The emergence of phonological adaptation from phonetic adaptation: English loanwords in Korean

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed diachronic account of the adaptation of the English posterior coronal obstruents /ʃ ʧ ʤ/ in Contemporary Korean. These consonants are variably adapted with a glide (/j/ or /w/), and the distribution of the glides is conditioned by phonetic and phonological characteristics of the English input, as well as native phonotactic restrictions. The diachronic change in the occurrence of /w/ serves as an example of a variable phonetic detail in the input that is faithfully represented in loans in earlier stages, but which is subsequently eliminated in the emerging norm. Given this data, I propose how what, on the surface, may appear to be a ‘phonological’ adaptation can arise through regularisation of what is essentially a ‘phonetic’ adaptation. This study highlights the complexity of loanword adaptation and the importance of examining all of the different factors shaping this process.