Abstract
Cairene Arabic (CA) elects epenthesis as a strategy for adapting loanwords. This paper tackles the reasons why this occurs as well as the different aspects of vowel epenthesis within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT)(McCarthy and Prince, 1993;Prince and Smolensky, 1993) and the relevant literature. This research specifically focuses on loanwords introduced into CA from English. It is shown that OT neatly accounts for vowel epenthesis in loanwords in CA, proving that the attested optimal forms are the result of the conflict between faithfulness and markedness. It is also proven that loanwords are modified according to the productive phonological processes of CA i.e. LI constraints. The special case of s+obstruent blocking effect is discussed universally and with special reference to CA.
Highlights
There has always been an interest in the different phonological processes involved in adapting loanwords to transform into well-formed words in the borrowing language
The trigger for all constraints is to militate against faithfulness to the input and normally to achieve well-formedness of the forms in accordance with the syllable structure of Cairene Arabic (CA). COMPLEX, ONS, SYLLABLE CONTACT, MULTIPLE (V.Place) represent the force of markedness that militates against identity, alignment and contiguity constraints, which stand for the opposing force of faithfulness
MAX-IO is optimal, and makes sure that CA opts for epenthesis rather than deletion as a strategy for loanword adaptation; so both MAX-IO and the other markedness constraints determine the nature of vowel epenthesis in words CA loaned from English
Summary
There has always been an interest in the different phonological processes involved in adapting loanwords to transform into well-formed words in the borrowing language. This paper accounts, within the framework of OT, for the adaptation of loanwords introduced into Cairene Arabic (CA) from English in terms of vowel epenthesis. The analysis section analyzes the data and motivates the constraints for vocalic epenthesis in terms of three main points mentioned above. The last three items, (h-j), are cases where CCC cluster occurs; the position of the epenthetic vowel is always after the second consonant of the cluster: There has to be an onset; where this does not exist, the epenthetic glottal stop [?] is provided" .The glottal stop saves the ONSET constraint in CA These are just some preliminary observations about the data .The constraints will be explained and defined and their interactions will be illustrated in the following analysis section
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