Adaptation of English complex words into Korean

Abstract

Most previous studies related to loanword adaptation have centered on segmental mappings between source and loanword sounds in morphologically simplex words (LaCharité and Paradis, Ling Inq 36:223-258, 2005; Kang, Phonology 20:1-56, 2003). However, few have considered the adaptation of complex words, specifically words made of multiple free morphemes. Examining the adaptation of complex English words into Korean, the present study makes four claims. First, it proposes that each component of a complex word is a unit for loanword adaptation in calculating sound mappings. Second, it suggests that each component word is a stem, whereas a loanword as a whole is categorized as a nominal word in Korean. Third, apparent single-unit adaptation is possible only when the first component allows variable final vowel epenthesis at the end of the first component word; this is analyzed in terms of split-base effects. Fourth, the allophonic realization of phonemes plays a crucial role in loanword adaptation. These claims are empirically supported by loanwords found via the National Academy of Korean Language (NAKL 1991) and Google searching (March-June 2011). Furthermore, this study provides an explicit formalization of the analysis of complex loanwords within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, Opimality Theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar, 1993). The present study contributes to the literature of loanword phonology by shedding light on several issues. First, the study proposes a model for the adaptation of complex loanwords wherein both morphological structure and the phonetic information of the source language play important roles. There has been intense debate about the effect of input information on loanword adaptation, broadly split between a phonological view (LaCharité and Paradis, Ling Inq 36:223-258, 2005) and a perceptual view (Silverman, Phonology 9:289-328, 1992; Steriade, in: Hume and Johnson (eds.) The role of speech

Modelling the Englishization of vocabulary in contemporary Korean

“…() investigate the phonological patterns of English loanwords that are particularly influenced by Japanized English pronunciation. Nam and Southard (), and Tranter () also review the phonological reorganization of English loanwords based on Korean syllable structure, and Oh () describes how the phonological mapping of English loanwords borrowed into Korean is affected by the morphological structure of the source words with the same consonant sound which for example, is adapted differently depending on its location in the loanword. For example, ‘really’ is pronounced as /lili/, while ‘alright’ is adapted as /orai/ in Korean.…”

“…The sound of /l/ in ‘all‐in’ is pronounced as /r/, while the /l/ in olive is sounded as [l]. More examples can be found in Oh (). Harkness () notes that younger speakers use a different vowel [ɔ] than older speakers [a] for syllables such as ‘cal’ in ‘musical’, which is pronounced as /kal/ by older speakers, and /kɔl/ by younger speakers (Harkness, , p. 367).…”