The Effects of Phonetic Duration on Loanword Adaptation: Mandarin Falling Diphthong in Chinese Korean

Ryu, Na-Young; Kang, Yoonjung; Han, Sungwoo

doi:10.30961/lr.2020.56.2.225

Lang. Res. 56(2):225-261

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2020.56.2.225

Linguistics

The Effects of Phonetic Duration on Loanword Adaptation: Mandarin Falling Diphthong in Chinese Korean

Na-Young Ryu¹, Yoonjung Kang²^,³, Sungwoo Han⁴^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Pennsylvania State University

²University of Toronto Scarborough

³University of Toronto

⁴Inha University

^†Corresponding Author: Professor Department of Korean Language and Literature Inha University 100 Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212, Korea , E-mail: drysoul@inha.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2020 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jul 04, 2020 ; Revised: Aug 20, 2020 ; Accepted: Aug 24, 2020

Published Online: Aug 31, 2020

ABSTRACT

This study examines how Mandarin falling sonority diphthongs are adapted to a Chinese Korean dialect. It investigates how the subtle phonetic conditions of the source language affect adaptation, and if and how those phonetic effects differ in established loanwords compared to the on-line adaptation of novel loan forms. We found that in this bilingual population, while the Mandarin diphthongs are usually adapted as monophthongs, obeying the native phonological restriction against falling diphthongs, the retention of the input diphthongs in violation of the native constraint is also quite common. Additionally, we found that the choice of the monophthong vs. diphthong realization is strongly affected by the input phonetic duration and in particular, the durational difference among the different tones is robustly reflected in the adaptation patterns.

Keywords: phonetic and phonological adaptation; loanwords; Mandarin falling diphthongs; Chinese Korean; tones

References

Ahn, S. C., & Iverson, G. K. (2007). Structured imbalances in the emergence of the Korean vowel system. In Salmons, J.C., Dubenion-Smith, S. (Eds.), Historical Linguistics 2005: Selected Papers from the 17th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Vol. 284, pp. 275-293). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company .

Barnes, J. (2006). Strength & weakness at the interface: Positional neutralization in phonetics and phonology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter .

Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1-48 .

Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. (2007). Nonnative and second language speech perception: commonalities and complementarities. In O. Bohn and M.J. Munro (Eds.), Language experience in second language speech hearing: in honor of James Emil Flege (pp. 13-34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company .

Blicher, D. L., Diehl, R. L., & Cohen, L. B. (1990). Effects of syllable duration on the perception of the Mandarin Tone 2/Tone 3 distinction: Evidence of auditory enhancement. Journal of Phonetics, 18(1), 37-49 .

Boersma, P., & Hamann, S. (2009). Loanword adaptation as first-language phonological perception. In L. Wetzels & A. Calabrese (Eds.), Studies in Loan Phonology (pp.11-53). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company .

Bundgaard-Nielson, R. L., Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D. (2011). Vocabulary size matters: The assimilation of second-language australian english vowels to first-language Japanese vowel categories. Applied Psycholinguistics 32(1), 51-67 .

Casali, R. F. (1996). Resolving hiatus (Doctoral dissertation). University of California Los Angeles, USA .

Chang, Y. H. S. (2011). Distinction between mandarin tones 2 and 3 for L1 and L2 Listeners. In Proceedings of the 23rd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (pp. 84-96), University of Oregon, Eugene, USA .

10.

Chao, Y. R. (1968). A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press .

11.

Chen, Y. (2006). Durational adjustment under corrective focus in Standard Chinese. Journal of Phonetics, 34(2), 176-201 .

12.

Cheng, C. C. (1973). A synchronic phonology of mandarin Chinese. The Hague: Mouton .

13.

Choi, W. G. (2001). The Korean minority in China: The change of its identity. Development and Society, 30(1), 119-141 .

14.

Cui, J. (2011). Investigations and studies on the use of language of Korean nationality discourse community in Dandong area (Master's thesis). Bohai University, China .

15.

Duanmu, S. (2007). The phonology of standard Chinese (2nd ed.,). Oxford: Oxford University Press .

16.

Eychenne, J., & Jang, T. Y. (2015). On the merger of Korean mid front vowels: Phonetic and phonological evidence. Journal of the Korean Society of Speech Sciences, 7, 119-129 .

17.

Han, S. (2011). The language identity of Korean-Chinese society in Qungdao, China [in Korean]. Journal of Korean Dialectology, 14, 113-135 .

18.

Han, S. (2014). The language change of Korean-chines society in China [in Korean]. Korean Studies, 32, 411-438 .

19.

Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language, 26, 210-231 .

20.

Howie, J. M. (1976). Acoustical studies of mandarin vowels and tones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

21.

Hsieh, F. F., Kenstowicz, M., & Mou, X. (2009). Mandarin adaptations of coda nasals in English loanwords. In Calabrese, Andrea; Wetzels, Leo (Eds.), Loanword phonology: Issues and models (pp. 131-154). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company .

22.

Ito, C., & Kenstowicz, M. (2009a). Mandarin loanwords in Yanbian Korean II: Tones. Language Research, 45(1), 85-109 .

23.

Ito, C., & Kenstowicz, M. (2009b). Mandarin loanwords in Yanbian Korean I: Laryngeal features. Phonological Studies, 12, 61-72 .

24.

Jin, W. (2008). Sounds of Chinese Korean: A variationist approach (Doctoral dissertation). University of Texas at Arlington, USA .

