1.5 Justification of the Study
The study of Lulogoli loanword phonology within the Optimality Theory framework is unique in the language and makes significant scholarly contributions in phonology. Firstly, it helps in documenting the Lulogoli dialect of the Luhya language, especially in loanword phonology. The study also provides a different loanword analysis framework away from the rule-based approaches used in studying loanword phonologies. This comes in the backdrop of efforts by the government to promote literacy in the first language in the lower classes of primary education in Kenya. Secondly, the findings of this study are of importance to the dialectologists with research interests in Lulogoli.
Furthermore, the information acquired from this study can be used in understanding other related Luhya dialects. Besides, lexicographers working on the dictionary of Lulogoli will find the study results relevant, given that they focus on the meanings of words. Borrowing is a crucial source of new vocabulary adopted by languages to fill existing lexical gaps. The study provides an exposition of new sound segments introduced in Lulogoli as a result of borrowing. Finally, students of language and linguistics, together with the broader discipline of African studies, should also find this research useful in their subject areas. The study does not only provide an insight into the Lulogoli language but also the way of life of the Mulogoli community expressed in their use of words.
1.6 Significance of the phonological study of loanwords
A phonological analysis of the integration of loanwords into recipient language (L1) is invaluable for two main reasons: It contributes to a better understanding of L1 phonology and may shed light on phonological theory in general. First, investigating loanwords sheds more light on L1 phonology. It unveils its hidden rules/constraints that would remain latent due to lack of input that would stimulate such rules/constraints(Crawford2009; Paradis&LaCharite 2011). Loanword phonology is a window on native phonology that provides phonologists with new insights into the borrowing language. Loanwords would provide us with external evidence supporting analysis or other. Loanwords will shed light on Lulogoli supra-segmental aspects such as syllable structure.
1.7 Scope and Limitations of the Study
There are many aspects of language borrowing ranging from morphological, phonological, semantic, and sociolinguistics. For the present study, I limit my research to the phonological aspects: segmental and phonotactic adaptations of English loanwords in Lulogoli. At the segmental level, particular focus is on consonants and not vowels. This is done to avoid a preliminary analysis that denies vowels the deserved attention since there is a lot to be discussed on vowels’ adaptations in the nativization process. Secondly, syllable structure adaptation is analyzed at the phonotactic level. Suprasegmental changes also occur in loanword adaptation, but they will fall beyond the scope of this study. Though Lulogooli has borrowed words from many languages, the choice of words will be limited to English. The analysis is done within the framework of Optimality Theory by Prince and Smolensky as proposed in 1993, and they subsequently updated in 2002.
1.8 Literature review
This section provides a literature review on scholarly contributions to the two main areas of the present study. The first subsection presents Lexical borrowing information with the second part reviewing the literature on loanword adaptation in English and other Bantu languages like Mandarin Chinese.
1.8.1. Review of Literature on Lexical Borrowing
In this section, the definition of a loanword is given first. A loanword is a borrowed lexical item from a different language. It is adopting another language’s vocabulary, which initially did not form part of the loan language’s vocabulary (Campbell, 1998: 58). For the present study, I define a loanword as a foreign word that is introduced into Lulogooli.
Campbell (1998: 59) further identifies two main factors that motivate languages to borrow from one another: need and prestige. New concepts or items from a different culture come typically with new terms that describe them. In the present world, technology is by far the most rapidly advancing sector. The invention and widespread use of computers, for instance, introduced into Lulogooli words like /ko-mbyu-ta/, /ɪ-ndɑ-ne-tɪ/ and /fe-si-bu-ku/ for computer, internet and Facebook respectively. Secondly, where a foreign language is highly esteemed, there
is usually a tendency to borrow new terms for the prestige associated with their use. A case in point is the English word ‗dotcom ‘which draws meaning from an association with the internet. Speakers of Lulogooli have expanded the semantic scope of ‗dotcom ‘nativised as /to-ti-ko-mu/to refer to people who are deemed chic.
The borrowed words are thereafter remodeled in line with the phonological and morphological structure of the borrowing language. Campbell (1998) adds that foreign sounds are usually changed due to phonetic interference through a process known as adaptation. It replaces sounds absent in the receiving language with the nearest phonetic equivalents in the borrowing language. For example, /kəm-pjuː-tə/ pplchanges to /ko-mbju-ta/ because the pre-nasalized consonants in Lulogooli are composed of a nasal and a voiced obstruent. This explains the voicing of the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/.
