Phonotactic Vs. Morphonotactic Obstruent Clusters in Slovak and German

Slovak has more consonants than German and also more consonant clusters (plus accented syllabic sonorants). In addition, their asymmetric distribution within the word is different: Slovak has more clusters in word-initial position, German many more in word-final position. This difference is reinforced by morphology, insofar as only Slovak has monoconsonantal prefixes, and only German has monoconsonantal suffixes. The main word-internal difference is that in compounding German increases clusters, whereas Slovak decreases them. Asymmetries in terms of type frequency are radicalised in token frequency, i.e. in the profitability of clusters. In addition, clusters arise in Slovak also via vowel deletion, which is extremely rare in German (except in casual speech and in dialects).