combinations such as *ntat or *rkoop, with a sonorant, are not allowed) The second consonant in a complex onset must not be a voiced obstruent (e.g. *zdop does not occur) If the first consonant in a complex onset is not , the second must be a liquid or a glide Every subsequence contained within a sequence of consonants must obey all the relevant phonotactic rules (the substring principle rule) No glides in syllable codas (excluding the s of diphthongs) The second consonant in a complex coda must not be , , , or (compare asthma, typically pronounced or , but rarely ) If the second consonant in a complex coda is voiced, so is the first An obstruent following or in a coda must be homorganic with the nasal Two obstruents in the same coda must share voicing (compare kids with kits ) Sonority Sequencing Principle Segments of a syllable are universally distributed following the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP), which states that, in any syllable, the nucleus has maximal sonority and that sonority decreases as you move away from the nucleus. Sonority is a measure of the amplitude of a speech sound. The particular ranking of each speech sound by sonority, called the sonority hierarchy, is language-specific, but, in its broad lines, hardly varies from a language to another, which means all languages form their syllables in approximately the same way with regards to sonority. To illustrate the SSP, the voiceless alveolar fricative is lower on the sonority hierarchy than the alveolar lateral approximant , so the combination is permitted in onsets and is permitted in codas, but is not allowed in onsets and is not allowed in codas. Hence slips and pulse are possible English words while *lsips and *pusl are not. The SSP expresses a very strong cross-linguistic tendency, however, it does not account for the patterns of all complex syllable margins. It may be violated in two ways: the first occurs when two segments in a margin have the same sonority, which is known as a sonority plateau. Such margins are found in a few languages, including English, as in the words sphinx and fact (though note that phsinx and fatc both violate English phonotactics). The second instance of violation of the SSP is when a peripheral segment of a margin has a higher sonority than a segment closer to the nucleus. These margins are known as