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phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''
paragoge Paragoge (; from grc-gre, παραγωγή ''additional'': παρα- prefix ''para-'' 'extra', ἀγωγή ''agogē'' 'bringing in') is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. Often caused by nativization, it is a type of epenthesis, most ...
'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenthesis'' comes from "in addition to" and ''en-'' "in" and ''thesis'' "putting". Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence for the addition of a
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...
, and for the addition of a
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
, svarabhakti (in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
,
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
and other North Indian languages, stemming from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
) or alternatively anaptyxis (). The opposite process, where one or more sounds are removed, is referred to as
elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
.


Uses

Epenthesis arises for a variety of reasons. The phonotactics of a given language may discourage vowels in
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...
or
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s, and a consonant or vowel may be added to make pronunciation easier. Epenthesis may be represented in writing, or it may be a feature only of the spoken language.


Separating vowels

A consonant may be added to separate vowels in hiatus, as is the case with linking and intrusive R in English. *''drawing'' → ''draw-r-ing''


Bridging consonant clusters

A consonant may be placed between consonants in a consonant cluster where the place of articulation is different (such as if one consonant is
labial The term ''labial'' originates from '' Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), and is the adjective that describes anything of or related to lips, such as lip-like structures. Thus, it may refer to: * the lips ** In linguistics, a labial consonant ** In zoolog ...
and the other is alveolar). * ''something'' → ''somepthing'' *'' hamster'' → ''hampster'' * ''*a-mrotos'' → ''ambrotos'' (see
below Below may refer to: *Earth * Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname *Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general *Fred Below ...
)


Breaking consonant clusters

A vowel may be placed between consonants to separate them. *'' Hamtramck'' → ''Hamtramick''


Other contexts

While epenthesis most often occurs between two vowels or two consonants, it can also occur between a vowel and a consonant or at the ends of words. For example, the Japanese prefix transforms regularly to when it is followed by a consonant, as in . The English suffix , often found in the form , as in (from + ), is an example of terminal excrescence.


Excrescence

Excrescence is the epenthesis of a consonant.


Historical sound change

*
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
> French ("to tremble") *
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
> English ''thunder'' * French , > English ''messenger'', ''passenger'' * French , > Portuguese , *(Reconstructed)
Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...
> Old English , Old Saxon ("to sow") *(Reconstructed) Proto-Greek >
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
("immortal"; cf. ''
ambrosia In the ancient Greek myths, ''ambrosia'' (, grc, ἀμβροσία 'immortality'), the food or drink of the Greek gods, is often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus ...
'') *Latin > ''homne'' > ''homre'' > Spanish ("man")


Synchronic rule

In
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, is inserted in inverted interrogative phrases between a verb ending in a vowel and a pronoun beginning with a vowel: ('he has') > ('has he?'). There is no epenthesis from a historical perspective since the is derived from Latin ('he has'), and so the is the original third-person verb inflection. However, it is correct to call it epenthesis when viewed synchronically since the modern basic form of the verb is and so the psycholinguistic process is therefore the addition of to the base form. A similar example is the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
indefinite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...
''a'', which becomes ''an'' before a vowel. It originated from
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
("one, a, an"), which retained an ''n'' in all positions, so a diachronic analysis would see the original ''n'' disappearing except if a following vowel required its retention: ''an'' > ''a''. However, a synchronic analysis, in keeping with the perception of most native speakers, would (equally correctly) see it as epenthesis: ''a'' > ''an''. In Dutch, whenever the suffix (which has several meanings) is attached to a word already ending in ''-r'', an additional is inserted in between. For example, the comparative form of the adjective ("sweet") is , but the comparative of ("sour") is and not the expected **. Similarly, the agent noun of ("to sell") is ("salesperson"), but the agent noun of ("to perform") is ("performer").


