Consonant clusters are non-native to Tagalog phonology. Their occurrence in the language is brought about by the entry of borrowed words, notably from Spanish and English. This paper presents the accommodation of these sounds by native Tagalog speakers. It discusses three main points: (1) how the speakers pronounce consonant clusters; (2) how they syllabify words, particularly concerned with the consonant sequences along syllable boundaries, and (3) how speakers cope with the affixation process involving these clusters. This paper also compares the acoustic characteristics of consonant clusters produced by the Tagalog speakers with standard accounts of
Spanish and English articulation. Syllable constraints in the source and borrowing languages are also looked into.
Invasion of loanwords into Tagalog language, brought consequences not only to the lexicon but to the phonology as well. Foreign segments adapt processes solve by the speakers as they used the words in their conversation. The introduction of these non-native sequences is promoted as they apply morphological processes, such as infixation and reduplication to the borrowed word.
A spectrographic behavior (wave shape), present the repair used by the speakers, to accommodate such illegal construct in their language (Zuraw, 2007).
This paper will be subdivided into seven parts. The first part is this introduction, Part 2 deals with the methodology on characterizing the consonant clusters, Part 3 presents the data gathered from the respondents, and where an initial word clusters will be in focus. Part 4 deals on syllabication with regards to the cluster constituents across the boundary (medial clusters) and due to the affixation processes as will be discuss on
Part 5. Part 6 will give the summary of the study.
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Adaptation of consonant clusters was taken from six 4 th year students. Only spectrographic behaviors of these sounds are look into.
This study examine consonant clusters with both initial and medial position occurrence, except for /s/ clusters with three members /spk/, /spr/ and /spl/ having no medial position word counterpart. The discussion on the affixation processes will not include a frequency count on the variability of forms, as made on Tantiangco et. al (2009). Simply the description of on how the subjects cope with the processes.
Here are studies made on describing the characteristics and behavior of consonant clusters, especially in language like
Tagalog, whose phonology does not have this sound sequences.
Zuraw (2007) investigated on the strategies employed by the
Tagalog in dealing with these sound sequences when employed to affixation processes. She made a survey on the internet on the choice of forms of the speakers. From her elicited data, she ranked the splittability of the clusters when undergoing infixation.
Her study provided an insight to the strategies employed by the speakers in dealing with these sounds; however her data was from written account. It fails to capture the actual use/ forms of the speakers.
This part on the other hand, was addressed in Tantiangco et al
(2009), as they made a survey on the infixed and reduplicated words with initial consonant clusters. The survey was done by asking the respondents to translate English sentences to Tagalog, using the targeted items as the base form of their verbs.
Generalization of the study provided an account on the actual use of initial word clusters, however lacks acoustic data to elaborate the findings.
For acoustic characteristics of clusters, Davidson and Stone
(2003) presented an XRay of tongue movement when articulating clusters. In this paper, they contradicted the previous findings on the epenthesis of schwa or any vowel between

consonants to repair an illegal sequence on the language’s phonotactics. Rather, they post that, such “segment” is due to gestural mistiming on the coordination of the consonants.
This study provides an acoustic characteristic base from spectogrm of the consonant clusters produced by the Tagalog speakers. Moreover, it examines the phonological constraints of the source language that influence the various forms of accommodation of these foreign segments.
The words used in this study were pair of words with initial and medial consonant clusters. A total of 30 cluster sounds.
The effect of the entry of these foreign sounds to Tagalog
Phonology is observed with six students from fourth year highschool (3 males and 3 females). All are native Tagalog speakers. None of them have reported speech difficulties.
There are two parts of the experiment. The first part is the 55 word reading task, divided into 4 groups to facilitate ease of the reading. Each word is embedded in a carrier phrase, “Sabihin mo ang _______ ngayon,” repeated twice. On the second part, the respondents were asked to fill in the sentences, using the words with initial clusters. Sentences, to the greater possibility, provided the context to when the action happened, but avoiding to be artificial. Target items to apply infix set past action. While, reduplicated items are drawn from present or future action.
The recordings were analyzed using PRAAT 5.1.25 software
(Paul Boersma and David Weenink , University of Amsterdam).
Segments of each constituent were identified with their spectrographic features.
There are three types of clusters dealt in this paper, first type is stop + liquid (r/l), second type is stop + glide (w/y/) and the third type is the /s/+ Consonant(s).
In this section word initial clusters are examined, in particular description to the first constituent of the cluster.
