6.254 Consonant Insertion

Sun Feb 19 20:21:13 UTC 1995

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-254. Sun 19 Feb 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines: 247

Subject: 6.254 Consonant Insertion

Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>

Asst. Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
               Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
               Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>

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1)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 20:55:25 -0500
From: JPKIRCHNER at aol.com
Subject: Summary:  C-insertion

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 20:55:25 -0500
From: JPKIRCHNER at aol.com
Subject: Summary:  C-insertion

Some weeks ago I posted a query as to whether anyone knew examples of
consonant insertion to separate impermissible vowel clusters, in which the
choice of consonant was NOT conditioned by its surrounding vowels.  Thanks
who all those who responded.  Their names and e-mail addresses appear with
their edited remarks.  I would welcome further comments on anything brought
up in this summary.

REASON FOR THE QUERY:
My query was prompted by work I've been doing on the Czech verb system in
which, in certain forms from certain paradigms, a glide /j/ appears that is
not present in other forms.  (Since most e-mail won't support Czech
diacritics, I'll spell all Czech forms phonetically.  An apostrophe after a
consonant indicates its palatalization.)  Typical of such verbs is the verb
[d'elat] "to do":

[d'ela:]  "he/she/it does"
[d'elaji:]  "they do"
[d'elaji:c]  active participle (plural)

In Old Church Slavonic and in Russian, this /j/ appears in all persons of the
present tense in related paradigms (e.g., Russian [d'elajet] "to do" 3rd per.
sing.) and creates a VjV sequence, which historically contracted into a long
vowel in Czech (e.g., [d'ela:]).  In most current phonological accounts of
West Slavic languages, such as Rubach (1993), this /j/ is considered to be
present underlyingly, but then needs to be deleted in almost all forms of
these verbs.  This representation seemed too abstract to me, and when I
considered Czech phonotactic restrictions (see charts in Palkova (1994)) from
an autosegmental viewpoint, it occurred to me that the /j/ (where it does
survive) may simply be inserted to break up impermissible V clusters or to
prevent formation of overlong syllable nuclei.

The only sticking point in this was that /j/ often appears between non-high
Vs or Vs with which it shares no obvious features.  As I found out from the
responses and from searching I've done since, the epenthesis of consonants
between non-homorganic vowels is not as uncommon as one might assume.  So
far, the norm seems to be that Cs inserted at morpheme boundaries will be
glides (even between non-high Vs) unless there is a relic consonant that has
been retained, and sometimes analogically extended, in a given environment.
 In all cases I've found where the inserted C is a relic, that C is coronal.
 More data would be greatly welcome.

THE RESPONSES:

Albert Ortmann (ortmann at sapir.ling.uni-duesseldorf.de) mentioned several
examples:  English intrusive /r/, French t-epenthesis in interrogative forms,
Dutch insertion of /j/ and /v/ between non-high Vs morpheme internally (e.g.,
theater [te:'(j)a:t at r]; zovals [zo:'(v)als] "like, as if"), and Swiss German
insertion of /n/ between certain hosts and clitics (e.g. groesser wie-n-i
"taller than-EP-I").

==================================================================
 Subj:  vowel clusters
 From:  SPSCOB at main.queen-margaret-college.ac.uk
 From:  SPSCOB at main.queen-margaret-college.ac.uk
X-From: SPSCOB at main.queen-margaret-college.ac.uk (Dr James M Scobbie)

Some people might think that /r/ sandhi in English is of the type you are
looking for, but really /r/ is just the consonantal glide counterpart of
non-high vowels, so it's just like finding /j/ near /i/ or /w/ near /u/.

Note, however, that to avoid inserting /r/ in certain socially
stigmatised environments, many speakers insert glottal stop:

law[?]and order

instead of

law[r]and order

========================================================

 Subj:  C-insertion
 From:  SEEGMILLER at apollo.montclair.edu
 (STEVE SEEGMILLER)

Karachay, a Turkic language, has a clear case of a consonant appearing under
certain circumstances involving what would otherwise be V-V sequences. The
plural suffix is -le or -la (depending on vowel harmony), so that at 'horse'
has the plural atla. However, if the plural suffix is itself followed by
another suffix beginning with a vowel, an -r- appears: atlari"m 'my horses'.
(the 1sg possessive suffix is -im/i"m/um/u"m). the -r- is clearly historical,
since the Karachay forms with -r- are similar to the ordinary Turkish form.
That is, the Turkish forms corresponding to the
Karachay ones given above are at, atlar, atlari"m. The thing I don't know
is whether there is motivation for postulating this -r- in the underlying
form of the plural suffix or not. There are some reasons to say yes and  some
to say no, so I'm not sure.

==================================================================

 From:  GLADNEY at VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU

I don't have references, but here are three E examples I have noticed:
 freebie, Sukie (a diminutive of Sue), and the L.A. Lakers.
Best wishes, Frank Y. Gladney.

