Phonology and phonetics of loanword adaptation: Russian place names in Japanese and Korean∗ Alexei Kochetov University of Toronto
The goal of the paper is to test two alternative approaches to loanword adaptation. The ‘strict phonological’ hypothesis views the adaptation process as direct mapping between phonemes of the source language and phonemes of the borrowing language. The ‘strict phonetic’ hypothesis views the process as parsing the input acoustic signal and mapping it onto phonological or phonetic categories of the borrowing language. Predictions of the two approaches are examined using a corpus of Japanese and Korean adaptations of Russian place names. It is shown that patterns of adaptation involve both phonological and phonetic mappings. Different adaptation strategies are used for different phonological contrasts, as well as somewhat differently in each of the two borrowing languages.
1. Introduction
Loanword adaptation – the process by which speakers adjust foreign words to fit the phonology and phonetics of their native language – is of considerable interest to phonological theory. The process provides important insight into how borrowers productively use their native phonological knowledge, and how this knowledge is interfaced with auditory perception of non-native sounds. Recent work on loanword phonology, however, shows little agreement on which factors – phonological or phonetic dominate the process of adaptation of foreign words. One view holds that adaptation is ‘overwhelmingly phonological’ (Paradis & LaCharité 1997; Paradis & Prunet 2000; LaCharité & Paradis 2001, among others). Adaptation is assumed to be based on borrowers’ accurate interpretation of phonemic categories of the source language (L2), matched to featurally closest phonemic categories of their native language (L1). An alternative view argues that adaptation is inherently phonetic, shaped by auditory ∗ I would like to thank Yasuko Sakurai for assistance with compiling the corpus of Russian place names for the current study and Lan Kim for help with transliteration of Korean adaptations. Thanks to Manami Hirayama, Hyung-Soo Kim, and Kyumin Kim for helpful comments and suggestions on the earlier version of the paper. All errors are my own. This research was funded by SSHRC.
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perception (Silverman 1992; Peperkamp & Dupoux 2003). Adaptation, in this approach, is based on borrowers’ parsing of the input L2 acoustic signal and mapping it onto auditorily similar L1 phonological or phonetic categories. We will refer to these two approaches as the ‘strict phonological’ and ‘strict phonetic’ hypotheses. It should be kept in mind, however, that neither of the approaches completely denies the role of either phonetics or phonology in loanword adaptation. Further, some researchers explicitly allow for an interaction of phonemic, contrastive categories and sub-phonemic, non-contrastive detail in loanword adaptation (Jacobs & Gussenhoven 2000; Yip 2002; Kang 2003; Kenstowicz 2005; Smith 2006).
The goal of this paper is to provide new data crucial to testing the ‘strict phonological’ and ‘strict phonetic’ hypotheses, contributing to better understanding of the process of loanword adaptation in general. The data come from a corpus of approximately 300 adaptations of Russian geographical place names in Japanese and Korean. Most work on loanword adaptation in these two languages has focused on lexical borrowings from English, and to a much lesser degree from other western European languages (e.g. Lovins 1975; Itô & Mester 1995; Kang 2003; Heo & Lee 2005; Kenstowicz 2005). Little work, if any, has been done on the adaptation of Russian phonological categories in Japanese and Korean; this is likely to be due to the relative paucity of Russian lexical loans in these languages. In this respect, Japanese and Korean adaptations of Russian geographical place names are of particular interest, allowing for a systematic investigation of L1 and L2 phonological and phonetic mappings. The focus of this paper is on how Japanese and Korean adaptations of place names reflect certain aspects of Russian phonology: vowel quality, voicing in obstruents, coda stops, as well as manner and secondary articulation contrasts in liquids. It will be shown that the patterns of place name adaptation reflect borrowers’ reference to both phonological categories and phonetic properties of the input, however, somewhat differently depending on a given phonological contrast and on the borrowing language. 2. Corpus of Russian place names
A corpus of Japanese and Korean adaptations of Russian place names was compiled using two primary sources: a Japanese world atlas (Just Now Saishin Sekai Chizu, 1994) and the Korean Wikipedia (2006). The Japanese Wikipedia (2006) was also consulted. The current version of the corpus consists of a total of 306 entries – cities and towns of Russian Federation. The original Russian words were transcribed using IPA both phonemically and phonetically (assuming the Standard Russian pronunciation: Avanesov 1984). 289 of the entries have Japanese equivalents in the corpus, written in the Katakana script and transliterated using the modified Hepburn system of Romanization. 122 entries have Korean equivalents, written in the Hangul script and transliterated using the Yale Romanization system. In addition, some of the entries were provided with English transcription, based on Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (1996). Two sample entries from the corpus are shown in Table 1. (A subset of the corpus can be found on the author’s webpage.)
