pronounced as /notice/
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the first syllable (prothesis), the last syllable (paragoge), or between two syllabic sounds in a word. The opposite process in which one or more sounds are removed is referred to as syncope or elision.[1]
The word epenthesis comes from and en- and thesis . Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence for the addition of a consonant, and for the addition of a vowel, svarabhakti (in Sanskrit) or alternatively anaptyxis .
Epenthesis arises for a variety of reasons. The phonotactics of a given language may discourage vowels in hiatus or consonant clusters, and a consonant or vowel may be added to help pronunciation. Epenthesis may be represented in writing, or it may be a feature only of the spoken language.
A consonant may be added to separate vowels in hiatus, as is the case with linking and intrusive R in English.
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 and the other is alveolar).
A vowel may be placed between consonants to separate them.
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.
See also: Sandhi, Linking and intrusive R and Liaison (French). Excrescence is the epenthesis of a consonant.
In French, French: -t- pronounced as //t// is inserted between an inverted subject and verb, when the verb ends in a vowel and the subject is a pronoun beginning with a vowel: French: il a ('he has') > French: a-t-il ('has he'); French: elle s'exclama ('she exclaimed') > French: s'exclama-t-elle ('exclaimed she'). There is no epenthesis from a historical perspective since the French: a-t is derived from Latin Latin: habet ('he/she has'), and so the French: t is the original third-person verb inflection. It is incorrect to call it epenthesis unless it is viewed synchronically since the modern basic form of the verb is French: a and so the psycholinguistic process is the addition of French: t to the base form.
A similar example is the English indefinite article a, which becomes an before a vowel. It originated from Old English, 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 (though incorrectly) 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 Dutch; Flemish: -d- is inserted in between. For example, the comparative form of the adjective is, but the comparative of is and not the expected **Dutch; Flemish: zurer. Similarly, the agent noun of is, but the agent noun of is .
In English, a stop consonant is often added as a transitional sound between the parts of a nasal + fricative sequence:
The three short syllables in Latin: reliquiās do not fit into dactylic hexameter because of the dactyl'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.
A limited number of words in Japanese use epenthetic consonants to separate vowels. An example is the word, a compound of and in which an pronounced as //s// is added to separate the final pronounced as //u// of and the initial pronounced as //a// of . That is a synchronic analysis, looking just at the modern language.
As for a diachronic analysis, looking at historical change, this epenthetic pronounced as //s// only appears in a small number of compounds coined mostly in Old Japanese, and only applying to a handful of words used as the second element in such compounds. For examples like,, and, one possibility is that Old Japanese /ame2/ was once pronounced */same2/; the pronounced as //s// appearing in these compounds would then be not epenthetic but simply an archaic pronunciation. This is the case for the apparent (but not actually) (second) epenthetic pronounced as //s// in, which is instead from Old Japanese, from the intensifier plus merging of the pronounced as //a// in sa- and the following pronounced as //a// in awo .
Epenthesis of a vowel is known as anaptyxis (from Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀνάπτυξις). 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.
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 pronounced as //ə// was added when final non-open vowels were dropped leaving pronounced as //Cr// clusters at the end, e.g., Latin '(shiny) black' > *pronounced as /[ˈneɡro]/ > Old French pronounced as //ˈneɡrə// 'black' (thus avoiding the impermissible pronounced as //neɡr//, cf. > 'cart').
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 pronounced as //ˈʔaləb// 'heart' corresponds to Modern Standard Arabic Arabic: قلب|rtl=yes pronounced as //qalb// and Egyptian Arabic pronounced as //ʔælb//. In the development of Old English, Proto-Germanic 'field, acre' would have ended up with an impermissible pronounced as //kr// final cluster, so it was resolved by inserting an pronounced as //e// before the rhotic consonant: (cf. the use of a syllabic consonant in Gothic).
Vowel insertion in the middle of a word can be observed in the history of the Slavic languages, which had a preference for open syllables in medieval times. An example of this is the Proto-Slavic form Slavic languages: *gordŭ 'town', in which the East Slavic languages inserted an epenthetic copy vowel to open the closed syllable, resulting in городъ, which became in modern Russian. Other Slavic languages used metathesis for the vowel and the syllable-final consonant, producing *grodŭ in this case, as seen in Polish Polish: gród, Old Church Slavonic, Serbo-Croatian grad and Czech Czech: hrad.
