Epenthetic vowels in Swahili loanwords

When adapting loans into Swahili, a series of vowels are inserted, resulting in forms that differ from those in the source languages (etymons). This work 1) identifies the nature of these inserted vowels, and 2) develops an explanation of the system behind the various phonetic realizations of these vowels. Vowels examined are (as the title suggests) epenthetic rather than excrescent. Typically, when Swahili loanwords are adapted via epenthesis, features cannot cross from one side of the stressed syllable (which in Swahili is the penult). Therefore, word-final epenthetic vowels must appropriate features from adjacent consonants. Consonants spreading coronal features will result in a coronal epenthetic vowel [i], consonants spreading labial features will result in a labial epenthetic vowel [u], and consonants spreading pharyngeal features will result in a pharyngeal vowel [a]. Dorsal consonants do not contribute a feature, and the feature [coronal] is inserted by default. In pre-stress environments, both vocalic and consonantal material is available for Feature-Spreading. Features of vowels spread more freely than features of consonants, so vowel-vowel feature spreading is more prevalent. Several idiosyncratic forms exist in which vocalic material that existed in the etymon seems to have survived in the realization of epenthetic vowels. A handful of suppletive forms exist which seem to break the constraint on crossing from one side of the stressed vowel to the other. NOTE: Typographical error in the published version renders many of the figures unreadable. This version has all figures as intended. Citation: Harvey, Andrew. 2014. "Epenthetic vowels in Swahili loanwords." Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education 8, no. 2: 17-45. {"references": ["Ashton, E. O. 1947. Swahili Grammar (including Intonation). 2nd ed. London\u202f: Longmans, Green & Co.", "Baldi, Sergio. 2005. \"The Influence of the Arabic Language in Africa.\" Lingua Posnaniensis 47: 7\u201319.", "Batibo, Herman. 1990. \"Vowel Length: The Forgotten Distinctive Feature in Swahili?\" Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 23: 53\u201372.", "Batibo, Herman. 1996. \"Loanword Clusters Nativization Rules in Tswana and Swahili: A Comparative Study.\" South African Journal of African Languages 16 (2): 33\u201341.", "Batibo, Herman and Franz Rottland. 1994. \"The Markedness Principle and Swahili Syllable Structure.\" Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 40 (Dec): 49\u201381.", "Bosha, I. 1993. Influence of Arabic on Kiswahili with a Trilingual Dictionary. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.", "Bubenik, Vit. 1999. An Introduction to the Study of Morphology. LINCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics. LINCOM.", "Chacha Mwita, Leonard. 2009. \"The Adaptation of Swahili Loanwords from Arabic: A Constraint-Based Analysis.\" The Journal of Pan-African Studies 2: 46\u201361.", "Clements, G. N. 1985. \"The Geometry of Phonological Features.\" Phonology Yearbook 2: 225\u201352.", "Clements, G. N. 1991. \"Place of Articulation in Consonants and Vowels: A Unified Theory.\" Working Papers of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory 5 (Sept): 77\u2013123.", "Hall, Nancy. 2006. \"Cross-Linguistic Patterns of Vowel Intrusion.\" Phonology 23: 387\u2013429.", "Kaplan, A. To appear. \"Maximal Prominence and a Theory of Possible Licensors.\"", "Kenstowicz, Michael J. 1993. Phonology in Generative Grammar. Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge, Mass.\u202f; Oxford\u202f: Blackwell.", "Lodhi, Abdulaziz Y. 2000. Oriental Influences in Swahili\u202f: A Study in Language and Culture Contacts. Orientalia et Africana Gothoburgensia\u202f; G\u00f6teborg, Sweden\u202f: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.", "Marten, Lutz. 1996. \"Swahili Vowel Harmony.\" SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics 6: 61\u201375.", "Mwita, Leonard Chacha. 2007. \"Prenasalization and the IPA.\" UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 106: 58\u201367.", "Schadeberg, Thilo. 2014. \"Swahili.\" In World Loanword Database, edited by Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Accessed November 6 wold.clld.org.", "Walker, Rachel. 2014. \"Prominence-Control and Multiple Triggers in Vowel Harmony: An ABC Analysis.\" University of Southern California."]}