Loanword adaptation of Japanese vowels in Truku

This study investigates the formation of mid vowels in the Maga dialect of Rukai, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. In contrast to the diachronic account presented in Li (1977), which assumes, based on cognate comparison among Rukai dialects, that Maga mid vowels derive historically from Proto Rukai, the current work draws evidence from alternations found in Maga and proposes that the mid vowels are not inherited nor underlyingly present but are surface variants of high vowels, generated by synchronic processes. Two other phenomena, echo vowel insertion and e∼r / o∼v alternation, are examined in connection with mid vowel formation. It is shown in the discussion that the proposed synchronic approach not only provides an answer to some unresolved issues related to Maga mid vowels, thus shedding light on our understanding of Maga's vocalic inventories, but also reveals the interactions among various processes and hence offers insight into the unified mechanisms that tie together the alternations in the language.

When in doubt, read the instructions: Orthographic effects in loanword adaptation

The present study proposes an L1 grammar-driven loanword-adaptation model with three intermediate steps — L1 perception, L1 lexical representations and L1 phonology — between L2 acoustic output and L1 output by examining how the distinctive features, syllable structure constraints and structural restrictions of one’s native language steer speakers in their search to replace foreign sounds with native sounds. Our main source of data in support of this model comes from differences between the Korean adaptations of English and French voicing contrasts on the basis of a recent survey of English and French loans in the year 2011. In word-initial position, for example, English voiceless plosives are borrowed as aspirated plosives, while French voiceless plosives are borrowed as either aspirated or fortis plosives in free variation. Considering the data examined here, we suggest that the different Korean adaptations of English and French voicing contrasts in plosives are based on Korean speakers’ perception of redundant phonetic variants in the donor languages (L2) and that this perception is conditioned by the acoustic cues to the laryngeal features [±spread glottis] and [±tense] of Korean, the host language (L1). In contrast to some current models, it shows that the distinctive feature composition of L1 segments plays an important role in loanword adaptations. We also suggest that not only L1 laryngeal features but also L1 syllable structure constraints and lexical restrictions influence L1 perception of the L2 voicing contrasts in word-final postvocalic plosives and that variation in vowel insertion after the plosives in our 2011 data collection is motivated by L1 phonology in both English and French loans. Variation in vowel insertion after English and French word-internal preconsonantal coda plosives is also affected by the native phonology in the 2011 data, no matter whether the plosives are released, as in French, or unreleased, as in English.

