Vowel sounds may be inserted into a word by two mechanisms: insertion of a vocalic articulatory gesture (epenthesis), or retiming of existing gestures to produce a vowel-like transition between consonants (intrusion). I argue that epenthetic vowels are phonological units but intrusive vowels are not. A representation using abstract gestures as well as segments can capture facts about the typology of vowel intrusion.

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The term “vowel epenthesis” can refer to any process in which a vowel is added to an utterance. Beyond this simple description, however, vowel epenthesis processes vary enormously in their characteristics, and many aspects of their typology are still not well understood. Accordingly, the empirical focus of this chapter is on the heterogeneity of vowel epenthesis processes.

Articulatory phonology (AP) is a theory in which abstract articulatory gestures serve as both the control units for speech movements, and as units of contrast for distinguishing lexical items. This controversial theory brings articulation to the forefront, as it tries to explain many phonological phenomena as a result of overlap and competition between articulatory gestures.

This study acoustically compares lexically short vowels in Palestinian Arabic to vowels that are underlyingly long, but have undergone closed syllable shortening, a phonological process affecting certain CV:CC sequences (as in /faːq-ʃ/ → faqʃ 'woke-negative'; /ӡaːb-l-ak/ → ӡablak 'brought to you'). In a study of word pairs produced by 74 speakers, the two vowel types were found to be indistinguishable in duration. Speakers differ as to the contexts in which they apply shortening: some shorten before the negative suffix /-ʃ/, but not the dative suffix /-l/, likely due to paradigm leveling. The results are compared to earlier studies finding incomplete neutralization in Arabic vowel epenthesis, to identify factors that affect completeness of neutralization. It appears that orthography is not an important factor, but that morphologized or lexicalized processes produce more complete neutralization. It is proposed that allomorphs produced by more fossilized processes are more weakly linked in the mental lexicon, and that incomplete neutralization of vowel quantity in particular would require linkage through the abstract CV word pattern.