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Table 1: Sample entries from the corpus a. Russian Архангельск /arˈxanɡelʲsk/ [ʌr.ˈxan.ɡʲɪlʲsk] Japanese アルハンゲリスク a.ru.haN.ge.ri.su.ku Korean 아르한겔스크 a.lu.han.keyl.su.khu
English Arkhangelsk [ɑɹ.ˈkæn.ˌɡɛlsk] b. Russian Псков /pskov/ [pskɔf] Japanese プスコフ pu.su.ko.fu Korean 프스코프 phu.su.kho.phu English Pskov [pǝ.ˈskɔf / pǝ.ˈskɔv]
Below, the adaptation of Russian vowels and consonants will be presented separately. 3. Adaptation of Russian vowels
Russian has a relatively simple six vowel inventory system, /i e a o u / (Jones & Ward 1969; Avanesov 1984, Timberlake 2004). Vowel length is not contrastive. The default realization of the first five vowels is [i ɛ a ɔ u]. This quality is typical of stressed syllables in the context of non-palatalized (‘plain’) consonants. In unstressed syllables, all vowels are reduced in duration, as well as in quality. /i u/ become less peripheral, [ɪ ʊ]; /o a/ are merged into [ʌ] or [ə], depending on the syllable position with respect to stress. Next to, and particularly between palatalized consonants, stressed vowels are gradiently fronted and raised, with /e o/ becoming more tense [e o], /a/ approximating [æ], and /u/ approximating [ʉ] or [y]. Unstressed /i e a o/ next to palatalized consonants tend to merge into [ɪ], while /u/ is [ʉ] or [ʏ]. Phonologically, // patterns as a [+back] vowel, occurring after non-palatalized ([+back]) consonants; phonetically, it tends to be realized as a diphthong [ʲ].
With the exception of //, the Russian phonemic vowel inventory is thus similar to that of Japanese, which has /i e a o u/ (Vance 1987; Okada 1999; Itô & Mester 2003). In Japanese, however, each of these vowels can be distinctively short or long. The Japanese /u/ is an unrounded [ɯ]. High vowels tend to devoice next to voiceless obstruents. Overall, however, Japanese vowels do not seem to exhibit as much contextual variation as Russian vowels. The Korean vowel inventory has at least 8 contrastive vowel qualities: /i e ɛ a o u ə/ (and possibly /y/, /ø/ and /ʌ/), as well as several diphthongs (Kim-Renaud 1991; Ahn 1998; Lee 1999). Vowel length is marginally contrastive, and limited to the initial syllable. Thus like Russian, Korean has a [+high, +back, -round] vowel //. Some of the Korean vowels seem to be phonetically similar to different allophonic realizations of Russian vowels: for example, the Korean /e/ and /ɛ/ vs. the Russian [e] and [ɛ] allophones of /e/, the Korean /ə/ vs. the Russian [ə] realization of /o/ and /a/. 3.1. Vowels /i e a o u/
A close examination of the words in the corpus shows that the Russian vowels /i e a o u/ are consistently mapped onto the Japanese vowel qualities /i e a o u/ and the
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Korean vowels /i e a o u/ respectively (1). These correspondences seem to hold regardless of stress and consonant context of the Russian vowels. Some examples are given in Table 2. Thus, Korean adapts the item ‘Abakan’ as the phonologically more ‘faithful’ <a.pa.khan> [abakhan], rather than the phonetically closer [əbʌkhan]. Similarly, Japanese adapts the item ‘Berezniki’ as <berezuniki> [beɾezɯɲikʲi], rather than the phonetically closer <birijiniki> [bʲiɾʲiʑiɲikʲi]. (1) a. Russian /i e a o u / Japanese <i e a o u> /i e a o u/ b. Russian /i e a o u / Korean <i ey a o wu> /i e a o u/ Table 2: Adaptation of /i e a o u/: Place names ‘Abakan’, ‘Berezniki’, ‘Novgorod’,
‘Yekaterinburg’, ‘Chelyabinsk’, and ‘Tyumen’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /abaˈkan/ a.ba.kaN a.pa.khan [ə.bʌ.ˈkaˑn] b. /berezniˈki/ be.re.zu.ni.ki pey.ley.cu.ni.khi [bʲɪ.rʲɪzʲ.nʲɪ.ˈkʲiˑ] c. /ˈnovɡorod/ no.vu.go.ro.do no.pu.ko.lo.thu [ˈnɔˑv.ɡʌ.rʌt] d. /jekaterinˈburɡ/ e.ka.te.riN.bu.ru.gu yey.kha.they.lin.pwu.lu.khu [jɪ.kə.tʲɪ.rʲɪn.ˈbuˑrk] e. /ʧeˈlʲabinsk/ che.rya.biN.su.ku cheyl.lya.pin.su.khu [ʧʲɪ.ˈlʲæˑ.bʲɪnsk] f. /tʲuˈmenʲ/ chu.me.ni thyu.meyn [tʲʏ.ˈmʲeˑnʲ] Table 3: Adaptation of stressed vowels: Place names ‘Kirovsk’, ‘Petrozavodsk’,
‘Volgograd’, and ‘Yakutsk’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /ˈkirovsk/ kii.ro.fu.su.ku khi.lop.su.khu [ˈkʲiˑ.rʌfsk] b. /petrozaˈvodsk/ pe.to.ro.za.voo.tsu.ku phey.thu.lo.ca.pos.su.khu [pʲɪt.rə.zʌ.ˈvɔˑʦk] c. /volɡoˈɡrad/ vo.ru.go.gu.raa.do pol.ko.ku.la.tu [vəɫ.ɡʌ.ˈɡraˑt] d. /jaˈkutsk/ ya.kuu.tsu.ku ya.khwu.chu.khu [jɪ.ˈkuˑʦk]
