Spanish vocalic epenthesis: The phonetics of sonority and the mora

This study presents a model of Spanish vocalic epenthesis based on a combination of observed and elicited data. It is proposed that the presence or absence of a mora dictates the position and phonetic realization of "repair" vowels. When faced with impermissible onset and coda clusters, e.g. in attempting to pronounce foreign words, Spanish exhibits a number of syllabic repair strategies involving epenthesis of /e/ or insertion of a ghost (svarabhakti) vowel. It is proposed that the unifying predictor of the position and phonetic nature of epenthetic vowels is the presence/absence of a mora. Since epenthetic vowels do not add phonological weight, i.e. carry no mora, a full vowel added during the repair of non-permissible clusters must acquire its mora through licensing. The only available licenser is an unsyllabified moraic consonant. Svarabkahti vowels cannot acquire a mora, hence their fleeting nature and the fact that they are typically not lexicalized.