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phonology of borrowed words

From:Erich Rickheit KSC <rickheit-cnl@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 20, 2002, 7:15
Most of the posters on this list seem much more scholarly than me;
I'm hoping I don't sound too dim.

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.

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)

        Erich

Replies

Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>
Amanda Babcock <langs@...>