Moreover, phonological patterns which are alien to the native language also undergo accommodation. This is done through addition, deletion, and recombination of some sounds in line with the permitted phonological combinations in the borrowing language. Take the example of the English word dotcom /dɒt-kɒm/ which is realized as /do-ti-ko-mu/ in Lulogooli. Whereas English entertains both open and closed syllables, Lulogooli only allows open syllables. Consequently, the epenthetic vowels /i/ and /u/ are inserted after the codas /d/ and /m/ respectively.
Kiparsky (1973) as quoted by Sang (2009:27) outlines two categories of borrowing situations namely extensive bilingualism and casual contact. In the former situation, due to knowledge of the donor language by a majority of the speakers, there is the tendency of using the phonetic inventory of the borrowing language to preserve the donor language’s lexical distinctness. For instance, Lulogooli speakers with exposure to the English language adapt ‗Facebook ‘/feɪs- bʊk/ as /fe-si-bu-ku/. On the other hand, due to lack of knowledge on the donor language in the casual contact situation, phonetic approximation is used in the assimilation of loanwords. /feɪs- bʊk/ is produced as /we-si-bu-ku/. This is attributed to the limitations of casual contact borrowing. Hence, speakers render incoming words with their language’s phonetic material.
1.8.2. Review of Literature on Loanword Adaptation
Guo (2001) analyses Mandarin Loanword phonology within the Optimality Theory framework. The paper successfully demonstrates that a constraint based approach is sufficient in accounting for the modification of consonant clusters and illicit codas in Mandarin. It also identifies deletion, epenthesis and feature change as the repair strategies that are adopted in the adaptation of Mandarin words borrowed from English. In spite of the differences between Mandarin Chinese and Lulogooli, there are a few notable similarities. The corpus data which comprised of transliterated American state names and typhoons used in the analysis of Mandarin Chinese loanword phonology pointed to the fact unlike Lulogooli, Mandarin does allow nasals at the
syllable end position. It was also demonstrated that epenthesis was the most common repair strategy for illicit consonant clusters in preserving the borrowing language’s syllable structure.
Lulogooli also to a greater extent employs epenthesis as a repair strategy in the nativization of illicit consonant clusters in borrowed words. The constraints employed in determining the preferred repair strategy should be useful in my study particularly in explaining the syllabic structure adaptation of Lulogooli loanwords.
Mbonankira (2004) analyses the accommodation of English loanwords into Kinyarwanda within an eclectic theoretical framework. The model was informed by the sociolinguistic, historical, descriptive and comparative linguistic dimensions of the study. Notable similarities exist between Lulogooli and Kinyarwanda loanword phonology especially the segmental, syllable structure and morphological adaptations. Epenthesis was found to be useful in repairing illicit consonant structures from English loanwords. This finding on epenthesis as a nativization strategy further strengthens its cross-linguistic prevalence in ensuring well-formedness of loan languages. Kinyarwanda is a Bantu language together with Luhya. Pursuant to the fact that Lulogooli is a dialect of the latter, Mbonankira’s findings should add valuable insights to the present study.
Miao (2005) provides an account of Mandarin Chinese loanword phonology within the Optimality Theory framework. The study analyses substitution of consonant phonemes alien to Mandarin together with the adaptations of foreign consonant clusters that are impermissible in Mandarin from German, Italian and English languages. The theory of Optimality is applied in line with perception model where only perceivable sound segments tend to be preserved. The study further discusses the role sociolinguistic factors play in the phonological adaptation of loanwords in Mandarin. The present study benefited a lot from the work by Miao. This is because both researches employ the theory of Optimality in the analysis of data on syllable structure adaption and consonantal changes of loan words. The study on Standard Mandarin Chinese was conducted using a large corpus data of English, German and Italian loanwords. The findings greatly affirmed the earlier study by Guo (2001) with epenthesis overriding deletion in syllable structure adaptation. It was also established that the patterns of segmental adaptation in consonants were systematic with manner features ranking higher in the constraint hierarchy followed by place features and voice ranking least. These same constraints were successfully employed in the present study. This corroborates the previously asserted universality of Optimality theory. It follows from the fact that similar constraints apply for different languages with language specific constraint ranking differentiatinglanguagephonology.
