The Role of Phonology and Sociolinguistics in Loanword Adaptation
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This article’s research question is to explore the role of sociolinguistic factors in combination with phonology-driven adaptation. The preliminary hypothesis is that sociolinguistic factors like bilingualism and L2 interference may have a decisive role in the process of adaptation and is based on the example of English-Czech and English-Ukrainian loanword adaptation cases involving the phonemes [g], [h], [?], and [x]: Czech speakers adapt [h] as [?] while Ukrainian speakers tend to adapt the same phoneme as [x] despite having [?] in their phonetic inventory. This tendency is often ascribed to L2 interference of Russian and has been a topic of active discussions, especially so since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The research method is based on a questionnaire with audio samples containing both already existing and made-up proper names and words. Half of the test vocabulary units are designed to contain the chosen phonemes, the rest of the units are represented by established, already existing, names, and units that do not contain the chosen phonemes to provide a cover for the experiment. The respondents are asked to listen to the audio samples and write down the units as they hear them. The respondents will be provided with a fake description and the goal of the experiment to exclude possible bias. This article’s research question is to explore the role of sociolinguistic factors in combination with phonology-driven adaptation. The preliminary hypothesis is that sociolinguistic factors like bilingualism and L2 interference may have a decisive role in the process of adaptation and is based on the example of English-Czech and English-Ukrainian loanword adaptation cases involving the phonemes [g], [h], [?], and [x]: Czech speakers adapt [h] as [?] while Ukrainian speakers tend to adapt the same phoneme as [x] despite having [?] in their phonetic inventory. This tendency is often ascribed to L2 interference of Russian and has been a topic of active discussions, especially so since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The research method is based on a questionnaire with audio samples containing both already existing and made-up proper names and words. Half of the test vocabulary units are designed to contain the chosen phonemes, the rest of the units are represented by established, already existing, names, and units that do not contain the chosen phonemes to provide a cover for the experiment. The respondents are asked to listen to the audio samples and write down the units as they hear them. The respondents will be provided with a fake description and the goal of the experiment to exclude possible bias. |
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