[Lingtyp] Loanwords tend to have more uncommon phonemes?

Joo, Ian joo at shh.mpg.de
Fri Jan 31 16:35:06 UTC 2020


Yes, sorry for the miswording: when I said “rare”, I meant rare in the vocabulary of a given language, not rare cross-linguistically.

Regards,
Ian

On 31. Jan 2020, at 17:33, Ian Maddieson <ianm at berkeley.edu<mailto:ianm at berkeley.edu>> wrote:

I’d comment that /b, p, o/ are cross-linguistically common — rather than rare — sounds, so they do not seem
to illustrate the case where ‘exotic’ sounds are more frequent in loanwords. Tariana has a full set of nasalized vowels
so õ fits with the existing phonological patterns of the language.

Ian

On Jan 31, 2020, at 09:10, Joo, Ian <joo at shh.mpg.de<mailto:joo at shh.mpg.de>> wrote:

Dear all,

I have also found some answers to my own question, I will just copy & paste this from a manuscript I am currently writing:

Aikhenvald (2010) observes that in Tariana, certain sounds – b, o and õ – occur frequently in East Tucanoan loanwords but are rare in other words. Whiteley (1965:4) observes that in Gusii phonology, ```p' occurs in one or two ideophones only, but is increasingly noticeable in the speech of the younger generation who have had contact with Swahili and English.”

Alexandra Y Aikhenvald. Language contact in Amazonia. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.
Wilfred Howell. Whiteley. A practical introduction to Gusii. East African Literature. Bureau, Nairobi, 1965.

I would much appreciate if anyone could point to other cases like this.

Regards,
Ian

On 31. Jan 2020, at 15:17, Joo, Ian <joo at shh.mpg.de<mailto:joo at shh.mpg.de>> wrote:

Dear all,

I would like to know if there are any sources that demonstrate that loanwords tend to have a larger number of rare, uncommon sounds as opposed to native words.
My intuition tells me that this is true, but I’ve yet to find any source that makes a general typological claim on this.
I would greatly appreciate your help.

From Jena,
Ian
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Ian Maddieson

Department of Linguistics
University of New Mexico
MSC03-2130
Albuquerque NM 87131-0001





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