Suffix Epenthesis

The English suffix -tion is very productive. It occurs in many words. However, in a number of cases, epenthesis also occurs to produce the variant -ation.

Here are words with the suffix variant -ation:

adoration
categorization
cessation
continuation
civilization
conservation
deprivation
determination
explanation
fossilization
globalization
nationalization
organization
presentation
preservation
radicalization
realization
regularization
restoration
salutation

Epenthesis usually occurs with roots that end with a word-final consonant. However, no epenthesis occurs in the words action, invention and location. Epenthesis also occcurs with words that end in a vowel such as continuation.

These are the final consonants of the words from the list:

/z/ 9
/r/ 3
/n/ 2
/v/ 2
/t/ 2
/s/ 1
/u/ 1

Most of the words have undergone changes to the root. The only one which has no changes is presentation. In cessation, the root is cease and in explanation it is explain.

Many words can be created with the suffix -tion. This suffix also has a variant which is formed with epenthesis. The epenthetic vowel helps to preserve a CV syllable structure and can thus be viewed as a syllable structure process.

Epenthesis in English Demonyms

Many suffixes can be used with demonyms in English. This is evident in words such as Australian, Japanese and New Yorker. Certain demonyms also have epenthesis. Here is a list:

Amalfi Amalfitan
Aqaba Aqabawi
Bali Balinese
Congo Congolese
Java Javanese
Peru Peruvian
Shanghai Shanghainese
Tobago Tobagonian
Togo Togolese
Toronto Torontonian

Here are the epenthetic segments of the demonyms:

Amalfitan [t]
Aqabawi [w]
Balinese [n]
Congolese [l]
Javanese [n]
Peruvian [v]
Shanghainese [n][
Tobagonian [n]
Togolese [l]
Torontonian [n]

Here we can see the number of occurrences of each epenthetic segment:

[n] 5/10 50%
[l] 2/10 20%
[v] 1/10 10%
[t] 1/10 10%
[w] 1/10 10%

Epenthesis can be observed in a number of English demonyms. This serves to preserve a CV sequence. The [n], [l] and [t] have an alveolar place of articulation. We can thus say that the most common place of articulation in English epenthetic segments appears to be alveolar.

Comparison of Italian and Spanish Words

Italian and Spanish share many similar words. A number of Italian words which end with an e have a word-final consonant in Spanish. Here is a list with the Italian word followed by the Spanish:

amore amor (love)
colore color (colour)
dolore dolor (pain)
mare mar (sea)
mese mes (month)
pane pan (bread)
reale real (royal)
sale sal (salt)
sole sol (sun)
universale universal (universal)

Spanish has far more words with word-final consonants than does Italian. In many cases the word-final e of Italian is absent in Spanish. This correspondence is illustrated in the list.

Rhyme in Finnish Phrases

Finnish belongs to the Uralic language family. Among the features of Finnish are the absence of articles and the use of postpositions. These postpositions attach to both adjectives and nouns. Many Finnish phrases rhyme. Here are examples:

(on the bridge in the evening) sillalla illalla
(in the evening on the bridge) illalla sillalla

(on the bridge in the morning) sillalla aamulla
(in the morning on the bridge) aamulla sillalla

(in the big house) isossa talossa
(in the big church) isossa kirkossa

(from the old church) vanhasta kirkosta
(from the old school) vanhasta koulusta

The Finnish language has many features that are not common in other languages. One such feature is postpositions suffixed to both adjectives and nouns. The result is extensive rhyme in noun phrases.

Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet is the ancestor of the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. The Latin script is used in various languages such as Spanish, German and Vietnamese. Cyrillic is used in languages such as Russian, Bulgarian and Mongolian. The Greek alphabet is the source of technical symbols in many fields of math and science. The Greek alphabet has 24 letters.

The word alphabet is derived from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The first four letters of the Greek alphabet are alpha, beta, gamma and delta and the final letter is omega. These are probably the most familiar letters of the Greek alphabet.