The Interpretation of tu and Kavalan Ergativity Hsiu-chuan Liao Abstract Kavalan, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan, has been variously analyzed as accusative, ergative, and split ergative. These different conclusions stem from the fact that certain two-argument clause patterns are ambiguous regarding transitivity. To settle the matter, it is necessary to distinguish canonical transitive clauses from dyadic intransitive clauses. In this paper, we evaluate three proposals that have been made concerning Kavalan transitivity and actancy structure in terms of their morphosyntactic and semantic properties. We pay special attention to the form tu and determine that it is best analyzed as an oblique marker rather than as an accusative marker. We also conclude that there is only one canonical transitive construction, that found in two-argument -an clauses. The two-argument m- clauses, commonly analyzed as canonical transitives in most previous analyses, are treated as extended intransitives or pseudo-transitives—a type of intransitive clause. This leads to the conclusion that Kavalan is best analyzed as a purely ergative language. 1. Introduction.1 In the studies of Formosan, Philippine, and other western Austronesian languages as well,2 the distinction between valency and transitivity has often been neglected. Many Austronesianists equate monadic clauses with intransitive clauses, and dyadic clauses with transitive clauses without considering the relevant morphosyntactic and semantic properties that each exhibits. As a result, many such languages are analyzed as having two distinct types of transitive constructions and an unconditional split-ergative system, something that is typologically unusual. Kavalan, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan, has been commonly analyzed in this way. This paper reviews these analyses from a broad typological perspective [End Page 140] and determines the canonical transitive construction and actancy structure of Kavalan based on morphosyntactic and semantic criteria. We hope thereby to shed new light on the study of western Austronesian syntax generally. We begin with a brief introduction to our theoretical orientation in section 2. We summarize previous analyses of Kavalan transitivity and actancy structure in section 3. Finally, in section 4, we evaluate three proposals concerning Kavalan transitivity and actancy based on morphosyntactic and semantic criteria (see Hopper and Thompson [1980] and Gibson and Starosta [1990] for detailed discussion). It is shown that the form tu is best analyzed as an oblique marker rather than as an accusative marker. Moreover, based on the morphosyntactic and semantic properties that Kavalan clauses exhibit, we conclude that there is only one canonical transitive construction in Kavalan, that involving two-argument -an clauses. Two argument m- clauses, which have been commonly analyzed as canonical transitives in previous analyses, are treated as extended intransitives or pseudo-transitives, a type of intransitive clause. By analyzing the dyadic -an clauses as canonical transitives and the dyadic m- clauses as extended intransitives, we will conclude that Kavalan is best analyzed as a pure ergative language, rather than as an accusative or split-ergative language. 2. Theoretical Orientation.3 In this paper, we employ a revised version of Dixon's Basic Linguistic Theory to describe Kavalan clause structure. Some notions that are crucial to the discussion of Kavalan clause structures are discussed in this section. 2.1 Core Arguments vs. Peripheral Arguments. Basic Linguistic Theory as outlined in Dixon (1979, 1994) and Dixon and Aikhenvald (2000) distinguishes core arguments from peripheral arguments (also called "adjuncts"). The occurrence of core arguments is determined by the head (usually a verb) of a clause. The core arguments must be stated (or be understood from the context) for a clause to be acceptable. The occurrence of peripheral arguments or adjuncts is less dependent on the nature of the head of a clause; they may optionally be included to indicate place, time, cause, purpose, and so on. Four core arguments (S, A, O, and E) can be distinguished and will be defined as follows in this paper.4 A is the more active core argument of a canonical transitive verb; O is the less active core argument of a canonical transitive verb; S is the sole argument of a canonical intransitive verb, or one of the two core arguments of a dyadic intransitive verb that has the same morphological marking as the sole argument of a...

EBS amplifiers debut : S. Edelman, Electron. Engnr, February (1971), p. 52

In this paper, I focus on loanwords, and more specifically on the process known as loanword adaptation, namely the process by which a word’s original phonetics is altered to phonologically fit the borrowing language. More precisely, I seek to determine whether release bursts after the word-final coda in an English input might be responsible for final vowel epenthesis in the corresponding Korean output. To test this hypothesis, I compiled an original database listing English words that entered Korean until very recently. The analysis of that database actually supports the hypothesis. In a final conclusion, I discuss what this demonstration tells us about loanword adaptation and the process of borrowing from a psycholinguistic point of view. In particular, I emphasize the importance of both perception and native phonology in the process of loanword adaptation and conclude that Korean speakers seem indeed to be subject to the ‘perceptual magnet effect’, seeking (phonological) prototypes from various acoustic cues, and that so-called fine-grained phonetic detail has to be explored for a better understanding of phonological processes from a cognitive point of view.

