Re: phonology of borrowed words

En réponse à Erich Rickheit KSC <rickheit-cnl@...>:

> Most of the posters on this list seem much more scholarly than me;
> I'm hoping I don't sound too dim.
>
Don't worry, we only pretend ;))) . Actually, we are as bad as you :)) .

Welcome by the way! Unless I'm seriously mistaken, you are a newbie here (I
can't recognise the name).

> I'm building a conlang with a moderately small phonology (5 vowels,
> 10 dipthongs, 17 consonants); notionally, it has recently borrowed
> words, mostly technological terms, from European languages.
>
> I'm getting stuck with words like 'radio' or 'internet'; since they
> has no approximants, trills or flaps, I'm not sure what those 'r's
> and 'l's are going to sound like to them.
>
You should give first the total phonology of the language. Then I will be able
to help you in your request.

> Is there any sort of general wisdom about how 'foreign' phonemes
> get altered when brought into a language? Is actually adopting
> those sounds common? (I don't hear any uvular stops from American
> newscasters, though we've been talking about people like Qadafiy
> and a'qaeda for decades now)
>
Actually, sound borrowing seems to be a complex matter of level of level of
exposure to the language, ease of pronunciation for the borrower, "political"
aspects and even fashion!

Take us French for instance. When we borrow words from another language, we
automatically adapt them completely to the French phonology, and often we use a
spelling pronunciation, applying the French rules to words written in other
languages (works only for languages written in the Roman alphabet though). Or
we adapt the sound. That's how football becomes /fut'bol/, or networking
becomes /nEtwOR'king/, or brandy becomes /bRa~'di/.
English speaking people tend to do something similar, but often borrow words
using a "foreignese" pronunciation, i.e. they use features (like penultimate
stress or ultimate stress) which are not common in English, but that English
speakers think apply automatically to words in foreign languages, even if it's
incorrect.
The Dutch people, on the other hand, seem very often to borrow words directly
with original phonology (or at least a very good approximation of it). For
instance, I was surprised to hear Dutch people pronouncing English borrowings
using the English 'r', even when their dialect didn't normally contain it at
all! It was as if suddenly, a perfect English word popped up in their otherwise
Dutch speech. Note that this is a feature of younger generations though. Older
generations have borrowed words "the French way" (private joke for Dutch
speakers ;))) ). I think it is related to the strong presence of English in
everyday life in the Netherlands (when your TV programs are subtitled but never
dubbed, English sure takes a big place suddenly) as well as fashion: it's
fashionable to have a lot of English words in your speech.

Borrowing is a complex feature, as much linguistic as it is social, so purely
phonetic considerations cannot always explain why some word is borrowed in some
way or another.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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