Paragoge

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Paragoge is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. Often, this is due to nativization, and a logical counterpart of epenthesis, particularly vocalic epenthesis.

[edit] Diachronic paragoge

Some languages have undergone paragoge as a sound change, so that modern forms are longer than the historical forms they are derived from. Some examples from English include whilst and amongst, which are derived from Middle English whiles and amongs.

[edit] Paragoge in loanwords

Languages that do not allow words to end in consonants, or do not allow certain consonants to occur word-finally, will add a dummy vowel to the end of loanwords from other languages that include an illegal final consonant. For example, English rack becomes Finnish räkki and Japanese rakku.

English words often appear to add a final vowel in Interlingua: reign occurs in Interlingua as regno, form as forma, and proverb as proverbio. While this may resemble paragoge, a better explanation is that the English word is a variation of the international word found in Interlingua.