How do linguists identify the origins of verbal habits that originate from other languages?

When an observed verbal habit has more than one potential source, and that source is likely to be a different language or dialect, how do linguists determine the most likely origin?

For example, if some speakers of Language A add an extra vowel to certain words, in a way that seems to resemble both Language B and Language C, how would a linguist determine if one, both, or neither languages were likely responsible for introducing the change?

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How do linguists identify the origins of verbal habits that originate from other languages?

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