Information AboutEpenthesis |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EPENTHESIS | |
| phonotactics | |
| phonology | |
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EPENTHESIS OF A CONSONANT, OR EXCRESCENCE See Also: Linking consonant Liaison (French) As a historical sound change
As a grammatical rule In French , the letter "t" is inserted in inverted interrogative phrases between a verb ending in a vowel and a pronoun beginning with a vowel, such as in "y a-t-il" (meaning "is there...?"). As a poetic device
In informal speech
EPENTHESIS OF A VOWEL, OR ANAPTYXIS Epenthesis of a vowel, or anaptyxis (ανάπτυξής, "growth" in Greek), is also known by the Sanskrit term "svarabhakti". As a historical sound change In the middle of a word
Elsewhere
As a poetic device A comic example in an English song is "The Umbrella Man", where the Meter requires "umbrella" to be pronounced with four syllables, ''um-buh-rel-la,'' so that "any umbrellas" has the meter ''ány úmberéllas.'' This also occurs in Rihanna 's #1 single Umbrella . As a grammatical rule In Linguistics , epenthesis generally breaks up a Consonant Cluster or vowel sequence that is not permitted by the Phonotactics of a language. Regular or semiregular epenthesis commonly occurs in languages which use Affix es. For example, a Schwa (or in RP an ) is inserted before the English plural suffix and the past tense suffix when the root ends in a similar consonant: ''glass'' → ''glasses'' or or and ''bat'' → ''batted'' or . Vocalic epenthesis typically occurs when words are borrowed from a language that has consonant clusters or Syllable Coda s that are not permitted in the borrowing language, though this is not always the cause. Languages use various vowels for this purpose, though schwa is quite common when it is available. For example,
In informal speech Epenthesis most often occurs within unfamiliar or complex consonant clusters. For example, the name ''Dwight'' is commonly pronounced with an epenthetic schwa between the and the , and many speakers insert schwa between the /l/ and /t/ of ''realtor''. 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 to be found in the chants of England football fans in which England is usually rendered as , or the pronunciation of "athlete" as "ath-e-lete", or of "nuclear" as "nucular". In Finnish
In standard Finnish, consonant clusters may not be broken by epenthetic vowels; foreign words undergo consonant deletion rather than addition of vowels. However, modern loans may not end in consonants. Even if the word, such as a personal name, is not loaned, a Paragogic Vowel is needed to connect a consonantal case ending to the word. The vowel is , e.g. ''(Inter)net'' → ''netti'', or in the case of personal name, ''Bush'' + ''-sta'' → ''Bushista'' "about Bush". Finnish has ''. (An exception is that in Pohjanmaa, ''-lj-'' and ''-rj-'' become ''-li-'' and ''-ri-'', respectively, e.g. ''kirja'' → ''kiria''. Also, in a small region in Savo, the vowel is used in the same role.) In Japanese
Certain word compounds show an epenthetic /w/. One example is ''bawai'' (場合, situation) which is a combination of ''ba'' (場, place) and ''ai'' (合い, to meet). It must be noted however that ''bawai'' is not considered standard Japanese pronunciation, in standard Japanese it is pronounced /ba.ai/ or /ba:i/ and only some dialects insert a /w/. RELATED PHENOMENA
SEE ALSO
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