Adaptation of English Words with Liquids into Korean

Abstract

This paper discusses how foreign words with a liquid are adapted into Korean. I examine cases where a liquid appears as a part of a cluster and cases where a liquid appears as a singleton in a foreign word. I first show that liquids within a cluster in a foreign word are adapted as different segments in Korean depending on which segment precedes them. In specific, I examine how a liquid within a /t+1/ cluster or within a /nasal+liquid/ cluster is adapted into Korean and discuss what critical constraint rankings are involved in this adaptation process. Secondly, I discuss why a singleton liquid in the word-initial position of a foreign word surfaces as a liquid in a recent loanword even if liquid is avoided in this position in Korean phonology. Following the usage-based model by Bybee (1988, etc.), I argue that words are the units that are stored in lexicon and that words tend not to have variants. Therefore, words that surface as nasal-initial should be represented as nasal-initial rather than liquid-initial. That is, I argue that a Sino-Korean word 'labor' might be represented as /nodoŋ/, not as /Lodoŋ/ in lexicon.