Epenthesis
A distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (also present in Scots and Scottish English dialects (cf. girl and film ) is the insertion of epenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants. This affects orthographic l n r when followed by orthographic b bh ch g gh m mh; and orthographic m followed by l r s ch.
- tarbh (bull) —
- Alba (Scotland) — .
Occasionally, there are irregular occurrences of the epenthetic vowel, for example in Glaschu /kl̪ˠas̪əxu/ "Glasgow".
Read more about this topic: Scottish Gaelic Phonology