In many West Germanic language varieties (such as Dutch (including local Brabantian and Hollandic dialects), Limburgish, Luxembourgish and Ripuarian), a phonetic pronounced as /[ə]/ is inserted between pronounced as //l// or pronounced as //r// and labial or velar pronounced as //m, p, k, f, x// (also pronounced as //n//, in the case of the preceding pronounced as //r//). This leads to Dutch Dutch; Flemish: kalm 'calm' being pronounced pronounced as /[ˈkɑləm]/, Limburgish Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: sjolk 'apron' being pronounced pronounced as /[ˈʃɔlək]/, Luxembourgish Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch: Vollek 'people' being pronounced pronounced as /[ˈfolək]/ (from Old High German German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: folc, a monosyllable) and Ripuarian Dörp 'village' being pronounced pronounced as /[ˈdœʁəp]/. The city names Bergen op Zoom and Utrecht as pronounced by locals can be spelled Berrege and Utereg in eye dialect. The exact details vary depending on the language and dialect, with some dialects (such as many dialects of Limburgish) permitting the addition across syllable boundaries (but not morpheme boundaries) and others restricting it to the syllable coda (such as Standard Dutch). This unetymological schwa is never written in Standard Dutch, but is usually written in Luxembourgish. In Limburgish and Ripuarian, the practices vary as there is not one standard orthography.
| Anaptyxis of the schwa in Dutch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Phonemic sequence | In closed syllables (standard) | Across syllable boundaries (dialectal) | |
| pronounced as //lm// | Dutch; Flemish: kalm pronounced as /[ˈkɑləm]/ 'calm' | Dutch; Flemish: kalmer pronounced as /[ˈkɑləmər]/ 'calmer' | |
| pronounced as //lp// | Dutch; Flemish: alp pronounced as /[ˈɑləp]/ 'alp' | Dutch; Flemish: alpen pronounced as /[ˈɑləpə(n)]/ 'alps' | |
| pronounced as //lk// | Dutch; Flemish: balk pronounced as /[ˈbɑlək]/ 'beam' | Dutch; Flemish: balken pronounced as /[ˈbɑləkə(n)]/ 'beams' | |
| pronounced as //lf ~ lv// | Dutch; Flemish: kalf pronounced as /[ˈkɑləf]/ 'calf' | Dutch; Flemish: kalven pronounced as /[ˈkɑləvə(n)]/ 'calves' | |
| pronounced as //lx// (Northern) | Dutch; Flemish: balg pronounced as /[ˈbɑləx]/ 'leather bag' | Dutch; Flemish: balgen pronounced as /[ˈbɑləxə(n)]/ 'leather bags' | |
| pronounced as //lx ~ lɣ// (Southern) | Dutch; Flemish: balgen pronounced as /[ˈbɑləɣə(n)]/ 'leather bags' | ||
| pronounced as //rm// | Dutch; Flemish: darm pronounced as /[ˈdɑrəm]/ 'intestine' | Dutch; Flemish: darmen pronounced as /[ˈdɑrəmə(n)]/ 'intestines' | |
| pronounced as //rp// | Dutch; Flemish: harp pronounced as /[ˈɦɑrəp]/ 'harp' | Dutch; Flemish: harpen pronounced as /[ˈɦɑrəpə(n)]/ 'harps' | |
| pronounced as //rk// | Dutch; Flemish: park pronounced as /[ˈpɑrək]/ 'park' | Dutch; Flemish: parken pronounced as /[ˈpɑrəkə(n)]/ 'parks' | |
| pronounced as //rf ~ rv// | Dutch; Flemish: kerf pronounced as /[ˈkɛrəf]/ 'carve' | Dutch; Flemish: kerven pronounced as /[ˈkɛrəvə(n)]/ 'carves' | |
| pronounced as //rx// (Northern) | Dutch; Flemish: berg pronounced as /[ˈbɛrəx]/ 'mountain' | Dutch; Flemish: bergen pronounced as /[ˈbɛrəxə(n)]/ 'mountains' | |
| pronounced as //rx ~ rɣ// (Southern) | Dutch; Flemish: bergen pronounced as /[ˈbɛrəɣə(n)]/ 'mountains' | ||
| pronounced as //rn// | Dutch; Flemish: kern pronounced as /[ˈkɛrən]/ 'nucleus' | Dutch; Flemish: kernen pronounced as /[ˈkɛrənə(n)]/ 'nuclei' | |
