Cantonese Loanwords : Conflicting Faithfulness in VC Rime Constraints

This paper focuses on the ways in which English loanwords are brought into line with four phonotactic constraints that restrict the possible combinations of nuclear vowels and coda consonants in Cantonese Chinese. It is found that three of the four constraints are strictly enforced in loans. Repairs...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Kenstowicz, Michael J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:100396
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/100396
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/catjl.11
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Adaptació de manlleus
Cantonès
Condicions sobre la rima
Jerarquia del punt d'articulació de les consonants
Loanword adaptation
Rime constraints
Cantonese
Consonant place hierarchy
Descripción
Sumario:This paper focuses on the ways in which English loanwords are brought into line with four phonotactic constraints that restrict the possible combinations of nuclear vowels and coda consonants in Cantonese Chinese. It is found that three of the four constraints are strictly enforced in loans. Repairs change either the vowel or the coda consonant. Parallel to Mandarin, changes in vowel height features ([high], [ATR]) as opposed to changes in vowel backness are employed. Coda consonant changes obey a dorsal > coronal > labial faithfulness hierarchy that mirrors the typology of coda mergers discovered by Chen (1973) for many Chinese dialects. While changes in both the vowel and coda consonant occur, on-line adaptations favor changing the coda and preserving the vowel and suggest that the relative phonetic salience of the nuclear vowel to the coda consonant still plays a role in these adaptations.