Variable rule

In English, a
stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), li ...
is often added as a transitional sound between the parts of a nasal + fricative sequence: *English ''hamster'' often pronounced with an added ''p'' sound, GA: or RP: *English ''warmth'' often pronounced with an added ''p'' sound, GA: or RP: *English ''fence'' often pronounced


Poetic device

*Latin "remnants, survivors" (accusative plural) > poetic The three short syllables in do not fit into
dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable ...
because of the
dactyl Dactyl may refer to: * Dactyl (mythology), a legendary being * Dactyl (poetry), a metrical unit of verse * Dactyl Foundation, an arts organization * Finger, a part of the hand * Dactylus, part of a decapod crustacean * "-dactyl", a suffix u ...
's limit of two short syllables so the first syllable is lengthened by adding another ''l''. However, the pronunciation was often not written with double ''ll'', and may have been the normal way of pronouncing a word starting in ''rel-'' rather than a poetic modification.


In Japanese

A limited number of words in Japanese use epenthetic consonants to separate vowels. An example is the word , a compound of ''haru'' and ''ame'' in which an is added to separate the final of ''haru'' and the initial of ''ame''. That is a ''synchronic'' analysis. As for a diachronic (historical) analysis, since epenthetic consonants are not used regularly in modern Japanese, the epenthetic could be from Old Japanese. It is also possible that Old Japanese /ame2/ was once pronounced */same2/; the would then be not epenthetic but simply an archaic pronunciation. Another example is . A complex example of epenthesis is , from + . It exhibits epenthesis on both morphemes: → is common (occurring before a consonant), and → occurs only in the example; it can be analyzed as → (intervocalic) → ; akin to from + . One
hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...
argues that Japanese developed "as a default, epenthetic consonant in the intervocalic position".


Anaptyxis

Epenthesis of a vowel is known as anaptyxis (, from Greek "unfolding"). Some accounts distinguish between "intrusive" optional vowels, vowel-like releases of consonants as phonetic detail, and true epenthetic vowels that are required by the phonotactics of the language and are acoustically identical with phonemic vowels.


Historical sound change


End of word

Many languages insert a so-called ''prop vowel'' at the end of a word, often as a result of the common sound change where vowels at the end of a word are deleted. For example, in the Gallo-Romance languages, a prop
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
/ə/ was added when final non-open vowels were dropped leaving /Cr/ clusters at the end, e.g. Latin ''nigrum'' '(shiny) black' > * >
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
''negre'' 'black' (thus avoiding the impermissible , cf. ''carrum'' > ''char'' 'cart').


Middle of word

Similarly as above, a vowel may be inserted in the middle of a word to resolve an impermissible word-final consonant cluster. An example of this can be found in Lebanese Arabic, where /ˈʔalɪb/ 'heart' corresponds to
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
/qalb/ and
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
/ʔælb/. In the development of
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...
,
Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...
'field, acre' would have ended up with an impermissible final cluster (*''æcr''), so it was resolved by inserting an /e/ before the
rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. The ...
: (cf. the use of a
syllabic consonant A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''bottle''. To represent it, the understroke diacrit ...
in
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
). Vowel insertion in the middle of a word can be observed in the history of the
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
, which had a preference for
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
s in medieval times. An example of this is the Proto-Slavic form 'town', in which the East Slavic languages inserted an epenthetic copy vowel to open the
closed syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
, resulting in (), which became () in modern Russian and Ukrainian. Other Slavic languages used metathesis for the vowel and the syllable-final consonant, producing *''grodŭ'' in this case, as seen in Polish ,
Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and othe ...
градъ ''gradŭ'', Serbo-Croatian and Czech . Another environment can be observed in the history of Modern Persian, in which former word-initial consonant clusters, which were still extant in
Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...
, are regularly broken up: Middle Persian ''brādar'' 'brother' > modern
Iranian Persian Iranian Persian, Western Persian or Western Farsi, natively simply known as Persian (, ), refers to the varieties of the modern Persian language spoken in Iran and by minorities in neighboring countries, as well as by Iranian communities th ...
, Middle Persian ''stūn'' 'column' > Early New Persian > modern Iranian Persian . In Spanish, as a phonetic detail, it is usual to find a
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
vowel in sequences of a consonant followed by a flap. For instance, 'vinegar' may be but also . Many Indo-Aryan languages carry an inherent vowel after each consonant. For example, in Assamese, the inherent vowel is "o" (অ), while in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
and Marathi, it is "a" (अ). Sanskrit words like "maaŋsa" (meat, মাংস), "ratna" (jewel, ৰত্ন), "yatna" (effort, যত্ন), "padma" (lotus, পদ্ম), "harsha" (joy, হৰ্ষ), "dvaara" ("door", দ্বাৰ) etc. become "moŋoh" (মাংস > মঙহ), "roton" (ৰত্ন > ৰতন), "zoton" (যত্ন > যতন), "podum" (পদ্ম > পদুম), "horix" (হৰ্ষ > হৰিষ), "duwar" (দ্বাৰ > দুৱাৰ) etc. in Assamese. Other, non-
Tatsama Tatsama ( sa, तत्सम , lit. 'same as that') are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indo-Aryan languages like Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Hindi, Gujarati, and Sinhala and in Dravidian languages like Malayalam and Telugu. ...
words also undergo anaptyxis, for example, the English word "glass" becomes "gilas" (গিলাছ).


