A CONSTRAINT-BASED ANALYSIS OF KIKAMBA NATIVIZED LOANWORDS: ABSTRACT
TOPIC:
A CONSTRAINT-BASED ANALYSIS OF KIKAMBA NATIVIZED
LOANWORDS
STUDENT:
NDAMBUKI BERNARD MUTUA
REG. NO.:
C50/CE/11613/2007
SUPERVISORS: 1. DR. RUTH W. NDUNG’U
2. DR. CALEB I. SHIVACHI
DEPARTMENT: ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS
SCHOOL:
HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
ABSTRACT
This work is a constraint-based analysis of Kikamba nativized loanwords. The mechanism used by the recipient language in the phonological modification of loanwords has been explained within the framework of Optimality Theory, a linguistic model which proposes that observed forms of languages arise from the interaction between conflicting constraints. It is through the interaction of markedness and faithfulness constraints that the output forms – the nativized words
– are realized. The study has investigated the strategies used by the recipient system, Kikamba, to handle phonologically different words from English. Notably, the recipient language has open syllables and does not allow consonant clusters in the onset. In sharp contrast, English has closed syllables and allows consonant clusters in both onset and coda positions. The phonemic inventories of the two languages also differ considerably. The borrowed words are, therefore, significantly modified in order to conform to the phonotactics of Kikamba. This cannot be achieved without violating faithfulness. The high-ranked markedness constraints in Kikamba trigger the repair strategies in order to increase the well-formedness of the surface forms. The study sought to establish how the grammar of Kikamba resolves the conflict between markedness and faithfulness constraints in the selection of optimal output forms, namely the nativized words.
The study utilized primary data which were collected in Machakos District where the subjects are predominantly speakers of Kikamba. Out of a corpus of 200 words collected, 75 were purposefully sampled for analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been
A CONSTRAINT-BASED ANALYSIS OF KIKAMBA NATIVIZED
LOANWORDS
STUDENT:
NDAMBUKI BERNARD MUTUA
REG. NO.:
C50/CE/11613/2007
SUPERVISORS: 1. DR. RUTH W. NDUNG’U
2. DR. CALEB I. SHIVACHI
DEPARTMENT: ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS
SCHOOL:
HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
ABSTRACT
This work is a constraint-based analysis of Kikamba nativized loanwords. The mechanism used by the recipient language in the phonological modification of loanwords has been explained within the framework of Optimality Theory, a linguistic model which proposes that observed forms of languages arise from the interaction between conflicting constraints. It is through the interaction of markedness and faithfulness constraints that the output forms – the nativized words
– are realized. The study has investigated the strategies used by the recipient system, Kikamba, to handle phonologically different words from English. Notably, the recipient language has open syllables and does not allow consonant clusters in the onset. In sharp contrast, English has closed syllables and allows consonant clusters in both onset and coda positions. The phonemic inventories of the two languages also differ considerably. The borrowed words are, therefore, significantly modified in order to conform to the phonotactics of Kikamba. This cannot be achieved without violating faithfulness. The high-ranked markedness constraints in Kikamba trigger the repair strategies in order to increase the well-formedness of the surface forms. The study sought to establish how the grammar of Kikamba resolves the conflict between markedness and faithfulness constraints in the selection of optimal output forms, namely the nativized words.
The study utilized primary data which were collected in Machakos District where the subjects are predominantly speakers of Kikamba. Out of a corpus of 200 words collected, 75 were purposefully sampled for analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been