English

Etymology

From Late Latin paragoge, from Greek παραγωγη ‘derivation, addition’.

Pronunciation

/pærəˈgəʊʤi/

Noun

1. The addition of a sound, syllable or letter to the end of a word, either through natural development or as a grammatical function.

   example: without + -en = withouten

Derived terms

• paragogic

Italian

Pronunciation

paragòge, /paraˈgɔdʒe/, /para"gOdZe/

Noun

1. paragoge

Synonyms

• epitesi

Spanish

Noun

paragoge f

1. paragoge

Related terms

• paragógico

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.

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.

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. Similarly, Arabic ‘araq became raki in Modern Greek.