Epenthesis

Epenthesis is the insertion of a vowel, usually to help with pronunciation. In Kashaya, it occurs when there are too many consonants in a row.

Usually the epenthetic vowel is /i/, but after /m/ and /q/ the vowel is /a/.

A good example is the semelfactive, which is -c but has an extra /i/ vowel when it occurs after a consonant, as in /ṭʰaʔbam-c-/ "appear" that becomes /ṭʰaʔbam-ci-/. With the essive, the epenthetic vowel is /a/, since it occurs after /m/, as in /pʰaʔsʼaṭʰ-m-/ "slap" becoming /pʰaʔsʼaṭʰ-ma-/. You can see epenthesis also in some verb plurals, such as /pʰanem-/ "hit" which forms the plural by putting /t/ before that final consonant; this makes /pʰanetʰm-/, but to make it easier to pronounced the second consonant, epenthesis gives us /pʰanetʰma-/.