[Lingtyp] To include xenophones or not

[Alexander Rice]

One way I've seen something like this handled is in Nuckolls et al. 2016
(reference pasted below). In a particular Quechuan language, there is a
specific class of words (ideophones) that seemingly have a expanded
phonological inventory compared to the rest of the language's lexicon,
Nuckolls and co. call it a 'stretching' of the language's phonological
inventory. (reference pasted below)

they also mention one xenophone /o/, (from borrowings from Spanish) and
refer this as well as the phones unique to ideophones as 'marginal sounds',
they include such marginal phones in their tables of the language's vowel
and consonant inventories, but mark with them an asterisk to indicate their
marginality, or in other words, as distinct from the 'normal' phonological
inventory

Nuckolls, J. B., Nielsen, E., Stanley, J. A., & Hopper, R. (2016). The
systematic stretching and contracting of ideophonic phonology in Pastaza
Quichua. *International Journal of American Linguistics*, *82*(1), 95–116.
https://doi.org/10.1086/684425

On Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 12:50 AM JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk>
wrote:

> Dear typologists,
>
> I would like to seek your advice on a database I am making.
> For my doctoral project, I am compiling a phonological database of 700+
> Eurasian languages.
> The database includes basic information such as the list of word-finally
> permitted phonemes, maximal number of onsets in a syllable, etc.
> For this database, I would like your opinion on whether to include
> xenophonic (loanword-phonological) information or not.
> For example, should the database include phonemes that are only present in
> loanwords (such as /x/ in English)?
> If the language does not allow codas in native word/ but allow them in
> loanwords, should that information be allowed as well?
> If you were using the database, would you find such information helpful?
>
> Pros of adding the xenophonic information:
> The database would be more complete. Some xenophonic features can be very
> old (such as onset clusters in Tagalog, word-initial /r/ in Japanese,
> etc.), so in a sense they are "nativized" (although they may be still
> marked). If I mark the native phonology and the loanword phonology
> distinctly in my database (e. g. Including /ts/ in French phonology but
> specifying that it only appears in loanwords), then the user can use the
> database with or without xenophonic information.
>
> Cons:
> The problem of including xenophonic information is that, when considering
> loanwords, it is difficult to judge what is part of a language's phonology
> or not.
> For example /f/ occurs in very recent Korean loanwords such as /f/ail
> 'file' or /f/eyispwuk 'Facebook' and it's difficult to say if this is
> really a part of Korean phonology.
> Many minority language speakers are also fluent in their national language
> (such as Russian or Spanish) and they may pronounce loanwords from the
> national language in their 'original' pronunciation (such as Tuvan speakers
> pronouncing Russian loanwords in Russian pronunciation) and it's difficult
> to say if this means Russian phonology has fully integrated into Tuvan
> phonology.
> So where to divide the line between what is purely foreign and what has
> been nativized?
> On the other hand, distinguishing phonological features that are only
> present in loanwords from those that are also present in native words is
> quite straightforward and less controversial (although there is also the
> problem that we do not always know if a word is a loanword or not).
> Lastly, since I've already finished a good part of the database (about
> 15%), if I want to also include xenophonic information then I would have to
> go through the whole database again, so there's this practical issue.
>
> So I would appreciate your advice on whether including xenophonic
> information would be substantially beneficial to you or not, if you were
> using the database.
>
> From Hong Kong,
> Ian
>
>
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