RichardKennaway comments on Open thread, July 28 - August 3, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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"Amt" is a word in German. It is pronounced exactly as it looks, plus a glottal stop at the start.
Where are you getting these rules?
Surprising. It's not that hard to say "amt", but it's not any easier than just "mt". The syllable has a vowel in it, but
I don't know if that's just an odd word, or if Germany has different rules. For all I know, they frequently have syllables without vowels. I would expect them to follow the same rules, since English is a Germanic language, but I guess getting rid of almost all of their words would lead to getting rid of almost all of their rules about what words are possible.
They're rules that I noticed English tends to follow, and the rules seem to make words easier to pronounce.
It only tends to follow them. Exceptions abound; that is not a problem for the exceptions, but for the rules. An exception is not something that fails to obey the rule, it is something the rule failed to explain.
I think that not all, but a lot of the causality is the other way around: whatever your native language does is easier for you.