This adaptation strategy, a direct mapping between phonemic categories, is fully
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consistent with the strict phonological hypothesis. What is not consistent with this hypothesis, however, is the occasional adaptation of Russian stressed vowels as long Japanese vowels. For example, the first vowel of ‘Kirovsk’, the stressed /i/, is rendered in Japanese as <ii> /i/, as shown in Table 3. The corpus contains only 19 adaptations of this type (out of 289 Japanese forms), yet representing all six Russian vowels. Some forms showed variation depending on our Japanese source. For example, Samara /saˈmara/ [sʌ.ˈmaˑ.rʌ] is rendered in the world atlas as <samara>, while in Wikipedia as <samaara>. This adaptation strategy may reflect the phonetic properties of Russian stressed vowels, which can be twice as long as unstressed vowels (Bolla 1981). If this interpretation is correct, it provides some support for the strict phonetic hypothesis: borrowers refer to (albeit variably) non-contrastive information of the source language. 3.2. Vowel /ˆ/
The adaptation of the vowel // requires special attention. Although Korean has a phonologically similar [+high, +back, -round] vowel <u> //, it adapts the Russian // as the front <i> /i/ (thus merging it with the original Russian /i/) (2a). Japanese, however, commonly interprets the Russian // as a sequence of /u/ and /i/, phonetically [ɯi] (2b). Occasionally, the vowel is rendered as <i> /i/ [i]; it is rendered as <u> /u/ [ɯ] when the Russian vowel occurs before /i/. Examples are shown in Table 4. (2) a. Russian // Korean <i> /i/ [i] b. Russian // Japanese <ui> /u/ + /i/ [ɯi] or <i> /i/ [i] Russian //__i/j Japanese <u> /u/ [ɯ] Table 4: Adaptation of //: Place names ‘Syktyvkar’, ‘Khanty-Mansiysk’, and
‘Naberezhnye Chelny’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /sɨktɨvˈkar/ su.i.ku.tu.i.fu.ka.ru sik.thi.phu.kha.lu [sɨk.tɨʲf.ˈkaˑr] b. /ˌxantɨ manˈsijsk/ haN.tu.i maN.shii.su.ku han.thi.man.si.su.khu [ˌxan.tɨʲ.mʌnʲ.ˈsʲiˑjsk] c. /ˈnabereʒnɨje ʧelˈnɨ/ na.be.re.zu.nu.i che.ru.nii na.pey.ley.cu.ni.yey cheyl.ni [ˈna.bʲɪ.rʲɪʐ.nɨʲ.jɪ ʧʲɪɫ.ˈnɨʲˑ]
The adaptation of // as [i] in Korean and as (predominantly) [ɯi] in Japanese can be explained by the phonetic properties of the Russian vowel and its phonetic similarity to vowels of the borrowing languages. The Russian // is phonetically more front than central, and has a high front off-glide ([ʲ]) (Bolla 1981). Korean borrowers thus appear to focus on the phonetic similarity of the Russian to their high unrounded vowels. It is closer to the Korean /i/ than to //, which is more back, phonetically approximating [ɯ]
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(Lee 1999). 1 Japanese borrowers, however, appear to focus on the diphthongoid realization of the Russian vowel, and use [ɯi] to render this phonetic property. This interpretation, again, supports the strict phonetic hypothesis.
In sum, the adaptation of the Russian vowels /i e a o u/ in Japanese and Korean is overwhelmingly phonological. The only exception to this is occasional adaptation of the Russian stressed vowels as long vowels in Japanese. The adaptation of the high central //, however, is arguably sensitive to phonetic properties of the Russian vowels. Yet the phonetic properties attended to by the two borrowing languages are not the same. 4. Adaptation of Russian consonants
The Russian consonant inventory is shown in (3) (based on Jones & Ward 1969; Avanesov 1984; Timberlake 2004). An important characteristic of the inventory is the contrast between plain and palatalized consonants, involving labials, coronals, and dorsals. Non-palatalized consonants (and particularly labials and /l/) are phonetically velarized. Non-palatalized anterior coronals are apico-laminal dentals (/t d n l/) or alveolars (/ts s z r/); palatalized anterior coronals are commonly laminal alveolars. The posterior coronals, some of which are unpaired with respect to palatalization, are phonetically realized as palatalized ([ʧj ʃj]) or non-palatalized (retroflex, [ʂ ʐ]). In native words, only palatalized consonants occur before front vowels /i/ and /e/;2 only plain consonants occur before /ɨ/. Plain and palatalized consonants are contrastive not only before vowels (onset), but also word-finally and before consonants (coda or onset). Stops are released word-finally and before heterorganic consonants.
