Would it not be true to say that Euro-based languages generally use only =
the "narrow" vowels (e, i, y) as epithenthic vowels? E.g. school > Welsh =
ysgol, French ecole, etc.
Richy Roberts
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Matt Pearson <mpearson@...>
To: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Sent: 08 August 1999 02:36
Subject: Re: Epenthetic vowels (was: RE: chat: weird names)
> > Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> > >
> > > Actually, wasn't the /e/ of other Romance Langs originally /i/? =
It's my
> > > understanding that, for instance, schola --> iscola --> escola -->
> > > escuela (in Spanish). Aren't epinthetic vowels generally a high =
vowel,
>=20
> Epenthesis rules generally insert the least marked vowel - where =
"least
> marked" is determined on a language-by-language basis (sometimes
> there's variation within the same language, depending on the =
phonological
> context for epenthesis). Typical epenthetic vowels are /i/ and /a/, =
which
> seem to be the least marked vowels in a lot of languages. In =
Malagasy,
> /a/ is the most common epenthetic vowel in loanword phonology,
> which makes sense, since /a/ is arguably the least marked vowel in
> the language (French "la table" and "la loi" become "latabatra" and
> "lalana"). Epenthetic /i/ and /u/ are sometimes found as well. The
> English loanword "book" becomes "boky" /buki/, while "doctor"
> becomes "dokotera" /dukutera/. The epenthetic /u/ in /dukutera/ is
> arguably due to the stressed /u/ in the previous syllable.
>=20
> Matt.
>=20