Beginning of word

In the Western Romance languages, a prothetic vowel was inserted at the beginning of any word that began with and another consonant, e.g. Latin 'two-edged sword, typically used by cavalry' becomes the normal word for 'sword' in Romance languages with an inserted : Spanish/Portuguese , Catalan , Old French > modern (see also '
swordfish Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordf ...
'). French in fact presents three layers in the vocabulary in which initial vowel epenthesis is or is not applied, depending on the time a word came into the language: * insertion of epenthetic in inherited and commonly-used learned and semi-learned words, which then drop the following after the medieval period: Latin >
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
> modern 'star', > Old French > modern 'study', > OF > modern 'school' * insertion of and keeping in learned words borrowed during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
or the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
: > , > * then in the modern period, is not inserted and uncommon old learned borrowings are remolded to look more like Latin: > , > , > learned Old French > remolded to modern


Grammatical rule

Epenthesis often breaks up a
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
or vowel sequence that is not permitted by the phonotactics of a language. Regular or semi-regular epenthesis commonly occurs in languages with
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...
es. For example, a
reduced vowel In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language), and which are pe ...
or (here abbreviated as ) is inserted before the English plural suffix and the past tense suffix when the root ends in a similar consonant: ''glass'' → ''glasses'' or ; ''bat'' → ''batted'' . However, this is a
synchronic Synchronic may refer to: * ''Synchronic'' (film), a 2019 American science fiction film starring Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie * Synchronic analysis, the analysis of a language at a specific point of time * Synchronicity, the experience of two or ...
analysis as the vowel was originally present in the suffix but has been lost in most words.


