Toward a Taxonomy of Loanword Prosody

Abstract

Building on previous works (e.g. Kubozono 2006, and Kang 2010), this article attempts to establish a taxonomy for loanword prosody, referring specifically to the patterns of stress, tone, or pitch-accent that are found in loanwords. Toward a taxonomy, we consider the following factors: (i) whether the pronunciation of the word in the source language influences the assignment of prosody in the borrowing language; (ii) whether prosody assignment is aided by rules (or constraints) that are specific to loanwords; and (iii) whether segmental features or suprasegmental features play a role. Exemplification of languages instantiating the taxonomy will be provided with discussion regarding issues that arise from the proposed taxonomy.

Keywords

• loanword
• prosody
• taxonomy