epenthetic
epenthetic — adjective
- epentheticpositive
- more epentheticcomparative
- most epentheticsuperlative
1. relating to an extra speech sound or written character that appears inside a wor
relating to an extra speech sound or written character that appears inside a word, either because speakers naturally add it to make pronunciation easier or because the language changed over time
Linguistics students learn about epenthetic vowels by studying how certain dialects pronounce 'film' as 'fillum'.
epenthetic + vowel: technical collocation for added vowel sounds
The 'b' in 'thimble' was originally an epenthetic consonant added between 'm' and 'l'.
epenthetic + consonant: describes an added consonant sound
Anong's research paper examined epenthetic sounds in second-language learners of English from different language backgrounds.
Mauricio heard an epenthetic vowel when his Cantonese friend said 'street' as 'si-treet'.
Historical linguists use epenthetic schwa to explain extra syllables that grew inside words over centuries.
- intrusive
more common in everyday phonology descriptions; 'intrusive r' is a well-known example in British English
- excrescent
more specific; refers to an inserted consonant with no historical origin
- parasitic
less common; sometimes used interchangeably but can imply the sound is non-standard
- elided
describes a sound that is removed or dropped, opposite of insertion
文法句型
epenthetic + noun
用法筆記
Almost exclusively used in linguistics and phonology contexts. The word usually appears before a noun describing the type of sound (vowel, consonant, schwa). Distinguish from 'excrescent,' which sometimes refers specifically to an epenthetic consonant with no etymological basis.