Why doesn't English language have many words which starts with fn-?

Question

Because the words sounds awkward for speaker of the language?

Language of my country has a word which starts with fn- sound, so because of the having, I am curious about the non-having.

Example of the word: fnan, fnab, fnap, fneet, fnest, fnick...etc.

Thank you!

Answer 1

One reason is that in English there is a rule that states that if two consonants are together and the first is unvoiced, like [f], [p], [t] and [k], then the second must also be unvoiced. In your example, [f] is unvoiced while [n] is voiced.

Thinking about it, I think in initial position, 'f' can only be followed by a vowel, [l] or [r] in English

Answer 2

English doesn't have *any word* that start with "fn", altho the sound is easy enough to make. It's a phonotactic constraint of English.

JJ isn't exactly right, since English does have words with "sn", "sm", "sl", "shr". The rule is that when a fricative is followed by another consonant syllable-initially, the fricative must be /s/, /ʃ/, /θ/ or /f/ - but only /s/ can be followed by a stop /p t k/ or a nasal /n m/.

Answer 3

What language do you speak?

In English, like lots of Latin languages, we like to keep the flow of words together and never have too many consonants or vowels together.

However, some Old Germanic words in our language - caatarh for example, don't follow this rule.

But the whole 'flow' rule is why we use 'an' instead of 'a' before a vowel.

Answer 4

Yeah I'm happy to say I can't say any of those words. We prefer to keep our tongue untangled. You really should try putting a vowel in there. Too much nasal otherwise.

Answer 5

Because English is derived from German.
http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html

Answer 6

because english is a simple language