This study on the Lulogoli loanword attempts to analyze the phonological adaptations of words borrowed from English within the Optimality Theory framework. The segmental and phonotactic changes in phonemes and syllable structures are discussed.
1.1.1 Background to Lulogoli Language
Lulogoli is a dialect of the Luhya language group. Luhya language group form Western Bantu speakers. They are spread across the Western region of Kenya and Eastern Uganda. The 2019 Kenya Population and Housing census lists, 6,823, 842 Luhya speakers in Kenya. There are about 790,000 speakers of Lulogoli, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics of 2019. Luhya’s remaining dialects are Luthotho, Lunyore, Lunyala, Lubukusu, Lukhayo, Lwisukha, Lukabarasi, Lukisa, Lumarachi, Lutitiriki, Lumarama, Lutura, Lusamia, Lutachoni, and Luwanga. The Maragoli speak Lulogoli but is not incredibly close to other languages spoken by the Luhya. Lulogoli is similar to Luganda, Kikuyu, Gishu, and several languages in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. Mulogoli is identified as the ancestor of Logoli. This follows from the fact that the four male children of Mulogoli and Khaliyesa make the four major clans. The four sons of Mulogoli were: Musaali, Kizungu, Kilima, and M’ Mavi.
Geographically, the Logoli are spread across the four wards of Vihiga sub-county, Vihiga county. These wards are Central Maragoli, South Maragoli, Lugaga/ Muluma, and Mung’ oma.
1.1.2 Background to the study
Language contact inexorably leads to linguistic change. It is usually induced by the interaction of speakers of different languages, which leads to lexical borrowing where words from one language are adapted by another. (O’Grady, Dobrovolsky and Katamba 1997:316-17). This is necessitated by the need to fill lexical gaps in the loan language, especially in denoting new concepts from the source language. Moreover, some borrowing instances may result from the desire to identify with the prestige associated with the source language, among others. When words are borrowed, they undergo morphological, phonological, and semantic changes where differences exist in the two language systems. This is because languages of the world exhibit several features
unique to themselves, ranging from sound systems to permissible grammatical structures.
English is the official language of Kenya. The former’s history dates back to the