25.

Kang, H. S. (1997). Phonological variation in glides and diphthongs of Seoul Korean: Its synchrony and diachrony (Doctoral dissertation). Ohio State University, USA .

26.

Kang, Y. (2003). Perceptual similarity in loanword adaptation: English post-vocalic word- final stops in Korean. Phonology, 20, 219-273 .

27.

Kang, Y. (2010a). The emergence of phonological adaptation from phonetic adaptation: English loanwords in Korean. Phonology, 27, 225-253 .

28.

Kang, Y. (2010b). Tutorial overview: Suprasegmental adaptation in loanwords. Lingua, 120(9), 2295-2310 .

29.

Kang, Y., Han, S., Schertz, J., & Ryu, N. Y. (2016). A competition of local and supralocal norms in two Chinese Korean dialects: a case study of /y/. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation-Asia Pacific 4, Chiayi, Taiwan .

30.

Kang, Y., Schertz, J., & Han, S. (2015). Vowels of Korean dialects. Poster presented at the 169th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Pittsburgh, USA .

31.

Katayama, M. (1998). Optimality theory and Japanese loanword phonology (Doctoral dissertation). University of California, Santa Cruz, USA .

32.

Kenstowicz, M. (2003). The role of perception in loanword phonology. Studies in African Linguistics, 32, 95-112 .

33.

Kenstowicz, M., & Sohn, H. S. (2001). Accentual adaptation in North Kyungsang Korean. In Michael Kenstowicz (Eds.), Ken Hale: A life in language (pp. 239-270). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press .

34.

Kwon, H. (2017). Language experience, speech perception and loanword adaptation: Variable adaptation of English word-final plosives into Korean. Journal of Phonetics, 60, 1-19 .

35.

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

36.

Lee, K. M., & Ramsey, S. R. (2011). A history of the Korean language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

37.

Lin, Y. H. (2007). The sounds of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

38.

Martinet, A. (1952). Function, structure, and sound change. Word, 8(1), 1-32 .

39.

Nomura, J., & Ishikawa, K. (2016). Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis. Japanese Speakers International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(1), 69-87 .

40.

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

41.

Paradis, C., & LaCharité, D. (2008). Apparent phonetic approximation: English loanwords in Old Quebec French. Journal of Linguistics, 44, 87-128 .

42.

Paradis, C., & Tremblay, A. (2009). Nondistinctive features in loanword adaptation. Loan phonology (pp. 211-224). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company .

43.

Peperkamp, S., & Dupoux, E. (2003). Reinterpreting loanword adaptations: the role of perception. In Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 367-370), Barcelona, Spain .

44.

Poplack, S., Sankoff, D., & Miller, C. (1988). The social correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and assimilation. Linguistics, 26, 47-104 .

45.

Prince, A., & Smolensky, P. (1993). Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science Technical Report 2. ROA 537-0802 .

46.

R Development Core Team. (2019). A language and environment for statistical computing. Available online: https: //www.r-project.org .

47.

Schertz, J., Kang, Y., & Han, S. (2017). Cross-language correspondences in the face of change: phonetic independence vs. convergence in two Korean-Mandarin bilingual communities. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(1), 157-199 .

48.

Shin, J., Kiaer, J., & Cha, J. (2012). The sounds of Korean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

49.

Silva, D. J., & Jin, W. (2008). The merger of non-high front vowels in Korean: mission accomplished. Paper presented at the 16th International Conference on Korean Linguistics, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA .

50.

Silverman, D. (1992). Multiple scansions in loanword phonology: Evidence from Cantonese. Phonology, 9, 289-328 .

51.

Simonović, M. (2017). Inter-language mappings and why we can't have nice theories about them. Paper presented at the Workshop on Phonetics and Phonology in Loanword Adaptation, Cologne, Germany .

52.

Smith, J. L. (2006). Loan phonology is not all perception: evidence from Japanese loan doublets. In Timothy J. Vance & Kimberly A. Jones (Eds.) Japanese/Korean linguistics (Vol. 14, pp. 63-74). Palo Alto: CLSI Publications .

53.

Sohn, H. Min. (1999). The Korean language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

54.

Vendelin, I., & Peperkamp, S. (2006). The influence of orthography on loanword adaptations. Lingua, 116(7), 996-1007 .

55.

Wang, P. (2019). Hanyu putonghua qian xiang erhe yuanyin gongzhen feng moshi de yizhixing biaoxian. [The heterogeneity existing in formant patterns of falling diphthongs in Mandarin Chinese]. Yuyan kexue, 18(3), 299-309 .

56.

Wu, F., & Kenstowicz, M. (2015). Duration reflexes of syllable structure in Mandarin. Lingua, 164, 87-99 .

57.

Xu, Y. (1997). Contextual tonal variations in Mandarin. Journal of Phonetics, 25, 61-83 .

58.

Yip, M. (1993). Cantonese loanword phonology and optimality theory. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 9, 261-291 .

59.

Yip, M. (2002). Necessary but not sufficient: Perceptual loanword influence in loanword phonology. The Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan: Special Issue on Aspects of Loanword Phonology, 6, 4-21 .

60.

Yoon, T. J., Kang, Y., Han, S., Maeng, H. S., Lee, J., & Kim, K. (2015). A corpus-based approach to dialectal variation in Korean vowels. In Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom .