Foreword

Abstract

The new calendar year brings a new winter issue. We are pleased to announce that the issue boasts a selection of articles which mainly focus on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. This is the emerging long-term focus of our journal though, of course, we will continue to be accessible to outstanding submissions concerning the wider East Asian linguistic field in the future as with the two articles on Akeanon phonology and Hindi-English coroneologisms in this issue. The articles in English are wrapped up with two phonological topics and further include second-language acquisition, pragmatics, and word formation. The final article deals with translation challenges and is written in Slovene. The issue opens with the article “Preference for Deletion vs. Epenthesis in Japanese Phonological Adaptations: Lexical Stratification and Input Medium” in which SHOJI Shinichi investigated phonological adaptation of non-loan words in Japanese and their preference for either deletion or epenthesis. The following is the article entitled “Correlations Between Proposed Orthoepic Competence Descriptors and Japanese Language Ability” by ITO Hideaki. In it, the author proved the correlation by analyzing online tests and self-assessment questionnaires and categorized learners of the Japanese language into different skill levels. Mateja PETROVČIČ in her article “Chinese Idioms: Stepping Into L2 Student’s Shoes” overviews the status of Chinese idioms chengyu in foreign language education, stresses their importance, and offers practical suggestions as to which aspects of teaching idioms should be taken under consideration. The next article “Coroneologisms and Word Formation Processes in Hindi-English Codemixed Words” was written by Md. Tauseef QAMAR, Md. Arfeen ZEESHAN, Juhi YASMEEN, and Sanket PATHAK. It investigated coroneologisms and word-formation processes in Hindi-English code-mixed words and came to the conclusion that compounding, affixation, blending, and reduplication appear mainly as a result of compounding and borrowing. “A Synchronic and Historical Look at Akeanon Phonology” is the article by Philip RENTILLO and Ruchie Mark D. POTOTANON, which provides a review and reevaluation of a reflex of the proto-Bisayan *l and *-d- as well Akeanon phonology in general based on synchronic distribution, dialectology, historical accounts, and acoustic analysis. Last but not least is the Slovene article “The Role of Translation in Understanding the Literature of the Korean Minority in the United States: Analysis of the Translation of Chang-rae Lee’s Novel Native Speaker” written by Byoung Yoong KANG. In the article, the author examined the role of the language in the original and translation, further revealed some problems arising from the translation, and reinterpreted the meaning of Koreanness in Korean literature. Editors and Editorial board wish the regular and new readers of the ALA journal a pleasant read full of inspiration, and a rise of new research ideas inspired by these papers.