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
Nativization is the process through which in the virtual absence of native speakers, a language undergoes new phonological, morphological, syntactical, semantic and stylistic changes, and gains new native speakers. This happens necessarily when a ...
, it is a type of
epenthesis, most commonly
vocalic epenthesis.
Paragoge is particularly common in
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 ...
, not only in loanwords but also in word derivation. It is also present in the accents of many Brazilians while speaking foreign languages such as
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 ide ...
.
Some languages have undergone paragoge as a
sound change, and modern forms are longer than the historical forms they are derived from. Italian ''sono'' 'I am', from Latin ''sum'', is an example. Sometimes, as above, the paragogic vowel is 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 is ...
, such as
Proto-Oceanic ''*saqat'' "bad" >
Uneapa ''zaɣata''.
In loanwords
Some languages add a sound to the end of a
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
when it would otherwise end in a forbidden sound. Some languages add a grammatical ending to the end of a loanword to make it
declinable.
Examples
*English ''rack'' →
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
;
*English ''gal'' →
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
(''
gyaru'');
*English ''golf'' →
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
Grammatical endings
*English ''
computer'' →
Latvian ;
*
Ottoman Turkish (''
rakı'') >
South Slavic ''
rakia''.
In inherited words
Paragoge can occur in the inherited words of a language as well. This is the case with many words in
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
.
Examples
*
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power of the ...
→
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
*
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 the power of the ...
''fine'' →
Catalan ''fins''
*
Proto-Oceanic ''*saqat'' "bad" > ''*saqati'' >
Tamambo ''sati''
References
Sources
*Crowley, Terry (1997): ''An Introduction to Historical Linguistics.'' 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.
*Sorbet, Piotr (2019): "El mecanismo de paragoge". In: LÓPEZ GONZÁLEZ, Antonio María, KOBYŁECKA-PIWOŃSKA, Ewa, KŁOSIŃSKA-NACHIN, Agnieszka, BARAN, Marek (eds.): ''Voces dialogantes'', Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 375-384.
Phonology
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