Borrowed words

Vocalic epenthesis typically occurs when words are borrowed from a language that has consonant clusters or
syllable coda A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
s that are not permitted in the borrowing language. Languages use various vowels, but schwa is quite common when it is available: *
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
uses a single vowel, the
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
(pronounced in Israeli Hebrew). * Japanese generally uses except after and , when it uses , and after , when it uses an
echo vowel An echo vowel, also known as a synharmonic vowel, is a paragogic vowel that repeats the final vowel in a word in speech. For example, in Chumash, when a word ends with a glottal stop and comes at the end of an intonation unit, the final vowel ...
. For example, English ''cap'' becomes in Japanese; English ''street'', ; the Dutch name , ; and the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
name , . * Korean uses in most cases. is used after borrowed , , , , or , although may also be used after borrowed depending on the source language. is used when is followed by a consonant or when a syllable ends with . For example, English ''strike'' becomes , with three epenthetic vowels and a split of English diphthong into two syllables. *
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
uses , which, in most dialects, triggers palatalization of a preceding or : ''nerd'' > ; ''stress'' > ; ''McDonald's'' > with normal vocalization of to . Most speakers pronounce borrowings with spelling pronunciations, and others try to approximate the nearest equivalents in Portuguese of the phonemes in the original language. The word ''stress'' became '' estresse'' as in the example above. *
Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
does not allow clusters at the beginning of a word, and typically uses to break up such clusters in borrowings: Latin > 'street'. In
Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also re ...
and
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
, copy vowels are often used as well, e.g. English/French ''
klaxon A horn is a sound-making device that can be equipped to motor vehicles, buses, bicycles, trains, trams (otherwise known as streetcars in North America), and other types of vehicles. The sound made usually resembles a "honk" (older vehicles) o ...
'' (car horn) > Egyptian Arabic كلكس 'car horn', but note French ''blouse'' > Egyptian Arabic بلوزة (where corresponds to MSA ). Many other modern varieties such as
North Levantine Arabic North Levantine Arabic ( ar, اللهجة الشامية الشمالية, al-lahja š-šāmiyya š-šamāliyya, North Levantine Arabic: ) is a subdivision of Levantine Arabic, a variety of Arabic. It stems from the north in Turkey, specifica ...
and
Moroccan Arabic Moroccan Arabic ( ar, العربية المغربية الدارجة, translit=al-ʻArabīya al-Maghribīya ad-Dārija ), also known as Darija (), is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghre ...
allow word-initial clusters however. * Persian also does not allow clusters at the beginning of a word and typically uses to break up such clusters in borrowings except between and , when is added. * Spanish does not allow clusters at the beginning of a word with an in them and adds ''e-'' to such words: Latin > , English ''stress'' > . * Turkish prefixes
close vowel A close vowel, also known as a high vowel (in U.S. terminology), is any in a class of vowel sounds used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of th ...
s to loanwords with
initial In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph tha ...
cluster may refer to: Science and technology Astronomy * Cluster (spacecraft), constellation of four European Space Agency spacecraft * Asteroid cluster, a small asteroid family * Cluster II (spacecraft), a European Space Agency mission to study th ...
s of alveolar
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s followed by another consonant: < Greek (), < ''set screw'', < Greek (), < Byzantine Greek (), < ''steamboat'', < ''Scotland'', < Greek (), < Greek (). The practice is no longer productive as of late 20th century and a few such words have changed back: < < French .


Informal speech

Epenthesis most often occurs within unfamiliar or complex consonant clusters. For example, in English, the name ''Dwight'' is commonly pronounced with an epenthetic
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
between the and the (), and many speakers insert a schwa between the and of ''realtor''.
Irish English Hiberno-English (from Latin language, Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Repub ...
and
Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standa ...
are some of the dialects that may insert a schwa between and in words like ''film'' () under the influence of
Celtic languages The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
, a phenomenon that also occurs in
Indian English Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. ...
due to the influence of
Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, P ...
like
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
. Epenthesis is sometimes used for humorous or childlike effect. For example, the cartoon character Yogi Bear says "pic-a-nic basket" for ''picnic basket''. Another example is found in the chants of
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
football fans in which England is usually rendered as or the pronunciation of ''athlete'' as "ath-e-lete". Some apparent occurrences of epenthesis, however, have a separate cause: the pronunciation of ''nuclear'' as ' () in some North American dialects arises out of analogy with other -''cular'' words (''binocular'', ''particular'', etc.) rather than from epenthesis. In colloquial registers of Brazilian Portuguese, is sometimes inserted between consonant clusters except those with (), () or syllable-ending (; note syllable-final is pronounced in a number of dialects). Examples would be , and . Some dialects also use , which is deemed as stereotypical of people from lower classes, such as those arriving from
rural flight Rural flight (or rural exodus) is the migratory pattern of peoples from rural areas into urban areas. It is urbanization seen from the rural perspective. In industrializing economies like Britain in the eighteenth century or East Asia in th ...
in internal migrations to cities such as
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
,
Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
and
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...
.


