Typology of prevocalic epenthesis: summary

68 (54) American English: glide insertion

While according to the prescriptive view glide insertion resolves hiatus in American English, this view has been challenged by an acoustic study run by Davidson and Erker (2014). The results of the study indicated that there were significant differences between lexical and epenthetic glides in terms of duration and intensity. Moreover, the speakers of American English also inserted glottal stops in contexts where glides were previously reported to arise.

Additionally, a perceptual study of /ia/ sequences by Polish, German and English speakers is briefly described by Żygis (2009; 2010). The perceptual study on glide insertion manipulated the transition length between segments in the sequence /ia/.

Then, speakers of Polish, German, and English (i.e., speakers of languages, in which /j/ is present in the phonemic inventory) were played the recording and asked to write down what they had just heard. The results indicated that there is no categorical boundary of glide perception, since the replies varied significantly, and were mostly language and speaker dependent. However, Polish respondents stand out among others, as they declare to perceive an intervocalic glide in all instances, regardless of the duration of the transition. This indicates that intervocalic glides may be strongly perceptible for the speakers of Polish, which will be investigated in more detail in the following chapters.

69

Germanic languages. In order to provide an onset for the syllable, some languages employ prevocalic consonant insertion. The phenomenon of prevocalic epenthesis, however, is complex and requires reference to several factors. The process operates in two distinct environments: in vowel hiatus, where the intervening consonant separates two vowels belonging to separate syllables, and at the left edge of a constituent, where the consonant is inserted is to provide an onset for the onsetless syllable at the beginning of a constituent. In vowel hiatus, epenthesis may be additionally influenced by morphological conditioning, that is, the process may apply inside words, but not across morpheme boundaries (for instance, in Polish). Moreover, intervocalic transitions run into some difficulties, as the phonological status of the glides which arise in VV sequences is not uncontroversial. It remains unclear whether there is a phonological operation of glide insertion, or the intervocalic transition is reinterpreted as a separate segment. At the left edge of the constituent, consonant epenthesis needs to be discussed with reference to metrical and prosodic structure. It has been shown that glottal stop insertion may be, for instance, restricted to the beginning of an onsetless stressed syllable. The quality of the inserted segment is also subject to variation, depending on several factors, such as the position in which epenthesis takes place, or the quality of the adjacent vowels. The literature-based overview of prevocalic epenthesis is summarized in Table 1 (Slavic languages) and Table 2 (Germanic languages), respectively. The tables are organized as follows. They show whether a given language inserts a consonant in one of the following environments:

morpheme-internally (VV), across morpheme boundaries (V+V) and across word boundaries (V#V), and at the beginning of a constituent (_V), Additionally, if epenthesis occurs in the given context, the quality of the epenthetic segment is also provided.

70

Table 1. Slavic languages: prevocalic epenthesis summary Czech Polish Dialectal

Polish³¹

Kashubian³² Ukrainian Bulgarian Slovak

VV [j] [j][w] [j] [j]³³

V+V [Ɂ] [j][w][Ɂ] [j]

V#V [Ɂ] Gliding

#_V [Ɂ] [Ɂ] [j][w] [j][w] [ʋ][ɦ]³⁴ [Ɂ]

Table 2. Germanic languages: prevocalic epenthesis summary Dutch German English (RP) South African

English

American English

VV [j]

[w][ɥ][ʋ]

[Ɂ] [j] [ʋ], gliding

[j] [w] [ɦ] [Ɂ]³⁵

V+V [j][w][ɥ][ʋ] [Ɂ] [r] [j] [w] [r] [Ɂ] [j][w][Ɂ]

V#V [j][w][ʋ][Ɂ] [j][w][r] [r] [Ɂ] [j][w][Ɂ]

_V [Ɂ] [Ɂ] [Ɂ]

Out of the languages discussed in this section, Dutch presents the widest spectrum of both environments in which consonant epenthesis takes place and the quality of epenthetic segments. Czech resolves hiatus in all the positions discussed. If one of the vowels of the hiatus is /i/, the glide /j/ is inserted. Polish resolves hiatus with glides

31The dialects of Polish discussed in this chapter were a non-regional rural dialect, Kurpian Polish, and Podhale Goralian.

32Note that Kashubian and dialectal Polish, like standard Polish, have glide epenthesis in the VV and V+V environments. However, the data presented in this chapter aimed to illustrate word-initial glide epenthesis, which is unattested in standard Polish.

33Note that according to Rubach (2000: 284) the glide is inserted only in colloquial speech.

34Word-initial epenthesis is a historical process in Ukrainian. Reflexes of this process can be found in modern Ukrainian (recall [34]).

35 While in SAE both segments appear in hiatus, their distribution is limited to the beginning of a stressed syllable, that is the beginning of a metrical constituent.

71

and glottal stops inside and across morphemes, but there is no data regarding hiatus across words. In Ukrainian, glide insertion is attested both inside and across morphemes, however, across words, there is gliding rather than glide insertion. In English, apart from the well-described processes of linking and intrusive r, there is glide insertion across words. In Bulgarian, the only context for consonant epenthesis is beginning of words, where a glottal stop is inserted. Word-internally, hiatus is tolerated. The language which is exceptional among the presented Slavic and Germanic languages is Slovak, which has no documented epenthesis in hiatus position.

However, accounts from its non-regional dialect show that some speakers insert a glide in word-internal hiatus. There is, however, a recurring pattern of epenthesis at the beginning of a constituent. If a given language permits consonant insertion in that context, the inserted segment is usually a glottal stop. However, the data from dialectal Polish and Kashubian run counter to this generalization and show that glides, which are homorganic with the word’s initial vowel may also be inserted word-initially.

The issue of prevocalic consonant insertion in selected Germanic and Slavic languages is complex, and it is often conditioned by numerous factors. Additionally, the present literature review showed that there are still gaps in the knowledge, which leave some area for research. One of such issues is the nature of epenthetic glides in languages such as Polish. To date, it has not been investigated whether the transitional, or ostensibly epenthetic, glides differ from underlying ones. No study has tested the perception of these glides by the language users. The results of studies of this type could influence the way in which theoretical apparatus should capture prevocalic consonant insertion. An outline of theoretical descriptions of the process, as well as an experimental study on glide insertion in Polish will be provided in the following chapters.

72