A Phonological Study of Some English Loan Words in Japanese. Working Papers in Linguistics, No. 14, Studies in Phonology and Methodology.

An adequate theory of phonology should be able to explain . the process of adaptation of foreign words into the native language, as well as to account for their nativized phonological and phonetic representations. The paper acknowledges the deficiencies of the *phonetic approximation* and the *phonemic: approximation* hypotheses in :meeting this end, and discusses the shortcomings of Hyman's (1970) generative phonology model; The model presented here . is derived fro Stgrope's (1968, 1969) natural phonology theory, and hypothesizes thatAJicoming foreign segments will be inserted into the lexicon without Inge unless they are inadmissible underlying segments, it w4Ph case they will be analyzed by the native rules ow until, some admissible representation is obtained. If a segment cannot be analyzed as an admissible form in the natiy system, it will be represented in the lexicon as it is andeventu lly will be restructured by the dominant native rules. t; s'. Within this paradigm certain English loans in Japanese are examined, and at the same time properties of the system of Japanese phonology Which are.revealed in the process of borrowing are discussed. Ambng the. areas discussed. are: palatalization el.insertion, gemination of consonantsl'and. glides. (Di) ^ T'\ t--\ ,' i *******************************************************444*********** * Documents acquired by ES4C include many informal unpablithed. * * materials not available from ather4ources. EPIC makes every effort:* * to obtain the best copy available. evertheless, items of marginal * reproducibility are Often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes 'available * * ia the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * * r sOnsible for the quality of the original document. ReproductiOns *, * supplied byEDRs are the best that can be made frorihe original. * *********************************************************************** S. RPARTMERIT OR RaaLTR. A Phonological" Study of Some)D2g4 otocATIOR awaLRaRe hisTimeoui.clirTrionouTo of Loan Words in Japanese*. ';. " S 00CuMO T MSS BEEN REPRO. CEO ACTLY RSARRCRIVRO FROM r p . r,lr ME efi °won onomozavrecoaossoliw,i ATI NG Roues Or yeRW OR OPINIONS Mieko Ohs°. vine oo . 0)T 04eassAMILY sePoe, seiwt ssiosLip4Aystak. shismuTe OF eOu *mow POSITION OR POLICY Principles of borroWing Loan Words sometimes bring into a/' /new sounds or new sequences of sounds, but inipany tas ign sounds are changed to conform to the native'photiol system. Fbrthermore, tht manner of mativizitIon is qulte fe People don't simply substitute en arbitrary native foreign sound. An adequate theory of phonology . as to the process of adaptation of foreign words*/inA th ivized phonological and phonetic representations. =' That thmy cannot be explain ade uately in terms of a 'phonetic approximation' hypothe is o by 'phonemic approximation' based on the theory of taxonori pho emits was convincingly.demon strated by Hyman (1910). att 'opted to viewthe phenomena of borrowing in the sight of On ati e phonology. Working with loan words in-Nupe,' a kwa lingua of central Nigeria, he proposed principles which account fo his data, but do not seem adequate for borrowing prodesses 1 gene al. That is, there seem to be some cases 'Mere his prin iPle allow several alternative substitutions for cIrtei for ign segments, but without any principled way of choosing,imong t em. Since the data suggest . that the process of nativization'does n t al ow so many alternatives, his principles need revisions. In th following section I will first discuss the cases where 4.yran's ypothesesiresult in indeterminacy and then some alternative principles which seem to account for borrowing more adequately. 1.1. Hyman's.hypotheses Hyman0-iprinciples of borrowing are: O 4 Foreign sounds are perceived in terms of underlying forms. (19 }2. Foreign segments equivalent to native segments derived by rule are lexicalized as the corresponding nitive.underlying forms. (39) There partial contradiction between'these two hypotheses: If a fang to has phonetic sequence yz which is derived from the underOing byarulex4,yt z and it also has, an underlying