A psycholinguistic approach to loanword adaptations (and non-adaptations)

In linguistic theory, it is commonly held that native phonology and loanword phonology are indistinct in two ways. First, like native alternations, loanword adaptations apply in order to make a foreign form conform to the surface phonological structure of the borrowing language. Second, the repair strategies by which source forms are transformed into adapted forms are in conformity with the native phonological grammar. In this talk, I provide evidence that both statements are wrong, and argue that, consequently, loanword adaptations are not part of phonological grammar. Alternatively, I propose to deal with them in a psycholinguistic model of speech processing. Indeed, loanword adaptations do not involve synchronic alternations, but rather consist of transformations that are applied only during the introduction of the loanwords. I argue that these transformations are mainly the result of the psychological process of perceptual assimilation, that maps foreign sound patterns onto the acoustically closest native ones. This process may, however, be obscured by the influence of orthography. I illustrate my proposal with data from perception experiments, combined with acoustic analyses. Finally, I briefly turn to cases of non-adaptations, in which non-native sound structures are tolerated by the borrowing language, and propose how they may be accounted for within a psycholinguistic framework.