Our Living Language The history of the English language is full of examples of epenthesis, the addition to a word of a vowel or consonant not part of the original word. This process is still active in regional dialects. Two examples now used chiefly in Southern and Midland dialects are thisaway and thataway, which show epenthetic vowels intruding between this way and that way. Another highly excoriated instance of vowel epenthesis, not regional, is the pronunciation of athlete as (ăthə-lēt′).