰmnd͡ʒɑl/ (“to grumble”) and խղճմտանք /χʁt͡ʃmtɑnkʰ/ (“conscience”) start with eight consonants.

In the five new words I’m trying to learn today, is the word ფრჩხილი, meaning “nail”, my mind and tongue have trouble seeing the combination of ფრჩხ p-r-ch-kh as being a natural or even possible combination of sounds.

ფრჩხილი = nail
/prchkhili/

Here is an entertaining youtube clip about Georgian Consonant Clusters

My Georgian continues to make agonisingly slow progress. I continue to use Memrise and attend the Georgian Language Exchange on Tuesdays, but I am not doing enough to make significant progress.