Loanword Phonology and Enhancement

Abstract

With the development of a “constraints and repair” approach to phonological computation, the field has seen a renewed interest in loanword adaptation. The task of the adapter is to make the loan conform to the segmental, phonotactic, and prosodic structure of the recipient (L1) language while preserving as much information as possible from the donor (L2) language. The balance between these often conflicting demands is insightfully expressed by a constraint-based model of phonology such as Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, 2004) with its key notions of markedness and faithfulness constraints.