[∅]→[i]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 4/5

Prothesis Loanword Adaptation Turkic Semitic

Empty sound / Zero to Close front unrounded vowel

Prothesis of [i] is common in early stages of Western Romance and in languages like Turkish when adapting foreign loanwords with initial consonant clusters.

Phonetic Effects

Prothesis, Loanword Adaptation

Language Examples

Turkish Turkic

station (French [st-])→istasyon— Turkish lacks initial consonant clusters; prothetic [i] inserted before foreign [st-] in loanword adaptation.

sport (English [sp-])→ispor— Same pattern: prothetic [i] before [sp-] cluster.

Arabic Semitic

CCV cluster→iCCV— Prothetic [i] (hamzat al-wasl) before initial consonant clusters; e.g., 'ibn' (son) → [ʔibn]. Abstract pattern; specific examples not cited.

Related Transformations

Deletion

More Semitic Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [ʕ] → [a] — Vocalization [ʕ] → [ʔ] — De-pharyngealization [b] → [v] — Spirantization [d] → [ð] — Spirantization

Sources & References

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