Dialects with both types of anaptyxis regularize the schwa-insertion, making it phonemic: pronounced as //ˈkɑləm//, pronounced as //ˈkɑləmər//, etc. comparably to the GOAT split in London English (except that no new phoneme is created, as pronounced as //ə// already exists in Dutch as a phoneme). In those dialects, schwa insertion also occurs between pronounced as //l// or pronounced as //r// on the one hand and pronounced as //v// or pronounced as //ɣ// on the other. Most speakers with a hard G do not have pronounced as //ɣ// as a phoneme in their system; thus, broad Amsterdam and Utrecht pronunciations of balgen and bergen are pronounced as //ˈbɑləxə//, pronounced as //ˈbɛrəxə//, with no change in the voicing of the fricative. pronounced as //ˈbɑləɣə// and pronounced as //ˈbɛrəɣə// are markedly southern (Brabantian/Limburgish-influenced) dialectal pronunciations. Anaptyxis does not occur across morpheme boundaries, so that while the surname Dutch; Flemish: Voorn can be pronounced pronounced as /[ˈvoːrən]/, the noun/verb Dutch; Flemish: voornemen pronounced as /[ˈvoːrˌneːmə(n)]/ 'intention', 'to intend' is never pronounced *pronounced as /[ˈvoːrəˌneːmə(n)]/.
In Irish and Scottish English (also West Germanic varieties), anaptyxis famously occurs in words such as 'film' pronounced as /[ˈfɪləm]/, spelled 'fillum' in eye dialect.
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, are regularly broken up: Middle Persian 'brother' > modern Iranian Persian برادر|rtl=yes pronounced as //bærɑˈdær//, Middle Persian 'column' > Early New Persian Persian: ستون|rtl=yes > modern Iranian Persian ستون|rtl=yes pronounced as //soˈtun//.
In Spanish, as a phonetic detail, it is usual to find a schwa vowel in sequences of a consonant followed by a flap. For instance, Spanish; Castilian: vinagre 'vinegar' may be pronounced as /[biˈnaɣɾe]/ but also pronounced as /[biˈnaɣᵊɾe]/.
Many Indo-Aryan languages carry an inherent vowel after each consonant. For example, in Assamese, the inherent vowel is "o", while in Hindi and Marathi, it is "a" . Sanskrit words like,,,,, etc. become (>), (>), (>), (>), (>), (>) etc. in Assamese.[2] Other, non-Tatsama words also undergo anaptyxis, for example, the English word glass becomes .
In the Western Romance languages, a prothetic vowel was inserted at the beginning of any word that began with pronounced as //s// and another consonant, e.g. Latin Latin: spatha 'two-edged sword, typically used by cavalry' becomes the normal word for 'sword' in Romance languages with an inserted pronounced as //e//: Spanish/Portuguese Spanish; Castilian: espada, Catalan Catalan; Valencian: espasa, Old French French, Old (842-ca.1400);: espede > modern French: épée (see also 'swordfish').
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:
Similarly, at some point in the Proto-Armenian language and Classical Armenian, the prothetic vowel was placed at the beginning of the word before the sound, leading to words like from Iranian, or from Iranian .
Epenthesis often breaks up a consonant cluster or vowel sequence that is not permitted by the phonotactics of a language. Regular or semi-regular epenthesis commonly occurs in languages with affixes. For example, a reduced vowel pronounced as //ɪ// or pronounced as //ə// (here abbreviated as pronounced as //ᵻ//) is inserted before the English plural suffix pronounced as /-/z// and the past tense suffix pronounced as /-/d// when the root ends in a similar consonant: glass → glasses pronounced as //ˈɡlæsᵻz// or pronounced as //ˈɡlɑːsᵻz//; bat → batted pronounced as //ˈbætᵻd//. However, this is a synchronic analysis as the vowel was originally present in the suffix but has been lost in most words.
