Epenthesis

• For a definition of Epenthesis (also known svarabhakti) see Epenthesis (definition)
• For a discussion of the theoretical treatments of epenthesis in the linguistics literature see Theoretical Treatments of Epenthesis

Epenthesis in Scottish Gaelic primarily refers to vocalic epenthesis (also known as Svarabhakti), which is generally understood as the insertion of a vowel within a consonantal sequence.

Description of the phenomenon

Epenthetic vowels generally occur "between non-homorganic sonorants and obstruents, following a short, stressed vowel." (Bosch 1997: 1). The obstruent cannot be a voiceless aspirated stop.

Some examples are provided below (all taken from Bosch 1997); the epenthetic vowels are underlined:

• arm, [aram], "army"
• sealbh, [ʃaɫav], "property"
• sgarbh, [skarav], "cormorant"
• Alba, [aɫapə], "Scotland"
• urchair, [uruxirᴶ], "a shot'"
• dorcha, [dɔrɔxɔ], "dark"
• [merᴶekᴶ] "rust"

See Also

• Theoretical Treatments of Epenthesis
• Hiatus
• Epenthesis (definition)
• Syllabification
• Transcriptions of Epenthesis

External Links

• http://akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Helping_vowel
• http://akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Svarabhakti_or_The_Helping_Vowel
• http://akerbeltz.org/index.php?title=Intrusive_T_or_Why_we%27re_writing_sròn_not_*stròn

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis

References

• Borgstrøm C, Hj. (1937). The Dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap 7, 71-242.
• Borgstrøm C, Hj. (1940). The Dialects of the Outer Hebrides, NTS suppl. bind 1 Oslo: Aschehoug & Co.
• Bosch, Anna (1995). A gestural analysis of epenthesis in Scottish Gaelic. Ms., University of Kentucky.
• Bosch, Anna (2003). Borgstrøm's Dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides: The Uses and Misuses of Description in Theory, Scottish Gaelic Studies 21, 221-239.
• Bosch, Anna & De Jong, Kenneth (1997). The Prosody of Barra Gaelic Epenthetic Vowels, Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 27, 1-16.
• Clements, G.N. (1986). Syllabification and epenthesis in the Barra dialect of Gaelic. In K. Bogers, H. van der Hulst & M. Mous (eds.), The Phonological Representation of Suprasegmentals: Studies on African Languages Offered to John M. Steward on His 60th Birthday, 317-336. Dordrecht: Foris.
• Halle, Morris (1995). Feature Geometry and Feature Spreading, Linguistic Inquiry 26, 1-46.
• Ní Chiosáin, M. (1994). Barra Gaelic Vowel Copy and (Non)-Constituent Spreading, Proceedings of WCCFL XIII, 3-13.