The interaction of tone with vowel quality is rarely reported. In fact, Hombert (1977) and de Lacy (2007) deny that such interactions are possible. We present a particularly clear case of synchronic interaction of tone with vowel quality in Slovenian as a counter-example. Slovenian restricts the combination of high tones with lax mid vowels by adjusting the tone in the native phonology and adjusting the vowel quality in the loanword phonology. We use this case to motivate an Optimality Theoretic (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004) analysis of Slovenian using a markedness constraint that penalizes high tones on lax vowels. Most reports of vowel-segment interaction involve the effect of consonants on tone, most commonly the lowering effect of voiced obstruents and the raising effect of voiceless ones (Hyman & Schuh 1974, Hombert 1978, Hombert et al. 1979, Tang 2008, inter alia). As for vowel quality-tone interactions, the most well studied case is Fuzhou (Jiang-King 1999), in which syllables with tense mid vowels can have H, HM, or M tone, while those with lax mid vowels have HL or ML. In Cantonese (Yue Hashimoto 1972), High tone is restricted in closed syllables: on the tense vowels higher tone surfaces compared to lax vowels. In Hu (Svantesson 1991:72), high vowels always have High tone in closed syllables, but both H and L are allowed in open syllables. In Lahu (Matisoff 1973), a rising tone raises the vowel. Shua (Odden 2007) contrasts H, M and L on non-high vowels, but high vowels also contrast a fourth, Super High tone. In Tupuri (Odden 2007), both ∗We would like to thank Paul de Lacy, Larry Hyman, John Kingston, Charles Kisseberth, John McCarthy, Bruce Moren, David Odden, Curt Rice, Lisa Selkirk, Matthew Wolf, Draga Zec, and the participants of the Workshop on Segments and Tone (Amsterdam, June 2007). Any remaining errors are ours.

“Loanwords” are words borrowed from one language to another. These borrowed words usually undergo “adaptation” processes to conform to the structural constraints of the borrowing language phonology. Such adaptation affects all facets of phonological structure, reflecting the segmental, phonotactic, suprasegmental, and morphophonological restrictions of the borrowing language. The patterns that emerge in loanword adaptation often reveal aspects of native speakers' knowledge that are not necessarily obvious in data of the native language and, as a result, loanword data can inform our analysis of the native phonology (Hyman 1970; Holden 1976; Ahn and Iverson 2004; Kawahara 2008; Wetzels 2009; Chang, forthcoming, among others). In this respect, loanword adaptation can be considered a real‐lifeWug test(Berko 1958) which can enable us to probe into the grammatical knowledge of speakers in ways that native data alone cannot. Conversely, however, such emergent patterns in loanword adaptation present a learnability puzzle (cf. Broselow 2009): if a loanword pattern is underdetermined by the native phonology, where does the pattern come from? Also, what type of representation does the adaptation process refer to as it searches for licit forms in the borrowing language that most closely match the foreign language input? Is it an abstract phonological representation, a detailed phonetic representation, or a combination of the two? Are there any universal preferences for certain types of repair over others (e.g. epenthesis over deletion, or retention of a vocalic feature over a consonantal feature)? These are some of the major recurring questions in recent studies in loanword phonology and we will address them in this chapter.

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Following phonological and phonetic models of loanword adaptation, I present evidence from Burmese in favor of an intermediate model of loanword adaptation incorporating both language-independent phonetics and language-particular phonology. On the basis of a corpus of 200 loanword adaptations from English into Burmese, I first show that Burmese loanword adaptation involves a phonological scansion of phonemically relevant detail, as well as a phonetic scansion of phonemically irrelevant detail. These findings suggest that a model of loanword adaptation incorporating both phonetics and phonology is the most empirically sound. While loanword adaptations are indeed highly influenced by phonetic similarity, bilinguals play a leading role in adaptation, allowing the phonology of L2 to have a profound effect on adaptations in L1. The relative ranking of these phonetic and phonological considerations, then, appears to be a language-specific matter.

This study provides the results of analyses on the recent adaptation trend of Mandarin phonetic loans. There are two main approaches in loanword phonology: Phonological approach and perceptual approach. Phonological approach makes an emphasis on phonemic mapping between source languages and borrowing languages. On the other hand, perceptual approach argues that the nature of input is perceptual similarity between two languages, and thus phonetic details are included in loanword adaptation. The result of this study shows that the perceptual similarity plays a significant role in the adaptation of recent Mandarin phonetic loans, and it is supported by the results of analyses as follows: First, the ratio that the consonants in coda position of English syllable faithfully mapped into the corresponding Mandarin consonant is relatively low, while the adaptation of English initial consonants inputs usually show faithful mapping into Mandarin consonants. Next, the ratio of preservation of initial consonant input is very high, while the ratio of deletion of coda consonant input is very low. Especially, the deletion of liquids in coda position happens frequently, since syllable-final liquids are not salient perceptually. Finally, [±voiced] is not distinctive in Mandarin phonological system, but the consistent matching between [±voiced], the English distinctive feature and [±aspirated], the Mandarin distinctive feature are made. It means phonetic details can be included in loanword adaptation for perceptual similarity between two languages. The result of this study is different from the result of the study, which made an analysis on relatively early Mandarin phonetic loans, and showed that phonology played a more crucial role in loanword adaptation than perception.