Obstruents show a two-way contrast in voicing, phonetically realized as voiced and voiceless unaspirated respectively. The contrast is neutralized in word-final position, where only voiceless obstruents are found. Obstruents in clusters assimilate regressively in both voicing and voicelessness. The set of liquids includes both laterals /l lj/ and rhotics /r rj/. The former are commonly realized as trills. (3) Labial Coronal Dorsal [+anterior] [-anterior] Stops/affricates voiceless p pj t tj ts ʧ k kj voiced b bj d dj ɡ (ɡj) Fricatives voiceless f fj s sj ʃ ʃj x voiced v vj z zj ʒ Nasals m mj n nj Liquids l lj r rj Glides j 4.1. The voicing contrast
The two-way place contrast in obstruents in Japanese is similar phonologically 1 Note that the Russian // could have also been adapted as the phonetically similar Korean sequence /j/ [ʲ~i] (as in /jsa/ ‘doctor’; Hyung-Soo Kim, p.c. June 20, 2007). This strategy, however, has not been attested in the corpus. 2 In the broad, phonemic transcription used in this paper, all consonants before /i/ and /e/ are shown as plain.
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and phonetically to that of Russian: voiceless (unaspirated in stops) vs. voiced (Vance 1987; Okada 1999; Itô & Mester 2003). In this respect, the following common mappings of Russian obstruents found in the place name adaptation (4) are not surprising. Some examples of these mappings are shown in Table 5. (4) Russian Japanese /p pj t ts tj ʧ k kj/ <p py t t(u) ch k ky> [p pj t ts ʨ k kj] /b bj d dj ɡ ɡj/ <b by d j g gy> [b bj d ʑ ɡ ɡj] /f s sj ʃ x/ <h(u) s sh h> [ɸ s ɕ h] /v vj z zj ʒ/ <v z j> [v z ʑ]
Notes: The Japanese [ʨ] represents both Russian /tj/ and /ʧ/; [ɕ] represents /sj/ and /ʃ/; [ʑ] represents /zj/ and /ʒ/; [v] represents /v/ and /vj/ (/vjV/ <vuyV>).
It should be noted that while most of these mappings are apparently phoneme-to-
phoneme, certain Russian phonemes are mapped onto Japanese categories that are arguably allophonic. For example, [ts] and [ɸ] can be considered as allophones of /t/ and /h/ before /u/ (Vance 1987).
Korean is known to have a three-way laryngeal contrast in stops and affricates: voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, and voiceless tensed (glottalized) (Kim-Renaud 1991; Ahn 1998; Lee 1999). Voiceless unaspirated stops are voiced between sonorant segments. In coda, the contrast is neutralized in favour of the unreleased voiceless unaspirated stop. Fricatives include the voiceless non-tense /s/ (which is voiced between sonorants), the voiceless tense /s*/, and the laryngeal /h/. In the adaptation of place names, Russian voiceless (unaspirated) stops are always mapped onto the Korean voiceless aspirated stops, while voiced stops are mapped onto voiceless unaspirated stops (5). Tense stops or fricatives are conspicuously absent in adaptations. See Table 5 for examples. (5) Russian Korean /p pj t ts tj ʧ k kj/ <ph th ch kh> [pʰ tʰ ʨʰ kʰ] /b bj d dj ɡ ɡj/ <p t k> [p/b t/d d/ɡ] /f s sj ʃ x/ <ph s s(i) h> [pʰ s ʃ h] /v vj z zj ʒ/ <p c> [p/b ʨ/ʥ]
Notes: Here and below, Russian palatalized consonants before vowels are rendered as sequences of consonants with j-initial diphthongs; the Korean [ʃ] represents /sj/ and /ʃ/; [ʨ/ʥ] represent /z/, /zj/, and /ʒ/.
The choice of the Korean voiceless aspirated (rather than voiceless unaspirated or
voiceless tense) category to represent Russian voiceless non-aspirated is somewhat surprising from the phonetic point of view. Russian voiceless stops are unaspirated, like in French and unlike in English. Korean has been reported to use tense stops when adapting French voiceless stops and aspirated stops when adapting English voiceless stops (Kenstowicz 2005; Kang 2003). The representation of Russian voiced stops in our data, however, is both phonologically and phonetically justified. Korean voiceless non-aspirated stops are presumably phonologically voiced (Kim & Duanmu 2004); they are also phonetically voiced between sonorants (Lee 1999).
