Dźwięki brzmiący w trzcinie - Initial Consonant Clusters

One thing I love about Polish is how permissible it is with sound combinations compared to English. In Polish you find a more diverse array of sounds, which can be evidenced by the consonant clusters that it permits at the beginning of words. Many of these are fun and awkward to pronounce for English speakers.

In his book on the Polish language, Stanisław Westfal considers some sound changes over the course of the language history that occurred due to syllables becoming impractical to pronounce. For example, the verb ufać (to trust) descends from medieval Polish pwać. Because Polish obliges voiced consonants to become voiceless if the preceding consonant is voiceless, the word was pronounced pfać and eventually became just fać for ease of pronunciation. Finally, because Polish has traditionally been uncomfortable with single-syllable verbs (dać having been the sole exception – modern Polish now has bać się, from earlier bojać się, dziać się from dziejać się, etc.), the surviving form became the derivative with the u- prefix: ufać.

Another interesting earlier consonant quandary occurred with the early Polish word for “path,” *stĭdza, which by the Middle Ages had lost the short i to make stdza, as found in the Puławy Psalter “Świece nogam moim słowo twoje, i światłość stdzam moim” (“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths”). This cluster ultimately proved too uncomfortable to survive, simplying first into śdza and then, owing to a preference for the diminutive, modern-day ścieżka.

Despite these adaptations in the interest of pronunciation efficiency, Polish nevertheless retains a fair amount of initial double, triple, and (rarely) quadruple consonant clusters. The learner first delving into Polish will immediately run into such foreign combinations as przepraszam “Excuse me/sorry” (prz- being very common), gdzie “where” and dnia “day” (gen), while in my case I had a great time driving to work repeating chciałbym “I would like” over and over until I got that initial sound down. Once you do, you recognize what a smooth elocution it actually is. 

For the love of Polish phonotactics, I’ve decided to make a list of all the notable initial clusters I’ve come across in my studies, which provides a good sample of tricky ones for the English (or pretty much any non-Slavic language) speaker. In most of these examples, the initial sounds only occur in the given word or derivations of it. Note, of course, that ch, ci, cz, rz, dź, dż, sz, trz, and zi represent single sounds, so should be counted as single consonants.  

brzdęk – clink

brzmieć – to sound

chrześcijanin - Christian

czcić – to revere, worship
na czczo - on an empty stomach
drzwi - door (pl.)

dzbanek – pitcher; tea kettle
dzwon – bell

dźwięk – noise, sound

dżdżisty - rainy/drizzly

grzbiet – spine, ridge

klnij – curse (imper.)

krnąbrny - defiant

krtań – larynx

krwi – blood (gen.)
krzyk - scream

lśnić - to glitter, shine 
lżejszy – lighter (than)

łgarz - liar

łkać – to sob
łzy - tears

mgła - fog, mist

w mgnieniu oka - in the blink of an eye

mścić - to avenge

pchła – flea 

pchnąć – to push
płci - gender (gen.)

pszczoła – bee

ssak - mammal

szczegół – detail (a rather common pair)

rtęć – mercury (element)

rwać – to tear

tchnąć - to breathe

tkać - to weave 

tknąć – to touch

tlen – oxygen

trwać – to endure, continue

trzcina – reed
wdech - inhalation
wrzask – noise, racket

wschód - east

współpracować – to collaborate

wwóz - importation

wzrok - sight, vision

wzgląd – look, regard (a favorite of mine: bez względu, regardless)

zdmuchnąć – to puff/blow out

źdźbło – blade of grass

zgniły – rotten

zza - beyond

zziębnąć – to be cold
zżyty - accustomed to

One thing that makes these relatively easy to form is the tendency to prefix words with w- (connoting "in/into") and z- ("with" or "from"), and so I'm sure there are several interesting ones I've missed. Please feel free to add to this list in the comments!