Vowel epenthesis in syllable structures containing syllabic consonants in Swati English

Abstract

This study examined the nature of vowel epenthesis in syllable structures containing syllabic consonants in Swati English (SwE). Although this variety behaves differently from other African varieties of English concerning vowel epenthesis, the nature of the SwE vowel epenthesis process has not been a prominent subject for research. The investigation aimed to determine the linguistic factors that cause vowel epenthesis and analysed the variants of the epenthetic vowel and their contexts. This qualitative, cross-sectional study employed an experimental data collection method on 22 adults who have Siswati as their first language and English as their second language. Participants read 50 English words containing potential syllabic sonorants [l̩], [m̩], [n̩], and [ŋ̩]. The study used the Contrastive Analysis (CA) method to identify deviations from Standard British English pronunciation of words with potential syllabic sonorants in the participants' speech. The findings from the CA show a high preponderance of vowel epenthesis compared to the occurrence of the syllabic sonorants. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that the syllable structure of SwE is similar to that of Standard BrE English, in that it permits both closed syllable structures and consonant clusters syllable-initially and syllable-finally. These results refute earlier theories that suggest vowel epenthesis is caused by SwE speakers' propensity to adapt the Siswati CV syllable structure to English. Moreover, the results reveal a variety of epenthetic qualities and that various factors determine the occurrence of the different epenthetic qualities. Further analysis couched within Optimality Theory (OT) was carried out to demonstrate the ranking of constraints that yield the different epenthesis patterns including splitting, true insertion, and the different epenthesis sites. Within OT, the study applied analytical insights drawn from the Basic CV Syllable Theory, Markedness Theory, Splitting, and Unified Place Theory. It is revealed that the dominance of *P/C over NUCCOND is the source of vowel epenthesis. It is further revealed that the dominance of *il, OSW, SSP, vowel sonority non-DTE constraint, *ǝ, and IO-IDENT [place] is driving the different epenthesis patterns. Overall, this investigation reveals novel information about the nature of the SwE vowel epenthesis process and adds new data thus, increasing SwE’s corpus database.