A Constraint-based Approach of Vowel Epenthesis in Greek Child Speech

Abstract

This study investigates vowel epenthesis in Greek and aims to answer
how this process facilitates language acquisition. More specifically,
properties of vowel epenthesis are examined, such as the position and
quality of the epenthetic vowel as well as whether it is affected by the
stress system of the ambient language. Our findings are based on
spontaneous speech collected from three Greek-speaking children aged
1;6.26 - 2;10.9 years old. An inserted vowel is observed at the end of
monosyllabic and disyllabic loanwords so as to license a consonant
that is not permitted in coda position by resyllabifying it to onset
position in the new syllable. It additionally creates trochaic rhythm,
which is the default stress pattern in Greek. This is especially shown
from disyllabic loanwords and non-loanwords with iambic stress, which
changes into trochaic with the addition of the new syllable. Further,
only [+anterior] vowels are inserted due to them being always adjacent
to a [CORONAL] consonant with which they share the same distinctive
feature of place, namely, [+anterior]. The children’s data are analyzed
according to Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993), in which
the ranking of specific constraints can explain and interpret the
properties of epenthesis.