in
ser
tion
Plural
insertions
1
the act of putting one thing into another
Synonyms:
2
a message (spoken or written) that is introduced or inserted
Synonyms:
3
the process of adding sounds, typically vowels or consonants, into a word or morpheme that are not present in its underlying or base form
Insertion is a phonological process in which one or more sounds are added to a word, often to facilitate pronunciation or to conform to specific phonetic patterns. This can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a word, and it may be used to break up difficult consonant clusters or to create a smoother transition between sounds. For example, in some dialects of English, speakers might insert a sound in the phrase "film" to pronounce it as "filum." Insertion is important in linguistics because it highlights the adaptive nature of speech, showing how speakers modify their pronunciation for clarity and ease of communication while providing insights into sound patterns and language evolution.