ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the conditions that lead to phonemes being inserted, or added, in the flow of speech. It briefly examines some of the insertions that have developed historically (i.e., ones that we accept as just being part of the language) and looks in more detail at vowel insertion and consonant insertion likely to occur during connected speech (CS). The chapter also looks more closely at how certain other consonants are sometimes added between two consonants in North American English (NAE). Vowel insertion appears to be a relatively infrequent phenomenon in the CS of NAE. The chapter summarizes the information while addressing two key questions: What do we know about NAE vowel insertion? And, what do we know about NAE consonant insertion?
