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LSA.211 | Loanword Phonology  Michael Kenstowicz MW 1:00-2:40
location: 32-155 course web site:  With the conceptual shift
from rules to a constraints and repair model of sound change,
loanword phonology has emerged as a topic of considerable
interest. Loanword adaptation is constraints and repairs in real
time. In adapting a loan the speaker tries to remain faithful to
the source while still making the loan conform to the native
language (L1) segment inventory, phonotactic constraints, and
prosodic structures. Because inputs of considerable diversity
and complexity can be devised, loanword phonology takes on the
status of an experiment of nature in allowing us to probe
phonological competence. In a significant number of cases
adapters converge on a repair strategy that lacks a precedent in
the native system and sometimes may even contradict L1 repairs,
raising serious learnability puzzles.  The course will address
such questions as the