Consonantal Adaptation of Arabic Loanwords in Kiswahili and Kisukuma: A Phonological Explanation

Saleh Batais

Abstract


Based on three lists of well-established Arabic lexical borrowings in Standard Kiswahili and Standard Kisukuma, the study attempts to answer two questions. First, the study explores what consonantal repair strategies are triggered by both Standard Kiswahili and Standard Kisukuma to ensure the conformity of the Arabic consonants with the consonantal inventories of the two borrowing languages. Second, it investigates whether these repair strategies are phonological operations. It was found that nine of the ten consonantal repairs employed by both Standard Kiswahili and Standard Kisukuma are governed by the hypothesis and principles proposed by Paradis and LaCharité (1997, 2001, 2005), that is, the Non-Availability Hypothesis, Category Proximity and Preservation Principles, and the Threshold Principle. These findings lend strong support to the argument that loanword adaptation processes are phonologically motivated. In conclusion, the paper aims to contribute primarily to the research on loanword adaptation in general, and to the literature relevant to the consonantal repair strategies in Standard Kiswahili and Standard Kisukuma, in particular.

Keywords


Adaptation, Loanwords, Consonantal Repairs, Arabic, Kiswahili, Kisukuma

Full Text:

PDF

References


Al-Ani, S. (1970). Arabic phonology: An acoustical and physiological investigation. The Hague: Mouton.

Al-Balushi, R. (2016). Omani Arabic: More than one dialect. Macrolinguistics, 4, 80-125.

Al Mahmoud, M. (2013). Discrimination of Arabic contrasts by American learners. Studies in Second Language, 3, 261-292.

Baldi, S. (2008). Dictionnaire des emprunts arabes dans les langues de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et en swahili. Paris: KARTHALA.

Baldi, S. (2012). Arabic loans in East African languages through Swahili. A survey. Folia Orientalia, 49, 37-52.

Ball, M. (1971). Variations in the assimilation of Arabic and English loans into the Swahili of Mombasa, Kenya. Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas.

Batais, S. (2013). Consonantal and syllabic repairs of Arabic and Dutch loanwords in Indonesian: A phonological account. Doctoral dissertation, University of Florida.

Bateson, M. C. (1967). Arabic language handbook .Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Batibo, H. (1985). Le Kesukuma (langue bantu de Tanzanie): Phonologie et morphologie. Paris: Editions recherche sur les civilisations.

Binasfour, H., Setter J., & Aslan E. (2017). Enhancing L2 learners’ perception and production of the Arabic emphatic sounds. Proceedings of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference. 16-20. Retrieved from http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/74891/ .

Coate, D. (2006). Lexical borrowing in Swahili from Arabic. Master’s thesis, Truman State University.

Contini-Morava, E. (1996). “Swahili phonology”. In A. Kaye, & P. Daniels (Eds.), Phonologies of Asia and Africa: including the Caucasus (pp 841-860). Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.

Ghazeli, S. (1977). Back consonants and backing coarticulation in Arabic. Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas.

Hollingsowrth, L. (1960). A short history of the east coast of Africa. New York: MacMillan & Co Ltd.

Iverson, G. (1989). On the category Supralaryngeal. Phonology, 6, 285-303.

Kharusi, N. (1994). The linguistic analysis of Arabic loanwords in Swahili. Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University.

Lababidi, Z. (2016). The L2 perceptual mapping of Arabic and English consonants by American English learners. Dcotoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin.

Lombardi, L. (1990). The nonlinear organization of the affricate. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 8, 375-425.

Maganda, D., & Moshi, L. (Eds.). (2014). Swahili people and their language: A teaching handbook. Asokoro, Nigeria: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.

Middleton, J. (1992). The world of the Swahili: An African mercantile civilization. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Mohamed, M. (2001). Modern Swahili grammar. Nairobi, Kenya: East African Educational Publishers Ltd.

Myachina, E. (1981). The Swahili language: A descriptive grammar. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Paradis, C., & LaCharité, D. (1997). Preservation and minimality in loanword adaptation. Journal of Linguistics, 33, 379-430.

Paradis, C., & LaCharité, D. (2001). Guttural deletion in loanwords. Phonology, 18, 255-300.

Paradis, C., & LaCharité, D. (2005). Category preservation and proximity versus phonetic approximation in loanword adaptation. Linguistic Inquiry, 36, 223-258.

Peperkamp, S., & Dupoux, E. (2003). Reinterpreting loanword adaptations: The role of perception. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 367-370. Retrieved from http://www.lscp.net/persons/dupoux/papers/Peperkamp_Dupoux_2003_Reinterpreting_loanword_adaptations_perception.In_ICPS15.pdf.

Perrott, D. (1992). Swahili. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group.

Polomé, E.C. (1967). Swahili language handbook. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Rose, S. (1996). Variable laryngeals and vowel lowering. Phonology, 13, 73-117.

Ryding, K. (2005). A reference grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Schadeberg, T. (2009). Loanwords in Swahili. In M. Haspelmath, & U. Tadmor (Eds.), Loanwords in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook (pp 76-102). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Tucker, A. (1946). .Foreign sounds in Swahili. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 12, 214-232.

Vitale, A. (1981). Swahili syntax. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Foris Publications.

Versteegh, K. (1999). Loanwords from Arabic and the merger of d/d'. Israel Oriental Studies, 19, 273-286.

Watson, J. (2007). The phonology and morphology of Arabic. New York: Oxford University Press.

Zawawi, S. (1979). Loan words and their effect on the classification of Swahili nominals. Leiden: E.J. Brill.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.10n.2p.85

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.