Phonological Adaptation of English Words in Croatian

Koren, Sanja. (2013). Phonological Adaptation of English Words in Croatian. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Broz, Vlatko and Josipović Smojver, Višnja].

PDF (English) - Registered users only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The aim of this work is to identify the foreign words in Croatian which originated from English and during the process of adaptation gained the status of a loanword. Furthermore, after classifying the examples at hand, the process of adaptation on phonological level, i.e. transphonemization is observed. The corpus of examples show a certain degree of correspondence to the examples Filipović collected. Also, the examples confirmed the ongoing trend of borrowing, followed by transphonemization. After being classified according to the type of loanword, the examples are also classified according to the transphonemization type. Comparison of phonemic systems of both languages proved to be a good criterion when identifying the transphonemization type. The biggest discrepancy was found within the field of vowels since Croatian does not have diphthongs. The comparison also showed why the adaptation is necessary, as well as the reasons for the substitution on a phonological level. The exceptions to the rule are words adapted on the principle of spelling pronunciation, and most likely they followed this pattern because there are no approximates in Croatian phonemic system for certain English sounds. From the analysis the following conclusions arise: some new groups of consonantal clusters are confirmed, but the more complete list demands further research; although the process of borrowing is not direct (the intermediary of written media serves as means of contact), most examples still follow the pronunciation pattern of English sounds in spoken language. This means that likelihood for adaptation based on spelling pronunciation did not change drastically when compared to Filipović‘s research. In a way this confirms the trend of putting an effort into preservation of original word‘s pronunciation which gives possibilities of broadening the research from the point of view of sociolinguistics.

Actions (login required)

View Item