Abstract
This paper provides an Optimality-Theoretic account of the consonantal repairs employed by Standard Sundanese to adapt seven illicit Arabic consonants in Arabic loanwords and thus bring them into conformity with its phonemic system. The study supports Best's Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), which posits that the unfamiliar consonants are perceived to their closest native counterparts in terms of articulatory features. It has been found that all seven Arabic consonants are replaced with native Sundanese counterparts with, first and foremost, the same major articulator (i.e., labial or coronal: IDENT (ARTICULATOR)) and voicing quality (i.e., [±voice]: IDENT (VOICE)), followed by the same manner of articulation (i.e., IDENT (MANNER)), which is preserved in the adaptation of five Arabic consonants only. In addition, while the source place (i.e., IDENT (PLACE)) and stridency (i.e., IDENT (STRIDENCY)) features are matched in only three adaptations each, IDENT (C) (i.e., no change of features) is never reflected in the data. Moreover, the adaptation of Arabic consonants satisfies markedness restrictions (represented by *EMPHATIC, *LABIODENTAL, *DENTAL, */f/, */z/, and */ʃ/) in Sundanese phonology against the importation of Arabic consonants. This is captured by the following OT constraint ranking: MARKEDNESS, IDENT (ARTICULATOR), IDENT (VOICE)>> IDENT (MANNER)>> IDENT (PLACE)>> IDENT (C). In conclusion, this paper contributes to the insufficiently researched area of Sundanese loanword phonology.
Highlights
Linguistic BackgroundLoanword adaptation is a process whereby a repair is triggered to modify an ill-formed foreign sound, syllable, or a suprasegmental feature in order to fit the sound system of the borrowing language
The Sundanese preference for adapting Arabic /ʃ/ into /s/ is reflected in the following constraint ranking: */ʃ/, IDENT (ARTICULATOR), IDENT (VOICE)>> IDENT (MANNER)>> IDENT (PLACE)>> IDENT (C)
The study examined the Sundanese adaptation of seven Arabic consonants, namely /f/, /θ/, /z/, /dʕ/, /tʕ/, /sʕ/, and /ʃ/, and confirmed the major role of featural faithfulness in their adaptations
Summary
Loanword adaptation is a process whereby a repair is triggered to modify an ill-formed foreign sound, syllable, or a suprasegmental feature in order to fit the sound system of the borrowing language. This paper is concerned with the repairs of seven Arabic consonants, Sundanese ( known as Basa Sunda) belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian language family and is spoken by nearly 40 million people, predominantly in West Java, Indonesia [2]. Based on the geographical locations of its speakers, Sundanese has four main dialect areas: Banten, Bogor, Cirebon, and Priangan [3]. I first provide a general account of the lexical borrowing process employed by Sundanese to enrich its lexicon and highlight its direct contact with Arabic. I list the phonemic consonantal inventories of the two languages in focus, namely Arabic and Sundanese. Is used to represent the pharyngealization of emphatic consonants (e.g., [sʕ])
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