A reanalysis of loanword tone in NK

Abstract

This study reviews the previous works on loanword tonology of NK and presents a better analysis of it. Chung (2000) and Kenstowicz & Sohn (2001) are found to miss two important points. For one thing, both works have no way to provide an attested tone [HL] to a group of two-syllable words like [syam.phu] ‘shampoo’ consisting of a closed syllable followed by a light syllable. This group has been treated as the same as a default penultimate tone group, which consists of light syllables and forms a bimoraic trochaic foot at the end of a word such as [de.mo] ‘demo’ [HL] or [si.na.ri.o] ‘scenario’ [LLHL]. It is claimed in this study that these two [HL]’s stem from different sources and that there should be a specific constraint taking care of this difference in syllable weight in two-syllable words. For another, both the previous works do not give a proper tonal description to words with more than one heavy syllable, especially when heavy syllables appear in a row at the end of words: [LHL] in words like [wa.siŋ.thon] ‘Washington’ or [khi.rin.thon] ‘Clinton.’ The interaction of constraints dealing with heavy syllables and preventing a uniform application of the higher constraints is shown to provide a more accurate analysis of loanword tone in NK.