How English consonants are adapted into Lulogoli
coming of European Christian missionaries which was followed by the acquisition of Kenya as a British colony. English words subsequently found their way into the Lulogoli vocabulary through church missionary activities, settler farmers and government posts. English is taught as a compulsory subject and is examinable in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. As a result, there has been a considerable period of contact between speakers of Lulogoli and English. Therefore, this study is occasion to explain how the loanwords are adapted into Lulogoli given the differences in their phonemic inventories. For instance, English is a Germanic language while Lulogoli is a Bantu.
The two languages undergo different phonological and morphological changes from the source language to the borrowing language during nativization. The illicit syllable structures need repairs to conform to the borrowing language. In addition, consonants and vowels absent in the Lulogoli inventory call for a systematic adaptation strategy.
1.2 statement of the Problem
This study tends to phonologically analyze loanwords in Lulogoli from English within Optimality Theory. In spite of the growing literature on loanword phonology, most of the researchers have adopted rule based theories like the CV- phonology and Natural Generative Phonology to account to the segmental, syllable structure and morphological adaptation of loanwords. There is also no study on Lulogoli loanword phonology. This study fills the gap using the theory of Optimality. What we do not know is how consonants and syllable structures from English are adapted in Lulogoli. More so, we do not know which repair strategy is the most preferred in the adaptation of consonant clusters in Lulogoli. This statement of the problem could be summarized in the following research questions: What changes do English consonant syllables undergo in their adaptation into Lulogoli? What repair strategy is preferred in the adaptation of consonant clusters in Lulogoli?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The specific objectives that guided the study were to:
Investigate how English consonants are adapted into Lulogoli.
Find out how English syllable structures are adapted into Lulogoli.
Investigate the most preferred repair strategy in the adaptation of consonant clusters in Lulogoli.