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Table 5: Adaptation of voicing in obstruents: Place names ‘Grozny’, ‘Krasnodar’,
‘Voronezh’, ‘Cherepovets’, ‘Tobolsk’, and ‘Novosibirsk’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /ˈɡroznɨj/ gu.ro.zu.nu.i ku.lo.su.ni [ˈɡrɔz.nɨj] b. /krasnoˈdar/ ku.ra.su.no.da.ru khu.la.su.no.ta.lu [krəs.nʌ.ˈdar] c. /voˈroneʒ/ vo.ro.ne.ji po.lo.ney.syu [vʌ.ˈrɔ.nʲɪʂ] d. /ʧerepoˈveʦ/ che.re.po.ve.tsu chey.ley.pho.pei.chu [ʧʲɪ.rʲɪ.pʌ.ˈvʲɛʦ] e. /toˈbolʲsk/ to.bo.ri.su.ku tho.pol.su.khu [tʌˈbɔlʲsk] f. /novosiˈbirsk/ no.vo.si.bi.ru.su.ku no.po.si.pi.lu.su.khu [nə.vʌ.sʲɪ.ˈbʲirsk]
The above-described adaptation of Russian voiced obstruents phonemes is true of the unmarked context: before sonorants (vowels and sonorant consonants). Recall that Russian obstruents are devoiced word-finally (final neutralization) or before other voiceless obstruents (regressive assimilation). For example, the final /d/ of /ˈbelɡorod/ is devoiced to [t]: [ˈbʲɛɫ.ɡʌ.rʌt] (cf. [ˈbʲɛɫ.ɡʌ.rʌda], genitive); the pre-consonantal /b/ of /boris-o-ˈɡleb-sk/ is devoiced to [p]: [bə.ˌrʲi.sʌ.ˈɡlʲɛpsk] (cf. [ˈɡlʲɛba], personal name, genitive). Japanese adaptations generally render Russian devoiced obstruents as voiced.3 The only exception is the devoiced fricative /v/ [f], which appears in Japanese as [ɸ], an allophone of /h/ before [u] (6a). (Note that the original prevocalic /v/ is consistently rendered in Japanese as [v]; see examples (cd) in Table 5.) The treatment of Russian devoiced obstruents is different in Korean (6b). Word-final devoiced stops, affricates, and /v/ are rendered as prevocalic voiceless aspirated stops or affricates. Regressively devoiced coda obstruents are rendered as (unreleased) voiceless unaspirated stops. In both cases, the treatment of Russian devoiced obstruents is similar to that of the underlying voiceless obstruents, which will be discussed in the next section. See Table 6 for examples. (The corpus contains no examples of regressive voicing assimilation.)
3 There are two examples of the adaptation of devoiced stops as Japanese voiceless stops: /naˈxodka/ [nʌ.ˈxɔt.kʌ] nahotoka ‘Nakhodka’ and /kaˈʧuɡ/ [kʌ.ˈʧʲuk] kachuku ‘Kachug’.
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(6) a. Russian Japanese __#/Cvls /D/ [T] <D(V)> [D]
/v/ [f] <f(u)> [ɸ] b. Russian Korean __# /D/ [T] <Th(u)> [Tʰ]
__Cvls /D/ [T] <T.> [T˺] Note: D = [+voice], T = [-voice], Tʰ = [-voice, +spread], T˺ = [-voice], unreleased.
Table 6: Adaptation of voicing in obstruents: Place names ‘Belgorod’, ‘Borisoglebsk’,
‘Saratov’, and ‘Kirovsk’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /ˈbelɡorod/ be.ru.go.ro.do peyl.ko.lo.thu [ˈbʲɛɫ.ɡʌ.rʌt] b. /borisoˈɡlebsk/ bo.ri.so.gu.re.bu.su.ku po.li.so.kul.leyp.su.khu [bə.ˌrʲi.sʌ.ˈɡlʲɛpsk] c. /saˈratov/ sa.ra.to.fu sa.la.tho.phu [sʌ.ˈra.tʌf] d. /ˈkirovsk/ kii.ro.fu.su.ku khi.lop.su.khu [ˈkʲi.rʌfsk]
While the adaptation strategy used by Japanese for most obstruents is in line with the strict phonological hypothesis, its adaptation of the devoiced /v/ as [f] contradicts the hypothesis. So does the Korean adaptation of devoiced obstruents in general. In these cases, borrowers appear to refer to the surface realization of voiced obstruents, rather than to their phonemic status. 4.2. Coda consonants
In Russian, consonants of all places and manners of articulation occur freely in onset and coda. Unlike Russian, Japanese does not allow coda consonants other than the moraic nasal /N/ or stops in homorganic clusters (geminates) (Vance 1987; Okada 1999; Itô & Mester 2003). Korean does not allow coda consonants other than the nasals /m n ŋ/, the liquid /l/, and voiceless stops (Kim-Renaud 1991; Ahn 1998; Lee 1999). Given these restrictions, many Russian coda consonants are subject to phonological ‘repairs’. In Japanese adaptations, all Russian coda (word-final or preconsonantal) consonants other than /n/ are followed by an epenthetic <o> [o] (if /t/ or /d/), <u> [ɯ] (if other plain consonant), or <i> [i] (if palatalized consonant). See Table 7 for examples with plain coda stops. Note that the Japanese /u/ and /i/ are devoiced to [ɯ̥] and [i ̥] between voiceless obstruents, as well as word-finally after voiceless obstruents (Vance 1987). This makes them phonetically similar to the original Russian released stops.
