The Correspondence in Mandarin Loanword Phonology: A Perception-Map Account

Author: Chin-Wei Wu(Department of Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 54, No. 1
Date：March 2009
Pages：27-52
DOI：10.3966/207451922009035401002

Abstract：

This study tries to provide a perceptual account to analyze the correspondent relationship in Mandarin Chinese loanwords. When different languages contact, loanwords would occur. It seems that loanword forms, the correspondence between borrowing language and native language, are influenced by the native phonological systems, and by the perception. In fact, the P-map model assumes perceptual knowledge of speakers and listeners are the key for the nice communication. When the borrowing forms are phonetically translated, the correspondence of loanwords formed may be due to avoid the similarity in the contrast; may be due to strengthen the contrast.
In this paper aims on the process of the consonants in word-initial, word medial, word final positions. Though observing the data, there is an asymmetry for the consonants in different positions. From the perceptual of view, the prominence unit such as onset is a salient unit. Thus, the consonants in the initial (onset) position tend to preserve, but the consonants in the final (coda) position may be deleted. In Optimality theory framework, the preference is explored by constraint ranking. Especially, it is obvious that the faithfulness constraints such as ONSET-FAITHFULNESS are higher-ranked than the markedness constraints. The deletion, or the epenthesis of vowels, or the adjustment of segments to break the consonantal cluster may be due to avoid the perceptual similarity or confusibility in coda position, or due to strengthen the contrast in onset position. And it is explored through the ranking of the relevant constraints such as *COMPLEX.

Keywords：Constraint ranking, loanword, Correspondence, Perception-Map Model

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