In Finnish

In Finnish, there are two epenthetic vowels and two nativization vowels. One epenthetic vowel is the preceding vowel, found in the illative case ending : → , → . The second is , connecting stems that have historically been consonant stems to their case endings: → . In Standard Finnish, consonant clusters may not be broken by epenthetic vowels; foreign words undergo consonant deletion rather than addition of vowels: ("shore") from Proto-Germanic . However, modern loans may not end in consonants. Even if the word, such as a personal name, is native, a paragogic vowel is needed to connect a consonantal case ending to the word. The vowel is : → , or in the case of personal name, + → "about Bush" ( elative case). Finnish has moraic consonants: , and are of interest. In Standard Finnish, they are slightly intensified before a consonant in a medial cluster: . Some dialects, like Savo and Ostrobothnian, have epenthesis instead and use the preceding vowel in clusters of type and , in Savo also . (In Finnish linguistics, the phenomenon is often referred to as ; the same word can also mean schwa, but it is not a
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
in Finnish so there is usually no danger of confusion.) For example, "Ostrobothnia" → , → , and Savo → . Ambiguities may result: "strait" vs. . (An exception is that in Pohjanmaa, and become and , respectively: → . Also, in a small region in Savo, is used instead.)


In constructed languages

Lojban Lojban (pronounced ) is a logical, constructed, human language created by the Logical Language Group which aims to be syntactically unambigious. It succeeds the Loglan project. The Logical Language Group (LLG) began developing Lojban in 198 ...
, a
constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...
that seeks logically-oriented grammatical and phonological structures, uses a number of consonant clusters in its words. Since it is designed to be as universal as possible, it allows a type of anaptyxis called "buffering" to be used if a speaker finds a cluster difficult or impossible to pronounce. A vowel sound that is nonexistent in Lojban (usually /ɪ/ as in "hit") is added between two consonants to make the word easier to pronounce. Despite altering the phonetics of a word, the use of buffering is completely ignored by grammar. Also, the vowel sound used must not be confused with any existing Lojban vowel. An example of buffering in Lojban is that if a speaker finds the cluster in the word ("cat") (pronounced ) hard or impossible to pronounce, the vowel can be pronounced between the two consonants, resulting in the form . Nothing changes grammatically, including the word's spelling and the syllabication.


In sign language

A type of epenthesis in
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign ...
is known as "movement epenthesis" and occurs, most commonly, during the boundary between signs while the hands move from the posture required by the first sign to that required by the next.


Related phenomena

* Prothesis: the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word *
Paragoge Paragoge (; from grc-gre, παραγωγή ''additional'': παρα- prefix ''para-'' 'extra', ἀγωγή ''agogē'' 'bringing in') is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. Often caused by nativization, it is a type of epenthesis, most ...
: the addition of a sound to the end of a word * Infixation: the insertion of a
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...
within a word * Tmesis: the inclusion of a whole word within another one * Metathesis: the reordering of sounds within a word


See also

* Assibilation *
Assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...
* Coarticulation ( Co-articulated consonant,
Secondary articulation In phonetics, secondary articulation occurs when the articulation of a consonant is equivalent to the combined articulations of two or three simpler consonants, at least one of which is an approximant. The secondary articulation of such co-articu ...
) *
Consonant harmony Consonant harmony is a type of "long-distance" phonological assimilation, akin to the similar assimilatory process involving vowels, i.e. vowel harmony. Examples In Athabaskan languages One of the more common harmony processes is ''coronal harm ...
* Crasis *
Dissimilation In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such as /r ...
*
Labialisation Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involv ...
* Language game * Lenition * Metathesis * Palatalization *
Pharyngealisation Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated b ...
*
Sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
* Velarization *
Vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, me ...


References


Sources

* * {{cite book, isbn=978-0-19-954583-4, title=The Phonology of Japanese, last=Labrune, first=Laurence, year=2012, publisher=Oxford University Press, url=http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199545834.do, series=The Phonology of the World's Languages


External links


Definition at BYU
Phonotactics Phonology Figures of speech