The Russian nasals, /l/, and occasionally voiceless stops remain unaltered in Korean adaptations; other coda/preconsonantal consonants are followed by an epenthetic <u> [ɨ]. Deletion, as a repair strategy, is not used in the adaptation of Russian place
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names, consistently with previous observations of English loanword adaptation in these languages (Lovins 1975; Kang 2003; but see Smith 2006 on earlier loans in Japanese). Table 7: Adaptation of coda stops: Place names ‘Surgut’, ‘Vladivostok’, ‘Cheboksary’,
‘Tiksi’, ‘Vologda’, and ‘Rudnaya Pristan'’ Russian Japanese Korean a. /surˈɡut/ su.ru.gu.to swu.lu.kwu.thu [sʊr.ˈɡutɨ]̥ b. /vladivosˈtok/ u.ra.ji.o.su.to.ku4 pul.la.ti.po.su.tho.khu [vɫə.dʲɪ.vʌs.ˈtɔkɨ]̥ c. /ʧebokˈsarɨ/ che.bo.ku.sa.ri chey.pok.sa.li [ʧʲɪ.bʌk.ˈsa.rɨ] d. /ˈtiksi/ ti.ku.shi thik.si [ˈtʲik.sʲɪ] e. /ˈvoloɡda/ vo.ro.gu.da pol.lo.ku.ta [ˈvɔ.ɫʌɡ.dʌ] f. /ˈrudnaja ˈpristanʲ/ ru.do.na.ya pu.ri.su.ta.ni lwu.tu.na.ya phu.li.su.than [ˈrud.nʌjʌ ˈprʲis.tʌnʲ]
The treatment of Russian stops in Korean deserves special attention. As noted above, Russian word-final stops (voiceless or devoiced) are consistently rendered as Korean aspirated stops followed by an epenthetic <u> [ɨ] (7). This is somewhat surprising since the language allows coda stops, the unreleased [p˺ t˺ k˺]. This adaptation strategy may reflect the phonetic realization of Russian final stops, which are strongly released and often aspirated (Bondarko 1977; Kochetov 2006). This is consistent with previous findings of Korean adaptations of English word-final stops being sensitive to presence or absence of releases (Kang 2003). Russian word-internal coda stops in Korean adaptations are also followed by an epenthetic [ɨ], but only if the source stops are phonetically voiced. Epenthesis is not usually employed if stops are phonetically voiceless (underlyingly voiceless or voiced). In this case, they are rendered as unreleased voiceless unaspirated stops. Similar ‘faithfulness’ to voiced stops of the source language has also been reported for English final stops by Kang (2003), although as a tendency rather than an absolute rule. (7) Russian Korean __# [T] <Th(u)> [Tʰ]
__C [T] <T.> [T˺] __C [D] <D(u)> [D]
4 This item, possibly an earlier borrowing, is the only one among Japanese adaptations where the Russian /v/ is vocalized or deleted.
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4.3. Laterals and rhotics
Our final case is the adaptation of Russian liquids: /l/, /lj/, /r/, and /rj/. These four consonants represent two contrasts: the contrast between the laterals and the rhotics (/l lj/ vs. /r rj/), and the contrast between the plain and palatalized liquids (/l r/ vs. /lj rj/). Neither of the two borrowing languages has a phonemic distinction between laterals and rhotics. Japanese has a rhotic /r/ which is always realized as a flap [ɾ] (or [ɽ]; Okada 1999). Korean has a liquid /l/, whose realization is highly context-sensitive. It is realized as a tap [ɾ] between vowels, and as a lateral [l] in coda. It does not occur word-initially in native vocabulary; it is allowed in this position in recent loans, where it is realized as [ɾ] (Ahn 1998; Lee 1999; cf. Kenstowicz 2005). In Japanese, /r/ is contrastive with the palatalized /rj/ [ɾʲ] (which can be considered as underlying or derived; Itô & Mester 2003; Vance 1987). [ɾʲ] also occurs non-contrastively before /i/. Korean does not have a palatalized counterpart of /l/; it does, however, permit sequences of /l/ with [j]-initial diphthongs. In these sequences, /l/ is realized as palatal [ʎ] or [ɾj] depending on the context (Lee 1999).
We will first consider the lateral vs. rhotic contrast of the plain liquids /l/ and /r/. As fully expected, the contrast is invariably merged in Japanese adaptations, being realized as /r/ (8a). The same contrast in Korean adaptations, however, is ‘faithfully’ maintained in most contexts, despite the lack of the relevant phonemic contrast in Korean (8b). The Russian coda /l/ is represented as a coda allophone [l] in Korean; the non-initial onset /l/ is represented as a sequence /l/+/l/ [lː] (a geminate); the word-initial onset /l/ is a tap [ɾ]. The Russian onset /r/ is represented in Korean as [ɾ], an intervocalic allophone of /l/; the coda /r/ is also represented as [ɾ], followed by an epenthetic vowel /u/. The contrast is thus maintained in all contexts except word-initially, where the Korean [ɾ] stands for both /l/ and /r/ of the source language. Examples are shown in Table 8. Interestingly, the two different place names ‘Tula’ and ‘Tura’ (ab) are rendered identically in Japanese ([tɯː.ɾa]), yet differently in Korean ([tʰulːa] and [tʰuɾa]).5 (8) a. Russian Japanese
/l r/ <r> [ɾ] b. Russian Korean /l/ (C/V)__V <l.l> [lː] __#/C <l> [l]
#__V <l> [ɾ] /r/ V__V, #__V <l> [ɾ]
__#/C <l(u)> [ɾ]
5 The representation of the unstressed /u/ of ‘Tura’ with a long /u/ in Japanese is unexpected; it is possibly done by analogy with the more familiar place name ‘Tula’.
