Lisa Davidson I am now an assistant professor in the Linguistics Department at New York University. Please see my new website at NYU.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright comes calling
By Christopher P. Winner

Nearly four years ago in addressing the U.S. Senate, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright coined a memorable phrase whose delicious alliteration and ambitious geopolitical scope helped distinguish the tough, Czech-born intellectual from her Cold War predecessors. It was called the "consonant cluster clause."

It would be a serious error, she told the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to assume that the United States would assist only those peoples whose cities it could literally pronounce -- "Strasbourg but not Szczecyn, Barcelona but not Brno," she said.

This page last modified September 3, 2003.

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