Table 1. Items with /Stops + Liquid/ initial
/b/
/k/
/l/ blowout click
/r/ break crumple
/p/
/g/ plantsa glue problema graduate
Table 2. Items with /Stop+ Glide/ initial
Orthographically, clusters in initial position gain a /i/ or /u/, between the stop and glide for /j/ or /w/, respectively. However, in actual use, the vowel is rarely pronounced. To avoid the effect of an orthographic convention or external preference with this type of clusters, the researcher, provided the English word or a context to the subject. And all subjects produce these clusters without the insertion of full vowel. The discussion on the type of vowel will be discuss on Section 6.
/w/ /y/
/b/
/p/
/t/ bwisit pwesto twalya byahe pyano tyempo
The first and second type of clusters, both have stop as the first member. And observed treatment on the first constituent is the same.
Figure 1. /b/ in blowout
Figure 2. /b/ in bola
In figure 1, the first member /b/ in blowout was produced the same with non-cluster /b/ in bola (figure 2). Thus, we can say that stops are fully uttered. However, clusters are characterized, not simply as C1 + C2, rather a ratio of two clusters.

Table 3. Items with /s/+ Consonant initial
/sk/ score
/skr/
/sl/
/sm/
/sn/
/sp/
/spl/
/spr/ scratch slide smile snob spell split spray
/st/
/str/
/sw/ stapler stretch switch
In dealing with /s/ as first member in initial word-position, the subjects reveal two ways of producing the sound. One is prothesis of /i/ before the sibilant, thus creating another syllable, contrary to one syllable correspondence in English. Since the words are used within a sentence, /s/ seem to attach with the left word, an g and -tapler on the right, thus is uttered, /angstejpler/.
For tri-consonant clusters, the /s/ behaves the same as with the bi-consonant clusters, while the second and third member
(formed by a stop and a liquid) have the same transition, as discuss for the initial clusters above.
As shown above, clusters faced a question on which syllable it belongs. The status of /s/ as shown above has been repaired with a /i/ insertion. However, the problem is not only exclusive to the third type clusters.
Tantiangco et al (2009) addressed the untidy cut of boundary in infixed form. For instance, forms like dinrowing is faced with the question on where the boundary is set. Initially, a speaker would give their first syllable as /di/, thus yields to /nro/ as its second syllable. Upon realizing, that their second syllable begins with /nr/ sequence, a speaker would change their syllabication into /din.ro.wing/. However, in actual speech, boundary seems to be untidy. For /n/ could be heard in both syllables. In this part, word-medial clusters are examined and intriguing forms from applied with an infix will be dealt with Section 5. described as a long sound with English compounded words scrub brush , having identical consonants for coda of the first word, and onset of the second word (Wise, 1960).
Spanish phonology, on the other, interprets this segment within the same syllable. For instance, sobre is divided into /so.bre/.
Table 4. List of words with medial Stop + Liquid
/b/
/k/ oblong sukli sobre okra
/p/
/g/ suplay siglo kopra sagrado
Table 5. List of words with medial Stop+ Glide
/b/
/p/ kasabwat kapwa
/t/ ritwal kutya
Table 6. List of words with medial /s/+ Consonant nobya kopya
/sk/ pasko
/skr/
/sl/
/sm/
/sn/
/sp/
/spl/
/spr/
- kislap pasma
- aspile
-
-
/st/
/str/
/sw/ peste sastre aswete
The consonant /s/ is naturally long. However, in dealing with the medial position, /s/ is separated from the rest of the members of the cluster. Thus, an unequipped ear would easily decide where the boundary will be set. However, figure 3 shows minimal hissing sound runs right before the second member begins. This account may be a behavior of a sibilant, continuant sound.
Figure 4 is a spectrogram showing that /s/ in medial position, has the same minimal hissing sound (highlighted) with that of a non-cluster in figure 5.
Figure 3. /p/ across the syllables of the word, suplay.
As seen in Figure 4, first constituent /p/ of the cluster /pl/ in oblong is divided across the syllable. As a stop, the closure of the mouth is seated at the first syllable, while its release occurs on the second syllable. In contrast, a word like apply in English is produced with a short /p/. Such delay of explosion is
Figure 4. minimal hiss of /s/ continuing to second syllable of kislap

Figure 5. minimal hiss of /s/ in word sabihin
We can say, that cluster sounds produce by the participants, behave the same in terms of their coordination. Davidson et al
(2004) sketch how a language like English produces their clusters (Figure 6). Wherein, the point of release of the first member is the same point of the gesture onset of the second member. In this manner, we can presume that Tagalog repairs on these non-native sounds looks like in figure 7 and 8 for initial and medial clusters, respectively.
Figure 6.
Close transition of first cluster member and second member, occurring in English, from Davidson et al (2004)
Figure 7. Comparison of English cluster and Tagalog production, wherein first consonant is release before the second member, in word initial clusters .Taken from Davidson et al (2004).
Figure 8. Prolonged release of C1 in medial postion cluster of Tagalog
The respondents were asked to use the words in table 1, 2 and 3.
