Abstract
English loanwords with /ʌ/ that are part of the Brazilian Portuguese (BP) lexicon are normally produced with [ɐ] (pub: [ˈpɐbɪ]). Although [ɐ] is the closest segment to /ʌ/ in the native inventory, it is highly constrained in BP: it is an allophone of /a/ that can only appear in nasal contexts. This paper investigates whether native speakers of BP generalize to novel loanwords the adaptation pattern of English /ʌ/ that is present in the BP lexicon. Two experiments were conducted, one with real loanwords and one with nonce loanwords. In the Real Loanword Experiment, participants consistently used [ɐ] both in oral (pub) and nasal contexts (funk), as predicted given the patterns in the lexicon. In the Nonce Loanword Experiment, participants used [ɐ] significantly more frequently in nasal contexts – in oral contexts, the most frequent adaptation was [a]. This reveals that speakers employ their native grammar to filter new loanwords: in contexts where [ɐ] is not licensed, they favor the corresponding licensed form. These results suggest that native speakers do not generalize non-native patterns that are present in the lexicon, mirroring what has been observed for the generalization of unnatural patterns in native grammars (e.g., Garcia 2017; Jarosz 2017).
Highlights
Research on loanword adaptation has shown that the process is affected by both perceptual and phonological factors, which require, respectively, faithfulness to the source and compliance with the phonotactic requirements of the borrowing language (e.g., Silverman (1992); Kang (2003, 2011); Davis & Cho (2006); Yip (2006))
This paper extends evidence for this type of asymmetry to another domain, namely, loanword phonology
While loanwords in the lexicon are not constrained by the phonotactic requirements of the borrowing language, new loanwords are filtered by the phonology
Summary
Research on loanword adaptation has shown that the process is affected by both perceptual and phonological factors, which require, respectively, faithfulness to the source and compliance with the phonotactic requirements of the borrowing language (e.g., Silverman (1992); Kang (2003, 2011); Davis & Cho (2006); Yip (2006)). It turns out that certain English loanwords with /2/ have been adapted with [a] in BP, such as [pi"kapI] (from pick-up, meaning ‘pick-up truck’) and [Se"kapI] (from check-up, meaning ‘medical check-up’) These examples suggest that at least some of the English loanwords that entered the BP lexicon were filtered by the native phonological grammar, which rejected [5] in non-nasal contexts in favor of [a]. When a potential asymmetry between the lexicon and the grammar arises in a loanword adaptation context, it is unclear whether speakers would prefer to adapt the new loanwords following the patterns of their native phonological grammars or the non-native patterns that are exhibited by the loanwords that are already part of the lexicon To address these issues, two experiments were conducted.
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