Epenthesis in Child Speech
Keywords:
Epenthesis, Phonological Processes, Children, Insertion, Speech, Pronunciation, Vocalic, Sounds, Simplification.Abstract
This study investigates one of the phonological processed used by
children which is technically known as epenthesis which means the
insertion of new sound in a word to make its pronunciation easier. It is
divided into three types: vocalic, anatyxis and excrescence epenthesis.
The study tackles epenthesis in the speech of Mosuli – Arabic children
at the age of three to four and half years old. Epenthesis is used in
children speech as a sign of simplification. It is found that epenthesis
occurs initially which is called vocalic in the speech of those children
such as /ʤdi:d/ → /?iʤdi:d/ as well as medially which is called
anatyxis such as /ʤdi:d/ → /ʤadi:d/ ; while excrescence is not found
in the speech of those children. Moreover, epenthesis increases the
number of syllables in the pronounced words.
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Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). You may not alter or transform this work in any way without permission from the authors. Non-commercial use, distribution, and copying are permitted, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and Al-Hadba University.
