Phonological processes involved in the adjustment of English words borrowed into EkeGusii
Keywords:
Adjustment, Borrowing,EkeGusii, Lending, Nativisation, phonological process, phonological productivityAbstract
This paper interrogated the productivity of EkeGusii phonological processes in English words borrowed into EkeGusii, a Kenyan Bantu language. The processes under focus are: voice dissimilation, de-fricativisation, spirantisation, pre-nasalisation and homorganic assimilation and vowel height harmonisation and dis-harmonisation. Data analyzed in this article included English nouns borrowed into EkeGusii as collected from the following secondary sources: books (especially the EkeGusii Holy Bible), research papers/articles, theses, and the EkeGusii dictionary. The study drew conclusion that English phonemes not found in EkeGusii are changed to the nearest (acoustically) EkeGusii phonemes; to a large extent EkeGusii phonological rules apply to the output of the phonemic adaptations of English loans; EkeGusii adaptation processes do not differ in any significant way from the regular EkeGusii phonological processes; and finally, productivity the EkeGusii phonological processes in the English loans borrowed into EkeGusii is not as clear cut as previously thought. It is recommended that this kind of study be extended to other languages to ascertain the productivity of their phonological processes.
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Copyright (c) 2023 George Anyona

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