Which term describes insertion of a sound to break up a consonant cluster?

• A. Assimilation
• B. Elision
• C. Cluster reduction
• D. Epenthesis

Answer: (D)

Epenthesis is the insertion of a sound to break up a consonant cluster. Usually the added sound is a small vowel (often a schwa) or a glide, and it helps create a more easily pronounceable syllable structure when two consonants come together in a sequence that the language doesn’t permit. This often happens in loanwords or in rapid speech, where speakers insert that extra sound to separate the consonants rather than shut them together. By contrast, assimilation is when a sound changes to become more like a neighboring sound, elision is the dropping of a sound, and cluster reduction is simplifying a cluster by deleting one or more consonants. So inserting a sound to split the cluster precisely identifies epenthesis.