[∅]→[h]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

H-Prothesis Epenthesis Indo-European Germanic Goidelic Hellenic

Empty sound / Zero to Voiceless glottal fricative

Prothesis or epenthesis of [h] involves the insertion of a glottal fricative before a vowel-initial word or syllable. This can occur as a grammatical marker (as in Celtic languages), as a way to avoid hiatus, or as a hypercorrection in dialects where [h] is regularly dropped (such as Cockney English). It is also seen in the historical development of Ancient Greek.

Phonetic Effects

H-Prothesis, Epenthesis, Hypercorrection

Language Examples

Ancient Greek Hellenic

*upo→hypo— In some cases, initial vowels in Greek acquired a 'rough breathing' (h-), though this often reflects a lost *s- or *y-.

Irish Goidelic

a athair→a hathair— Grammatical h-prothesis: the 3rd person feminine possessive 'a' (her) triggers the insertion of [h] before a vowel-initial noun.

English (Cockney/Dialectal) Germanic

eggs→heggs— Hypercorrection: speakers of H-dropping dialects may insert [h] where it does not historically belong, especially when trying to speak formally.

Related Transformations

Deletion

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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