You're right about both things but I'm wondering how you could guess it from such a tiny piece of information... :shock:
Vowel epenthesis is common in the world's languages.
Don't you pronounce "cloves" without a schwa too?
I pronounce 'cloves (the spice)' as clo[vz], as do other native English speakers. The sounds [v] and [z] do not share the same place of articulation; if they did, I would insert an epenthetic vowel; e.g., "rose", plural ro[zɨz].
With the word "clothes" clo[
ðz],
if you cannot pronounce [ð], then you will adopt the closest sound that you know; e.g., [v] (giving, clo[vz]) or [z] (giving clo[z[FONT=Arial Unicode MS,code2000,lucida sans unicode]ɪ[/FONT]z] or clo[ziz] with an epenthetic vowel sharing place of articulation with [z]).
if you can pronounce [ð], but are not used to pronouncing consonant clusters, then "clothes" becomes clo[ð[FONT=Arial Unicode MS,code2000,lucida sans unicode]ɪ[/FONT]z] or clo[ð[FONT=Arial Unicode MS,code2000,lucida sans unicode]i[/FONT]z], wherein an epenthetic vowel is inserted between [ð] and [FONT=Arial Unicode MS,code2000,lucida sans unicode][[/FONT]z] to make pronunciation more manageable.
In your case, the key is that your pronunciation of [
ð] is too close to that of [z], and so when the two occur together in a cluster (as in clo[
ðz] "clothes"), dis-assimilation takes place: [
ð] becomes [v], a sound that is farther away from [z], but close to [
ð], which gives a more manageable pronunciation, clo[vz].
Your pronunciation of "clothes" (clo[vz]) interests me. Do you ever pronounce it as clo[fs]? The reason I ask, Polish <v> and <z> are pronounced [f] and
word-finally. Is Polish your first language?