Clusters and the onset

It has been argued in the literature that branching onsets should be dispensed with by introducing complex segments. These were claimed to be obstruents with liquids as their secondary articulation, segments available as is in the phonemic inventory of a given language ('Complex Segment Hypothesis'). It is shown that this hypothesis is desirable for phonological theory. Some aspects of CSH are discussed on Russian material by adducing arguments from verbal morphology and from experimental phonetics. Finally, a phonetic study of a speech corpus (British English) renders support to the Complex Segment Hypothesis.