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Table 8: Adaptation of plain liquids /l/ and /r/: Place names ‘Tula’, ‘Tura’, ‘Barnaul’, ‘Kungur’, ‘Gorno-Altaysk’, ‘Lipetsk’, and ‘Rostov-na-Donu’
Russian Japanese Korean a. /ˈtula/ tuu.ra thwul.la [ˈtu.ɫʌ] b. /tuˈra/ tuu.ra thwu.la [tʊ.ˈra] c. /barnaˈul/ ba.ru.na.u.ru pa.lu.na.wul [bər.nʌ.ˈuɫ] d. /kunˈɡur/ kuN.gu.ru khwun.kwu.lu [kʊn.ˈɡur] e. /ˌɡornoalˈtajsk/ go.ru.no.a.ru.ta.i.su.ku ko.lu.no.al.tha.i.su.khu [ˌɡɔr.nʌ.ʌɫ.ˈtajsk] f. /ˈlipetsk/ ri.pe.tsu.ku li.phey.chu.khu [ˈlʲi.pʲɛʦk] g. /rosˈtov na doˈnu/ ro.su.to.fu na do.nuu lo.su.tho.phu na to.nwu [rʌs.ˈtɔf nədʌ.ˈnu]
The adaptation strategy employed by Japanese is consistent with both hypotheses: the borrowing language has a single (non-palatalized) liquid phoneme, which is phonetically similar to both Russian consonants /l/ and /r/. The adaptation strategy employed by Korean, however, is inconsistent with the strict phonological hypothesis. It involves mapping of phonemes onto allophones (as well as onto sequences of phonemes). The choice of allophones is guided by their phonetic similarity to the phonemes of the source language. The adaptation of Russian plain liquids is consistent with how the two languages adapt English liquids (see Lovins 1975 on Japanese; Heo & Lee 2005, Kenstowicz 2005 on recent loans in Korean), with one important exception. In both languages, the English coda /r/ is vocalized (e.g. ‘hard’ <haado> and <hadu> respectively), while the Russian /r/ is preserved, being followed by an epenthetic vowel. This is likely to be due to different phonetic realizations of the two rhotics, particularly in coda position (an approximant in American English and a trill in Russian).
Turning to the palatalized liquids, both /lj/ and /rj/ are adapted in Japanese as /rʲ/ [ɾʲ] when in onset and as /r/ + /i/ [ɾʲi] when in coda (9a). Examples are shown in Table 9. It should be noted that in a few cases (3 out of 17), the palatalized liquids in coda are adapted as a <r(u)>, that is as a non-palatalized /r/ (e.g. /anaˈdɨrʲ/ [ə.nʌ.ˈdɨrʲ] a.na.di.ru ‘Anadyr’). In Korean adaptations, the Russian non-initial onset /lj/ is rendered as a sequence of /ll/ + [j]-initial diphthong, phonetically realized as [lʎ] (Lee 1999) (9b). The coda /lj/ is consistently realized as [l] (i.e. the same way as the plain Russian /l/). The word-initial onset /lj/ is a tap + glide sequence [ɾj]. The onset /rj/ is rendered as a sequence of /l/ + [j]-initial diphthong, [ɾj]. Its realization in word-initial position is thus the same as for /lj/. The coda /rj/ is realized as [ɾ] followed by an epenthetic vowel, either
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/u/ or /i/. Note that in the latter case, its realization is identical to that of the Russian /r/. The former case, however, ‘preserves’ the palatalization of the original consonant. (9) a. Russian Japanese
/lʲ rʲ/ _V <ry> [ɾʲ] _#/C <r(i)> [ɾʲ]
b. Russian Korean /lʲ/ (C/V)__V <l.ly(V)> [lʎ]
__# <l> [l] #__V <ly(V)> [ɾj]
/rʲ/ V__V, #__V <ly(V)> [ɾj] __# <l(u)> [ɾ]
The adaptation of palatalized liquids by Japanese is, again, not surprising. Two
different Russian liquid phonemes are mapped onto one available liquid phonemic (and phonetic) category. This is done largely regardless of the syllable position of the original palatalized consonant. The adaptation of the same consonants in Korean is context-sensitive: secondary palatal articulation is faithfully represented in the adaptation of onset liquids, and often disregarded for coda liquids (most consistently for /lʲ/). In part, this is due to the faithful rendering of the lateral-rhotic contrast. Another possible explanation is phonetic. Palatalized consonants are cued by CV transitions to a greater extent than by VC transitions and internal cues (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996; Kochetov 2002). This makes palatalized liquids in coda less perceptually salient compared to the same consonants in onset. In adaptations, borrowers apparently choose to represent more salient phonetic information and ignore less salient information (cf. Kenstowicz 2005).