Each word is targeted to be infixed and reduplicated. The targeted items are listed on the appendix. The summary of their resulting forms is divided into two: unbroken and broken clusters. However, in an actual speech, Zuraw noted that the difference on the resulting forms in coping to these morphological processes is not notable or often heard as similar forms by the speakers. For the unbroken clusters, similar repair with initial clusters in section 3 is observed.
The second repair, speakers tend to split the cluster by inserting another segment: either an excrescent vowel or a full vowel (in reduplication, V1) (Davidson, 2004). However, whether the excrescent vowel produced by the subjects is due to mistiming or an insertion could not be determined in the spectrograph.
In dealing with stop-glide sequence, Tagalog grammar taught that a vowel is inserted between the stop and the glide. And the quality of that vowel is close to the sound of the glide, which is
/i/ for /j/ and /u/ for /w/. However, with the subjects, do not pronounce the vowel, as what has been prescribed before. An excrescent vowel in this matter could have resulted to the quality of the glide itself. Thus, to comply with C1V1 reduplication, V1 here is not /u/ fow /w/ and /i/ for /y/, rather the vowel after the glide.
In /s/ clusters, subjects tend to have a prosthesis /
ʔ i/ both in infixation and reduplication, to comply with CV(C) Phonology.
However, two subjects, accommodate this sequence by inserting a vowel between /s/ and the next consonant. For reduplication, it is identical with the first vowel. The “undetermined” characteristic of schwa is found in infixation.
Deletion of a constituent is observed in dealing with the reduplication of the word problema . Target item is na+partial
Reduplication+ problema . Five speakers yield to C1V1 type of reduplication and delete the /r/, resulting to namomoblema/popoblemahin. With this, speakers avoid nasal+liquid sequence. Simplification with two syllables headed by clusters is drawn to cause this type of repair.
There are three points addressed in this paper, in order to determine the characteristics of the clusters produced by
Tagalog speakers.
In pronunciation of initial clusters, the first constituent is uttered the same as the non-cluster correspondence. Thus, we will call that repair as full articulation of the first constituent. With regards with the third type clusters, two ways are employed; first, is the full articulation, and the second, is the prosthesis /i/.
For the resyllabication of clusters, word-medial clusters are examined in this paper. The ambisyllabicity of the cluster member lying along the boundary, if it is a plosive, split itself into the two syllables. Wherein, the closure of the lip belongs to the former syllable, while the explosion is on the succeeding syllables. If it is a continuant, like /s/, normally with an extended sound, it runs through the next syllable, until the burst of the next segment.
When coping with infixation and reduplication processes, clusters can be either broken or unbroken. For unbroken clusters, production of the segments is the same with that on the initial clusters in base form. On the other hand, broken clusters are repaired with the presence of vowels; excrescent or full vowel.

These repairs are ways of Tagalog speakers to adapt to a nonnative sequence. The occurrence of the words in the lexicon is brought by contact to English and Spanish language. Loans from
Spanish, though repaired with vowel insertion before, as represented orthographically, contemporarily, pronounced without the full vowel.
Generally, due to the increasing exposure to foreign materials, such as media products, the accommodation of the clusters though are governed by the Tagalog phonotactics CV(C), are at the same time, produce a sound almost that of the sources.
For further studies, statistical comparison among the duration of the clusters of Tagalog, English and Spanish speakers would support the difference with the production of clusters in these languages. As well as characterization of the vowels inserted between the sequences would better describe the repairs employ by Tagalog speakers, to verify the status of excrescent vowel post by Davidstone et al (2004).
Liquids infixated reduplicated blowout <in> Partial Reduplication
<in> Partial Redup break click <in> Partial Redup crumple glue graduate plantsa problema
<in>
<in>
<um>
<in>
<in>
Partial Redup
Partial Redup
Partial Redup
(mag-)Partial Redup
<na>+Partial redup
Glides bwisit <in> (maN) partial redup byahe pwesto pyano
Twalya
Tyempo
<um>
<in>
-
<in>
<in>
Partial redup
Partial redup
(mag) Partial redup
Partial redup
Partial redup score scratch slide smile snob spell split spray stapler stretch switch
<in>
<in>
<in>
<in>
<in>
<in>
<um>
<in>
<in>
<in>
<in> mag- partial redup
Partial redup
Partial redup nag- Partial redup nang- Partial redup
Partial redup
<um> Partial redup mag- Partial Redup
Partial redup
Partial redup +in mag- Partial redup
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USA: Prentice- Hall, Inc.
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Language 83. Pp. 277-316.
[6] Zuraw, Kie. 1996. Floating Phonotactics: Infixation and Reduplication in Tagalog Loanwords.
M.A. thesis: UCLA