Originally there was only one symbol for each letter. In the modern era, however, Greek developed a distinction between lower case and upper case. This development also occurred with the Latin script. The Greek alphabet is very old. It was developed around 800 BC.

Days in Afrikaans and Dutch

Afrikaans and Dutch are related languages. In fact, Afrikaans is derived from the Dutch of the settlers who lived in South Africa from the seventeenth century. The similarity of the two languages can be seen in the days of the week from Monday to Sunday.

Afrikaans

Maandag
Dinsdag
Woensdag
Donderdag
Vrydag
Saterdag
Sondag

Dutch

maandag
dinsdag
woensdag
donderdag
vrijdag
zaterdag
zondag

The days of the week are nearly identical in the two languages. The days for Saturday and Sunday begin with an s in Afrikaans but a z in Dutch. The vocabulary for the days of the week illustrates the similarity of Afrikaans and Dutch.

Oat Cakes

Oat cakes are delicious and easy to make. This Danish recipe has only seven ingredients. Here it is:

7 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups oats
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the butter and sugar.
In another bowl pour the water over the oats.
Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the water and oats.
Add the butter and sugar.
Knead until smooth.
Put in the fridge for one hour.
Take out and roll on a flat surface.
Add flour as needed.
Use a glass to cut shapes.
Put the oatcakes on a baking sheet and prick with a fork.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Double Letters in English

Many English words have doubled letters. They occur in words such as apple, letter and summer. However, English makes no distinction between long and short consonants. In Norwegian, the word sommer (summer) is pronounced with a long m. This is not the case in English, but English once maintained a distinction between long and short consonants.

In Middle English the words sune (son) and sunne (sun) were pronounced with distinctive consonant length. The former was pronounced with a short nasal and the latter with a long nasal. This distinction is no longer maintained. The words super and supper are pronounced differently, but the difference is in vowel quality, not in consonant length.

English once had distinctive consonant length, but now double consonants merely serve to indicate the quality of the preceding vowel. Other Germanic languages have also lost this distinction. They include Danish, Dutch and German.

Pronunciation of z in Italian

The letter z has two pronunciations in Italian. It can be pronounced as a voiced or voiceless alveolar affricate. Here are examples with the two pronunciations:

voiced alveolar affricate [dz]

pranzo (lunch)
romanzo (novel)
zanzara (mosquito)
zebra (zebra)
zero (zero)

voiceless alveolar affricate [ts]

dizionario (dictionary)
grazie (thanks)
marzo (March)
negozio (business)
zucchero (sugar)

No universal rule can be given for the pronunciation of z in Italian. In fact, regional pronunciation can vary from the standard. The word zio (uncle) is pronounced with a voiceless affricate in standard Italian, but can be pronounced with a voiced one in regional dialects. However, the voiceless alveolar affricate is more common than the voiced.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte had many famous quotes. Here are ten:

1) "A true man hates no one."

2) "A leader is a dealer in hope."

3) "Imagination rules the world."

4) "Truth alone wounds."

5) "You become strong by defying defeat and turning loss and failure into success.

6) "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

7) "Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can fly."

8) "A society without religion is like a vessel without compass."

9) "To extraordinary circumstances we must apply extraordinary remedies."

10) "Riches do not consist in the possession of treasures, but in the use made of them." 

Albanian

Albanian is a language of the Indo-European family, but it is classified as a language isolate. The language has approximately seven million speakers. It is official in both Albania and Kosovo.

Like Bulgarian, Romanian and Swedish, Albanian has postnominal articles. For example, mal (mountain) has the form mali (the mountain) and zog (bird) has the form zogu (the bird).

The Albanian language has seven vowels. They include the five vowels of Spanish as well as the schwa and the high front rounded vowel, which is written y. The schwa in Albanian has a great deal of variability from retracted to advanced articulation.

Relatively rare among languages, Albanian has voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives. They are spelled dh and th. Albanian also has an alveolar tap and alveolar trill as in Spanish.

Though a language isolate, Albanian is an Indo-European language. It has interdental fricatives and postnominal articles. Albanian has a relatively free word order, but the most common is SVO.