========================================================

 From:  KarlRein at aol.com
 Subj:  Intrusive glides

I don't know if this is what you are looking for, but Portuguese has [y]s and
[w]s that come between more open final and initial vowels. In some dialects
(continental and insular) 'na agua' is [n(schwa)+y+agwa].  When nasal vowels
are on both sides, the [y] is nasal.  In many varieties (all?) 'no ano' is
[nu+w+(mid-central a)nu].  Sorry about the lack of symbols.  Karl Reinhardt,
Dept. of Modern and Classical Languages, University of Houston.

========================================================

 From:  ferry at cimrs1.mnhn.fr
 To: JPKIRCHNER at aol.com

For glide insertion in Eskimo language you can see : Jorgen Rischel, Topics
in West Greenlandic phonology, Akademisk forlag, Copenhagen, 1974.  Insertion
of nasal velar or nasal uvular to prevent the fusion of two long vowels.
Best regards
Philippe Mennecier, Muse'e de l'Homme, Paris

========================================================

 Subj:  Consonant insertion
 PICARD at VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA (MARC PICARD)

I think you'll probably find find that most cases of consonant insertionare
the result of analogy. In French, for example, what should be CHANTE-IL 'is
he singing' is actually CHANTE-T-IL, the epenthetic /t/ having been
introduced in all first conjugation verbs through the influence of a final 3
sg final /t/ in the other conjugations, e.g. FINIT-IL, FAIT-IL, RECOIT-IL,
etc.

Also, because of final consonant deletion, words like ABRI 'shelter' and
DEBIT came to have an identical ending. However, because so many such forms
alternated with morphologically complex words ending in /t/, some original
vowel-final words acquired this consonant in composition so that, for
example, ABRITER came to replace ABRIER (which is still used in Canadian
French in the sense of 'to cover'). You'll also find cases like CLOU 'nail'
with derived forms either with or without /t/, e.g. CLOUER 'to nail' vs.
CLOUTE, CLOUTERIE, CLOUTIER. Although /t/ is the 'default' consonant, as it
were, you'll also find cases like JOLI, JOLIE 'pretty' yielding ENJOLIVER 'to
embellish'; you'll also find family names like JOLIET and JOLIVET.

I'm sure you can find out more about all this stuff in Mildred Pope's FROM
LATIN TO MODERN FRENCH.

Marc Picard

========================================================

(In this one I have edited out those of Mr. Alvarez's examples containing
characters that did not survive transmission.  He also included an extensive
Spanish outline of the Guajiro language and people, which I'll make available
to those who request it.  JK)

 Subj:  C-insertion in Guajiro
 X-From: jalvar at conicit.ve (Jose R. Alvarez)

In   Guajiro,  an  Arawakan  language  spoken  in  Colombia   and
Venezuela,  all the six vowels show a contrast between short  and long.  Long
 vowels (written as double vowels  in  the  practical orthography) and
diphthongs (written as two vowels) behave  alike for the process of consonant
insertion to be described shortly.  Whenever   the  situation  arises  where
 due  to   morphological concatenation  we have a theme (complex or
monomorphemic)  ending with  a long vowel and a suffix beginning with a long
 vowel,  an epenthetic  [h] (written as j) or [w] (written as w) is  inserted
to break up the impermissible vowel cluster. The choice of either [h]  or [w]
is simply a matter of dialect differences, [h]  being preferred  by  the
 Arribero speakers and [w]  preferred  by  the Abajero  speakers.  The
 insertion of [h/w]  to  break  up  vowel clusters applies with no
conditioning by the surrounding  vowels, that is, it is a general and very
productive process.

atpanaa+ee+chi -) atpanaaJeechi OR atpanaaWeechi
"it will be rabbit"

ke+kii+ee-shi  -) kekiiJeeshi OR kekiiWeeshi
"he wants to have a (good) head"

a+ko'ojoo+ee+shi -) ako'oJeeshi OR ako'oWeeshi
"he wants/wanted to embrace"

Contrary to what these few examples may lead one to suspect, this epenthesis
in NOT conditioned by the presence of a long ee in the second  half of the
cluster. It is simply an accident of  Guajiro morphology  that very common
suffixes have this long  vowel  (-ee FUTURE,  -ee DESIDERATIVE, -eema
APPARENTATIVE,  etc.).  However, only  [w] is used in epenthesis in certain
cases. This last  case is  particularly  important in infinitive formation.
  A  Guajiro infinitive may end with one of the six long vowels aa ee ii oo
uu uu [this last vowel is /uu/ with "umlaut" --JK] or with the sequence waa.
This duality in infinitive formation is  directly related with the
phonological structure of the  stem from  which the infinitive is
constructed: if the final  syllable of  the  stem is light, that is, if it
ends with a  short  vowel, then the final vowel is lengthened; if the final
syllable of  the stem  is  heavy  (that  is, if it ends with a  long  vowel
 or  a diphthong), then -aa is suffixed, an epenthetic [w] being  added. The
infinitives ashakataa /a=shaka-ta-aa/ (0=get.off-TT-INF)  "to get  off"  y
cheecheewaa /cheechee-aa/ (soft-INF)  "to  be  soft" illustrate this
contrast.

========================================================

Thanks again to all who responded.  I'd welcome more examples if anyone knows
of any.

James Kirchner
jpkirchner at aol.com

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