Vocalic epenthesis typically occurs when words are borrowed from a language that has consonant clusters or syllable codas that are not permitted in the borrowing language.
Languages use various vowels, but schwa is quite common when it is available:
Epenthesis most often occurs within unfamiliar or complex consonant clusters. For example, in English, the name Dwight is commonly pronounced with an epenthetic schwa between the pronounced as //d// and the pronounced as //w// (pronounced as /[dəˈwaɪt]/), and many speakers insert a schwa between the pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //t// of realtor.[3] Irish English and Scottish English are some of the dialects that may insert a schwa between pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //m// in words like film (pronounced as /[ˈfɪləm]/) under the influence of Celtic languages, a phenomenon that also occurs in Indian English due to the influence of Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi.
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 football fans in which England is usually rendered as pronounced as /[ˈɪŋɡələnd]/ or the pronunciation of athlete as "ath-e-lete". Some apparent occurrences of epenthesis, however, have a separate cause: the pronunciation of nuclear as (pronounced as //ˈn(j)ukjəlɚ//) 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, pronounced as /[i]/ is sometimes inserted between consonant clusters except those with pronounced as //l// (Portuguese: atleta), pronounced as //ɾ// (Portuguese: prato) or syllable-ending pronounced as //s// (Portuguese: pasta; note syllable-final pronounced as //s// is pronounced pronounced as /[ʃ]/ in a number of dialects). Examples would be Portuguese: tsunami pronounced as //tʃisuˈnami//, Portuguese: advogado pronounced as //adʒivoˈɡadu// and Portuguese: abdômen pronounced as /[abiˈdomẽj]/. Some dialects also use pronounced as /[e]/, which is deemed as stereotypical of people from lower classes, such as those arriving from rural flight in internal migrations to cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and São Paulo.
In Finnish, there are two epenthetic vowels and two nativization vowels. One epenthetic vowel is the preceding vowel, found in the illative case ending Finnish: -(h)*n: Finnish: maa → Finnish: maahan, Finnish: talo → Finnish: taloon. The second is pronounced as /[e]/, connecting stems that have historically been consonant stems to their case endings: Finnish: nim+n → Finnish: nimen.
In Standard Finnish, consonant clusters may not be broken by epenthetic vowels; foreign words undergo consonant deletion rather than addition of vowels: Finnish: ranta 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 pronounced as //i//: Finnish: (Inter)net → Finnish: netti, or in the case of personal name, Finnish: Bush + Finnish: -sta → Finnish: Bushista (elative case).
Finnish has moraic consonants: Finnish: l, Finnish: h and Finnish: n are of interest. In Standard Finnish, they are slightly intensified before a consonant in a medial cluster: Finnish: -'''h'''j-. Some dialects, like Savo and Ostrobothnian, have epenthesis instead and use the preceding vowel in clusters of type Finnish: -l[[Consonant|C]]- and Finnish: -h[[Consonant|C]]-, in Savo also Finnish: -nh-. (In Finnish linguistics, the phenomenon is often referred to as Finnish: švaa; the same word can also mean, but it is not a phoneme in Finnish so there is usually no danger of confusion.)
For example, Finnish: Pohjanmaa → Finnish: Pohojammaa, Finnish: ryhmä → Finnish: ryhymä, and Savo Finnish: vanha → Finnish: vanaha. Ambiguities may result: Finnish: salmi vs. Finnish: [[salami]]. (An exception is that in Pohjanmaa, Finnish: -lj- and Finnish: -rj- become Finnish: -li- and Finnish: -ri-, respectively: Finnish: kirja → Finnish: kiria. Also, in a small region in Savo, pronounced as //e// is used instead.)
Lojban, a constructed language 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) 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 pronounced as /[ml]/ in the word (pronounced pronounced as /['mlatu]/) hard or impossible to pronounce, the vowel pronounced as /[ɐ]/ can be pronounced between the two consonants, resulting in the form pronounced as /[mɐˈlatu]/. Nothing changes grammatically, including the word's spelling and the syllabication.
A type of epenthesis in sign language 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.