Akwala (2008) studied the phonological and morphological nativization of Dholuo loanwords in Lumarachi. The study was conducted within the theory of Natural Generative Phonology (NGP). It was established that phonological and morphological processes account for the nativization of Lumarachi loanwords from Dholuo. Lumarachi being a dialect of the Luhya language sheds some light on the understanding of Lulogooli loanword adaptation. The study, like many others,underscores the role of the borrowing language in understanding the systematic nativization patterns. This is because the borrowing language dictates, to a great extent, the adaptation strategy for all incoming sound segments.
Sang (2009) studied the phonological adaptation of English Loanwords in Naandi using Feature Specification theory together with Optimality Theory. The Feature Specification theory was used to account for the adaptation of vowel and consonant phonemes from English into Naandi. The theory of Optimality was used in explaining the syllable structure adaptation constraints undergirding the nativization of English loanwords in Naandi. This research also elaborated that indeed epenthesis is preferred to deletion in the adaptation of illicit consonant clusters. This strengthens the cross-linguistic ramifications of Optimality theory. In addition, the quality of the epenthetic vowel in Naandi was also found to be predictable using Optimality Theory. The epenthetic vowel copied features of preceding consonants or vowels within the same syllable depending on the position of the loanword consonant cluster, that is, at the onset, medially or coda position. Therefore, given that the present study is also interested in the syllable structure adaptations of Lulogooli loanwords, generalizations from the Naandi research should be insightful.
1.9. Methodology
This subsection provides information on how the data used in the study of Lulogooli loanword phonology was collected and analysed.
1.9.1. Data Collection
The present study relied on primary data of one hundred and four words elicited from naturalistic observation and introspection. In the naturalistic observation, the author armed with a notebook noted down loanwords from conversations within the natural environment from native speakers of
Lulogooli. The conversations in the church, matatus, bus termini and the vernacular radio station were used. Mulembe Fm’s interactive listener and presenter correspondences together with Luhya
songs constitute the bulk of the data. The study was conducted in the county of Vihiga specifically within South Maragoli in the period of April and May 2020. The county of Kakamega was the preferred destination for data collection as it is home to a majority of Lulogooli speakers. The second data elicitation technique was introspection using native speaker competence to supplement the observation data. This is pursuant to the fact that I am a native speaker of Lulogooli.
1.9.2. Data Analysis
The word list compiled for the study was first transcribed orthographically then using IPA symbols together with a gloss of their meaning for analysis. The orthographic transcription was necessary for researchers and other enthusiasts interested in the language. The orthographic transcription is presented in the appendix section of this study. The data was represented in tables to analyse preferred repair strategies. Using the statistics on repair strategies, faithfulness and markedness constraints were ranked to explain the resultant adaptations. The constraint ranking was done using Optimality tables. The data is composed of fifty Lulogooli loanwords words from English. The number of words was deemed sufficient for the present study which only focuses consonantal segments. Considering that both segmental and the phonotactic adaptations in words occur at the syllable level, all consonant clusters at the onset and coda positions within the syllable boundary were subjected to analysis. Moreover, it is vital to note that there are numerous cases of multiple adaptations of a single loanword for instance,the word /ekekombe/ meaning a cup in English.However, it is the former that is used most of the time. In such cases, I used both adaptations that for analysis. The data for English loanwords was further grouped according to the complexity of the consonants.
1.10. Conclusion
This chapter has introduced the topic under study, that is, a phonological analysis of Lulogooli loanwords from English. A background to the speakers of Lulogooli has been given, categorizing Lulogooli as a dialect of the Luhya language which further falls in the Bantu language group. There has also been a background on the greater subject of loanword phonology and the aim and significance of the study have also been tackled with research questions and possible hypotheses to be tested. The theoretical framework of Optimality theory as proposed by Prince and Smolensky (1993) has been introduced demonstrating how the constraint based approach adequately explains the segmental and phonotactic adaptations of loanwords in Lulogooli. Lastly, the methodology used in the collection and analysis of data was also presented.