INSERTION

[ɪnˈsɜːʃən]

A. Definition

Insertion. In this kind of process a sound is added that is not present in slow pronunciation or spelling. For example, when we pronounce the word hamster at a regular speed, most of us will say and hear hampster with a p. This can be confusing when teaching spelling, especially to non-native speakers who don't have a history of reading and hearing English words and their spelling. I recall being puzzled by the pronunciation and spelling of the word month. I was hearing (and wanted to spell) mon-t-th with an additional t between the n and the th.

Insertion We look for potential insertion rules by finding pairs of signatures in which all suffixes but one are common to both signatures. The distinct pair of suffixes must be such that one can be formed from the other by inserting a single character at the beginning. Example pairs found by our algorithm include h_.si/h_.esi and h_.yi/h_.lyi. In searching for these pairs (as well as deletion and substitution pairs), we consider only pairs where each signature contains at least two stems. This is partly in the interests of efficiency and partly due to the fact that signatures with only one stem are often less reliable.s

[ʋ]-insertion

Between a stem ending in a vowel and its suffix starting with a vowel, a [ʋ] is inserted. #V + V# → #VʋV#. This can be seen in the formation of passive and causative forms of verb stems.

Stem		Suffix	Suffixed Stem
see	[dʒo]	[ɑ]	[dʒoʋɑ]	be seen
sing	[ɡɑ]	[ɑɽ]	[ɡəʋɑɽ]	cause to sing

The second example shows an ɑ-reduction as well.

ə-insertion

ə finds itself inserted between the emphatic particle /dʒ/ and consonant-terminating words it postpositions.

one	[ek]	[ekədʒ]	one
that	[e]	[edʒ]	that

Insertion is a process by which forms wih a cluster of /l/ or /r/ followed by a labial or dorsal consonant are often produced with the liquid and the following consonant, as in (l). this alternation is highly variable; although some speakers usually insert and some rarely do. Both forms are heard in informal conversation and such formal speech as newcasts.

(1) /film/ [fIləm]~[fIlm] ‘film’

/halve/ [haləvə]~[halvə] ‘half’ (adj)

The insertion might be a phonological process. That is, the phoneme /ə/, or perhaps a syllable nucleus position, would be inserted into the underlying form. This /ə/ would then behave as other occurrences of /ə/ in the language, which are always present rather than inserted. This possibility is represented in figure 1.

B. Methods

Most speakers had no difficulty in producing words with and without inserted. This procedure leads to /I/ appearing in three condition, the height and backness of tongue tip, body and dorsum were measured at the time point of the peak of tongue tip raising and at the peak of dorsal backing. (Sproat & Fujimura 1993. Browman & Goldsein 1995, Gick 1999). However, because /l/ often follows low back vowels, the peak of dorsal backing for the /l/ was often not distinct from the dorsal backing gesture for the vowel, and thus was not very informative. The position of the upper teeth was subtracted from the position of each other pellet at each measurement poin in order to correct for small movements of the helmet.

a model of generic listeners’ perceptual abilities and biases, is responsible for the patterns of vowel insertion in Korean speakers' production of English consonant clusters.

Insertion, deletion

In a research, 14 phonological rules (P-Rules) can be found which are useful to explain the previous phonological processes. Those P-Rules included (1) a glide of semivowel insertion, (2) a glottal stop [ʔ] insertion, (3) a trill [r] insertion, (4) an alteration of semivowel [w], (5) voicing of [k], (6) an alteration of consonant [ʔ], (7) devoicing of [dZ], (8) a consonant alteration [g], (9) a delition of [h], (10) a delition of [a], (11) a delition of [ə], (12) a vowel alteration [u], (13) The vowel height harmony [a], and (14) the stress placement.

C. Domain Specific Alternation

A second class of alternations are restricted to particular domains. The most common arise out of affixation where the straight-ahead addition of an affix would not respect the phonotactic constraints of Skerre. Yet not all come out of affixation, as shown by the glottal stop insertion rule below.

Initial Glottal Stop Insertion

Phonological phrases cannot be vowel-initial. A glottal stop is inserted to fix this.
[_PhPr V -----> [_PhPr ʔV

Examples:

/ewes=ha/	[ʔewesha]	I slept
/a skakos/	[ʔa skakos]	a/the cougar

Hiatus Prevention

Two vowels cannot be adjacent to each other. Semivowels (and the glottal stop) are inserted to break up these vowels.
V_[+front]V -----> V_[+front]jV
oV -----> owV
aV ------> aʔV (a?V)

Examples:

/ekoir/	[ʔekowiɾ]	fuzz, soft fur
/eahor/	[ejahoɾ]	ran
/taraok/	[taɾaʔok] (ta4a?ok)	hot-shot

These same insertions also occur when two vowels abut within the same phonological phrase.

Examples:

/koni etsosin/	[konijetsosin]	didn't kill
/a arakir/	[ʔaʔaɾakiɾ]	the priest