A domain of speech sciences (viz., phonology) thatfocuses on the freedoms and restrictions in a given language on permissible combinations ofvowels and consonants in syllables and words (e.g, types of consonantcombinations for clusters in English such that mb never occurs, but does so in Irish). All told, language-related phonotatics dictate which sounds precede and follow each other, whether or not a language has syllable consonants (and which ones), and which sounds can occur in a syllable coda. Interest in the cross-linguistic variation in syllablic structure has given rise to the World Phonotactics Database, which provides data on phonotactic patterns across more 2000 languages and a further 1700 for segmental data. Findings related to 2-3 year-olds indicates that at this age, children are already attuned the phonotactic structure of English, and that such sensitivity increases with development.
See Phonology, Statistical learning, Syllabic structure, Syllables