Name for the practice of composing sentences for ease and clarity of pronunciation?

Question

Is there a name for the practice of composing sentences in such a way that they don't contain proximate consonants which cause difficulty when read aloud?

For example: Under this criteria, "dogs and cats" is preferable to "cats and dogs," because the consecutive d s in the latter are difficult to pronounce clearly and distinctly and will force the speaker to either interrupt the flow of speech or elide the first d.

I think your rational re the Which comes first: cat or dog? is pretty much 100% spurious. People tend to repeat the sequence they hear most often, but they normally take note of context. In fact, there's no significant overall preference re the sequence *cats* and *dogs. But idiomatically you'll probably never* hear anyone say "It's raining dogs and cats", so you won't say that yourself. — FumbleFingers, Mar 02 '15 at 14:32
@FumbleFingers Ok. And my question is: what is the name for this "rationale" which you think is "spurious"? — James Brock, Mar 02 '15 at 14:47
This term is close, but not quite what I'm looking for: phonotactic. — James Brock, Mar 02 '15 at 15:24
But ... in ordinary speech, nobody pronounces the "d" in "and" in *either* "cats and dogs" or "dogs and cats". — Peter Shor, Mar 02 '15 at 15:51
I think I'd be more likely to stumble over "dogs and cats" than "cats and dogs". — Hot Licks, Mar 03 '15 at 13:17

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 03 '15 at 09:38

1

You're close with "phonotactic". But you would have to use phonotactic argot to devise some descriptive phrase for varying the adjacent "coda" and "onset" consonants.

answered Mar 03 '15 at 09:38

Brian Hitchcock

13,674

+1 Yes Brian, exactly. This is not an answer, but you're the only one so far who understands the question. – James Brock Mar 04 '15 at 12:20

Name for the practice of composing sentences for ease and clarity of pronunciation?

1 Answers1