Variable Vowel Adaptations of English Word-final Stops in Korean Loanword Phonology

Abstract

This paper examines the patterns of vowel epenthesis in English loanword adaptation that occur when English loanwords that end in postvocalic word-final stops are borrowed into Korean. We then provide a variable rule analysis of the three vowel epenthesis patterns: vowel epenthesis, no vowel epenthesis and variable vowel epenthesis, according to four linguistic factor groups, the tenseness of pre-final vowel (tense vs. lax), the voicing of the final stop (voiced vs. voiceless), the place of articulation of the final stop (coronal vs. labial vs. dorsal), and the number of syllables (monosyllabic vs. polysyllabic). Our analysis reveals that ‘tense’, ‘voiced’, ‘coronal’, and ‘monosyllabic’ are, in this order, the most significant factors for vowel epenthesis, whereas ‘labial’, ‘lax’, ‘polysyllabic’, ‘dorsal’, and ‘voiceless’ are the most crucial factors for no vowel epenthesis. It is also found that variable vowel epenthesis is most likely to occur when the factors are set as ‘lax’, ‘coronal’ and ‘voiceless’.