epenthesis
Nov. 18th, 2014 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordepenthesis (uh-PEN-thuh-sis) - n., the insertion of a phoneme or syllable into a word, for example to make it easier to pronounce.
Or, sometimes, by a poet to make it fit the meter, but we frown upon such things. The simplest example is how some nouns form the plural with -es instead of -s, but there are many others: "sherbet" is often pronounced sherbert, and "athlete" as athalete. Adopted from Latin, meaning inserting a letter, from Greek epénthesis, equivalent to epi-, on + en-, in + thésis, placing.
---L.
Or, sometimes, by a poet to make it fit the meter, but we frown upon such things. The simplest example is how some nouns form the plural with -es instead of -s, but there are many others: "sherbet" is often pronounced sherbert, and "athlete" as athalete. Adopted from Latin, meaning inserting a letter, from Greek epénthesis, equivalent to epi-, on + en-, in + thésis, placing.
---L.