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Table 9: Adaptation of palatalized liquids /lʲ/ and /rʲ/: Place names ‘Ryazan’, ‘Chelyabinsk’, ‘Oryol’, ‘Yaroslavl’, ‘Tver’, ‘Tobolsk’, and ‘Oktyabrsky’
Russian Japanese Korean a. /rʲaˈzanʲ/ rya.za.ni lya.can [rʲɪ.ˈzanʲ] b. /ʧeˈlʲabinsk/ che.rya.biN.su.ku cheyl.lya.pin.su.khu [ʧʲɪ.ˈlʲæˑ.bʲɪnsk] c. /oˈrʲol/ o.ryo.ru o.lyol [ʌ.ˈrʲɔɫ] d. /jaroˈslavlʲ/ ya.ro.su.ra.vu.ri ya.lo.sul.la.pul [jɪ.rʌ.ˈsɫavlʲ] e. /tverʲ/ to.ve.ri tho.pey.lu [tvʲerʲ] f. /arˈxanɡelʲsk/ a.ru.haN.ge.ri.su.ku a.lu.han.keyl.su.khu [ʌr.ˈxan.ɡʲɪlʲsk] g. /oˈktʲabrʲskij/ o.ku.chaa.bu.ri.su.kii ok.thya.pu.li.su.khi [ʌˈktʲabrʲskij] 5. Discussion and conclusion
A careful examination of patterns of adaptation of Russian place names in Japanese and Korean provides partial support for both approaches – the strict phonological and strict phonetic hypotheses. Reference to phonemic categories is clearly evident in the adaptation of Russian vowels and consonants in the corpus. Russian vowel phonemes /i e a o u/, having multiple contextual realizations, are mapped onto featurally similar phonemes of Japanese and Korean. Allophonic variation of these vowels is thus completely ignored in adaptations. The adaptation of Russian laryngeal and secondary articulation contrasts (at least in Japanese), as well as coda stops, is also overwhelmingly phonological, involving apparently direct phoneme-to-phoneme mapping. 6 Yet, some phoneme-to-phoneme mappings are not fully expected based on features of the interacting segments. For example, the high back unrounded vowel /ɨ/ is mapped onto the high front vowel /i/ in Korean, not onto the featurally similar high back unrounded vowel /ɨ/ of the language. Further, other adaptations involve mappings of single segments to sequences of segments. For example, /ɨ/ is commonly represented as a sequence /ɯ/ + /i/ in Japanese, and prevocalic palatalized liquids are represented as /l/ or /ll/ + yod-initial diphthong sequences in Korean. Such ‘unpacking’ of segments into sequences runs counter the Isomorphemism Hypothesis, one of the assumptions of the strict phonological 6 Note that some cases of strictly phonological adaptation can be alternatively explained by the influence of orthography. This factor cannot be discounted, given the relatively consistent phoneme-to-letter correspondence in the Russian script and the predominantly written medium of borrowings of place names. (See Smith 2004 on orthographical borrowings).
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approach. The hypothesis predicts that “a one-root-node segment in L2 (the source language) is adapted as a one-root-node segment in L1 (the borrowing language) and a two-root-node segment in L2 is adapted with two root nodes in L1” (Paradis & Prunet 2000: 232). Our data show that the presumably one-root-node segment // is adapted as a one-root-node segment in Korean (/i/), but as two root nodes in Japanese (/u/ + /i/). Similarly, the presumably one-root-node segments /rj/ and /lj/ are adapted as one-root-node segments in Japanese (/rj/), and as two or even three root nodes in Korean (/l/+/jV/ [ɾj] or /l/+/l/+/jV/ [lʎ]). Moreover, the same segment can be adapted as a sequence or a single segment depending on the context or subject to free variation (e.g. /rj/ and /lj/ in Korean and /ɨ/ in Japanese). Many of these deviations can be explained by phonetic properties of source segments and their phonetic similarity to phonemic and allophonic categories of the borrowing languages. As mentioned earlier, Japanese borrowers adapt // as [ɯi] possibly referring to the vowel’s diphthongoid phonetic realization ([ɨʲ]). Korean borrowers adapt the same vowel as front, possibly referring to the relative perceptual proximity of the more front [ɨʲ] to the native front [i] than to the more back /ɨ/ [ɯ]. This suggests that sub-phonemic, phonetic information plays an important role in loanword adaptation. Further support for this comes from cases of apparently direct mappings between phonemes and allophones (e.g. /f/ and /ʦ/ as [∏] and [ʦ] allophones of /h/ and /t/; cf. Lovins 1975) and direct mappings between allophones/surface realizations and phonemes (e.g. devoiced obstruents as voiceless aspirated stops in Korean and stressed vowels as long vowels in Japanese).
The results of the study suggest that neither the strict phonological, nor strict phonetic hypotheses, on their own, can account for the observed range of patterns of loanword adaptation. The adaptation process is crucially influenced by native and non-native phonological categories – both phonemic and allophonic. Low-level, gradient phonetic information in the source language is also attended to, although to a much lesser extent and more variably. Taken as a whole, the results add to the body of recent work (Jacobs & Gussenhoven 2000; Yip 2002; Kang 2003; Kenstowicz 2005; Smith 2006) arguing for a view of loanword adaptation that integrates higher-level phonological and lower-level phonetic L1 and L2 knowledge. References Ahn, S.-C. 1998. An Introduction to Korean Phonology. Seoul: Hansin. Avanesov, R.I. 1984. Russkoe Literaturnoe Proiznoshenie [Russian Literary Pronunciation]. Moscow:
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