Editing Polish language (section)

===Consonant distribution===
Polish permits complex consonant clusters, which historically often arose from the disappearance of [[yer]]s. Polish can have word-initial and word-medial clusters of up to four consonants, whereas word-final clusters can have up to five consonants.<ref>{{cite web|title=Polish|url=http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/polish/polish.html|website=UCLA Phonetics Lab data|publisher=UCLA Phonetics Laboratory, [[University of California, Los Angeles]]|access-date=26 April 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920090539/http://phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/polish/polish.html|archive-date=20 September 2017}}</ref> Examples of such clusters can be found in words such as ''bezwzględny'' {{IPA|[bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ]}} ('absolute' or 'heartless', 'ruthless'), ''źdźbło'' {{IPA|[ˈʑd͡ʑbwɔ]}} ('blade of grass'), {{Audio|Pl-wstrząs.ogg|''wstrząs''|help=no}} {{IPA|[ˈfstʂɔw̃s]}} ('shock'), and ''krnąbrność'' {{IPA|[ˈkrnɔmbrnɔɕt͡ɕ]}} ('disobedience'). A popular Polish [[tongue-twister]] (from a verse by [[Jan Brzechwa]]) is {{Audio|Polish Tongue twister - Chrząszcz - 2.ogg|''W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie''|help=no}} {{IPA|[fʂt͡ʂɛbʐɛˈʂɨɲɛ ˈxʂɔw̃ʂt͡ʂ ˈbʐmi fˈtʂt͡ɕiɲɛ]}} ('In [[Szczebrzeszyn]] a beetle buzzes in the reed').

Unlike languages such as Czech, Polish does not have [[syllabic consonant]]s – the nucleus of a [[syllable]] is always a vowel.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Nonsyllabic Analysis of Voice Assimilation in Polish|first=Jerzy|last=Rubach|date=28 November 1996|journal=Linguistic Inquiry|volume=27|issue=1|pages=69–110|jstor = 4178926}}</ref>

The consonant {{IPA|/j/}} is restricted to positions adjacent to a vowel. It also cannot precede the letter {{Lang|pl|y}}.