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Originally Posted by MikeS
All of that is true to some extent I think, but its about habits and practices which is a different thing to what I was talking about in the original post, which was specifically about linguistic interference caused by language differences. I think both practices and linguistic differences have an effect, to varying degrees.
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I think epenthesis occurs as an intererence in many L1s trying to perfect English pronunciation. Spanish speakers add an "e" prefix to pronounce some English words, and Thais may add a vowel sound after an initial consonant (i.e., "sa-leep") to pronounce other English words - maybe those with initial consonant clusters that are difficult to pronounce. If the interference does not prevent the L1 from carrying on a comprehensible conversation, then there's no problem.
The biggest interference in Thai (and other Southeast Asian languages) occurs in minimal pairs having "l" and "r" sounds because Thais simply cannot hear the different between the pairs. I think when comprehension is impacted, then you have true interference. Thais also have difficult in differentiating "13" and "30" and other teen numbers. Not sure why though.