This paper analyzes the factors that determine the assignment of accent to Western (primarily English) and Japanese loanwords in the Yanbian dialect of Korean. The study is based on a corpus of 1,737 words. The major findings are as follows. In Yanbian loanwords, the accent is basically located in a two-syllable window at the right edge of the word. The accent pattern differs between disyllabic and longer words. The penultimate syllable receives the strong default accent in disyllabic loanwords, and syllable weight affects the distribution gradiently. On the other hand, the default accent in Yanbian native words is final. Statistical analysis shows that the different accent distributions between the native words and loanwords are attributed to the lexical class difference. The discrepancy between native words and loanwords is supported by a wug test. Our hypothesis is that Yanbian loanword accentuation results from the grammar of the source language and lexical statistics, along with some adjustments by Yanbian native grammar. By comparing the three different loanword categories in Yanbian that derive from different source languages with different prosodic types (English—stress, Japanese—pitch accent, Mandarin—tone), we show statistically that each has its own accentual adaptation system. We propose a loanword adaptation model in which the loanword adaptation is understood as an induction process from a faithfulness constraint to the source language into relevant markedness constraints. Through a learning process, the original faithfulness constraints to the source language are demoted below relevant markedness constraints. These markedness constraints are weighted by the learning algorithm so that the weight hierarchy can achieve a more or less “faithful adaptation” of the source language. Under this view, each separate sublexicon can have a different weight hierarchy of markedness constraints.

This paper examines the two-way interaction of perceptual and production factors in the light of resolving French and English loan structures in Kirundi. The investigation is framed within the view that loanword adaptation results from attempts to match the non-native perception of the L2 input, within the confines of the L1 grammar. Neither a purely perceptual nor a purely grammatical account can explain the facts. Based on 239 French and 44 English corpora of loans, this study examines loanword adaptation at both the phonemic and the phonotactic levels. We prove how the constraint-ranking Optimality Theory (OT) can account for the phonological adaptations of loans but with limitations. The adaptation cannot be fully understood unless perceptual similarity and auditory factors are integrated in the grammar. This study enriches our understanding of the role of perceptual similarity and perceptual salience in phonology and their relationship to constraint ranking.

When an English word with a postvocalic word-final stop is adapted to Korean, a vowel is variably inserted after the final stop. Vowel insertion in this position is puzzling not only because of its variability but also because of the fact that it is not motivated by the native phonology in any obvious way. After providing a thorough description of the vowel-insertion pattern on the basis of a survey of a large body of data, the paper proposes that vowel insertion is motivated to improve the perceptual similarity between the English input and the Korean output as well as to obey a morphophonemic restriction in Korean. The paper provides strong evidence that non-contrastive phonetic details of lending or borrowing languages are relevant in the process of loanword adaptation and at the same time suggests a richer view of loanword phonology, one which involves interaction of phonetic, phonemic and morphophonemic factors.

This paper investigates the correlative construction in Isbukun Bunun, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan. I show that in this language the correlative clause and its associated anaphoric element do not form a constituent at any point in the derivation. Drawing on evidence from island-insensitivity, the absence of Condition C effects and non-constituency facts, I propose that the syntactic relation between the correlative clause and the nominal correlate is derived by a base-generated adjunction structure. Moreover, I argue that the correlative clause, which behaves as a generalized quantifier, binds the nominal correlate phrase in the matrix clause, which is construed as a bound variable. The proposed quantificational binding view is further shown to capture the types of correlate phrases allowed in Isbukun Bunun correlatives.