La influencia de universidades a nivel regional, multiregional y nacional

The majority of cases of the English short high front vowel /ɪ/ are realised as AA [i]. It is lengthened in 21 cases and realised as [ii] as in ʔasiid ‗acid‘, [ee] as in baakeet ‗packet‘, or [aa] as in borsalaan ‗porcelain‘.36 All these cases have stress on the lengthened vowel so this could relate to markedness principles that favour stressed syllables to be heavy, as will be discussed in §3.2.7.1. Spelling could account for a few cases such as ‗porcelain‘ and jersey‘.

It is realised as [a] in 18 cases. This can be accounted for in terms of vowel harmony, as in ‗corridor‘ and ‗manifold‘ (see §3.2.7.4. on vowel harmony). 37 In ‗between‘ > batwan and ‗fabricate‘ > fabrak, it is realised as /a/ to fit into the prosodic morphological verb templates in AA. Morphological factors also account for the realisation of final /i/ in words such as ‗biology‘ and ‗technology‘ as [a] where these words are assigned feminine gender in AA, so they need to be marked morphologically as such.

It is deleted in seven cases, as in ‗cafeteria‘, and ‗syringe‘. All these cases represent

the productive syncope rule in Arabic that deletes high vowels in open syllables (see

36

The number of cases refers to actual loanwords not to tokens realised by informants due to the high number of tokens.

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§4.4.3). On the other hand, the high front vowel is inserted in 16 cases for phonotactic reasons, as will be examined in §4.4.4.

The adaptation of /ɪ/ into [a] could also be a case of strengthening open syllables, as in ʔa.mil.ʃin ‗emulsion‘ and ma.liiʃ.ya ‗militia‘. Lowering the vowel renders it more

sonorous and therefore it strengthens open syllables that are otherwise weak (Farwaneh 2009: 104; Gordon 2011a: 929).

3.2.1.2 Adaptation of /æ/

The two most common realisations of the source /æ/ are its short [a] or long [aa] counterparts in AA, with [a] in the majority of cases. Its mapping onto AA [aa] is considered faithful as I assume that the source vowel /æ/ corresponds to the long AA vowel /aa/ and the schwa corresponds to the short AA vowel /a/. This is motivated on the grounds that its length is retained if one consonant follows while shortened if two consonants follow, as in ʃanṣ ‗chance‘ and ʔaks ‗axle‘. Moreover, the adaptation of words such as ‗baggy‘ and ‗chat‘ follows the norms adopted to map long vowels in the adaptation process. Also, AA spelling shows that AA treats it as a long vowel. Moreover, this vowel is longer than the schwa in English and it is long in American English, from which some words might have been borrowed. Finally, the researcher has noticed that AA bilinguals pronounce it as a long vowel in their interlanguage. All in all, whether this is assumed to be long or short will not affect our analysis substantially as the vowel undergoes length modifications to satisfy AA metrical markedness constraints.

Again, /æ/ is shortened in many cases due to foot binarity, as in ʔalbuum ‗album‘, manavult ‘manifold‘and tank ‗tank‘ (see §3.2.7.2). It is realised as [i] in five cases, as in ‗naphthalene‘ and ‗racquet‘ and as [u] in one case, namely ‗manhole‘ > munhul, for consonant-to-vowel assimilation from the labial nasal or vowel harmony triggered by the following round vowel.

3.2.1.3 Adaptation of /e/

Although [e] appears in AA as the feminine suffix, I argue that this is only a positional allophone and the suffix is underlyingly /a/. Evidence for this comes from the adaptation process where /e/ is never imported. Were it an underlying phoneme in AA, it would manifest itself in the adaptation process. In the majority of cases, /e/ in

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the source word is raised to the phonologically closest AA counterpart, i.e. [i]. Some examples are given in (27).

(27) desk disk

extra ʔikistra

headphone hitfun

gel dʒill

net nitt

In five cases it is adapted as [ee] as shown in (28).

(28) carburettor karbureetar

compressor kumbreesa

etiquette ʔitikeet

georgette dʒurdʒeet

moquette mookeet (~ mukeet)

In all these cases, the source /e/ is lengthened and stressed. Also it could be the case that the last three words came from French, where they are pronounced with a long [ee]. Similarly, it is lengthened to [ii] in four cases, such as liigu ‗lego‘ and swiitar ‗sweater‘.

It is lowered to [a] in ten cases such as ‗ketchup‘ and ‗nectarine‘ for vowel harmony. Likewise, morphological reasons account for santar ‗centre‘. The English noun ‗centre‘ is used as a verb in AA and consequently needs to fit into the morphological prosodic verb template in AA, which has the vowel /a/. Vowel harmony also accounts for cases such as ‗cholesterol‘ and ‗professor‘, where /e/ is realised as [u] to

harmonise with the preceding round vowel. Labial harmony is attested in ‗pedicure‘ > budikiir, where /e/ is labialised and backed following the labial consonant. In ʔaṣanṣ ‗essence‘, /e/ is realised as a low back vowel [ɑ] due to emphasis (for more details on emphasis see §3.1.2.1).

3.2.1.4 Adaptation of /ʊ/

In the majority of cases the short high back vowel is realised as [u], as in full ‗full‘ or lowered to its AA allophone [o] due to emphasis or labial consonants, as in feesb[o]k ‗facebook‘. It is also lowered to [a] or its allophone [ɑ] in four cases, namely

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‗ambulance‘, ‗cappuccino‘, bulldozer‘ and ‗football‘. In the first two words it could be due to vowel harmony where /ʊ/ harmonises with the preceding low vowel. ‗football‘ is usually realised with [ɑ] but with [o] by two female informants. Interestingly, in ‗distributor‘ > disbaratoor, /ʊ/ is adapted as [a] where a number of other phonological processes affect this word to render it well-formed in AA. Suffices it to say here that its realisation as [a] could result from vowel harmony, as will be explained in §3.2.7.4.

3.2.1.5 Adaptation of /ʌ/

The closest AA vowel to this vowel is the emphatic allophone of the low front short vowel /a/, i.e. [ɑ]. So it is expected that a faithful mapping of this phoneme would yield [ɑ]. Unexpectedly, this is not the case as only 6/21 cases are realised as such, as shown in (29). (29) clutch klɑtʃ hard luck hɑɑrd lɑkk hummer hɑmɑr nightclub nɑjtiklɑbb seven up sivin ʔɑbb tupperware ṭɑbɑrweer

In eight cases, (38%), /ʌ/ is realised as the non-emphatic [a], as in ‗custard‘, ‗cut-out‘ and ‗pick up‘. Naturally, the emphatic counterpart is the expected realisation; nevertheless, it seems that the actual adaptation goes with the general tendency in AA towards de-emphaticisation (cf. Khattab, Al-Tamimi, & Heselwood 2006).

Also /ʌ/ is adapted as [u] in ‗dumdum‘, lux‘ and ‗snubbers‘. Although it is tempting

to attribute this adaptation to spelling, it remains unclear why the same does not hold for the majority of other forms that are spelt with ‗u‘ as well.

In ‗emulsion‘ > ʔamilʃin, /ʌ/ is adapted as [i] by all informants. This could be attributed to vowel harmony that is triggered by the following vowel, which is realised as [i] apparently due to spelling pronunciation or as a weakening process of the closed vowel (cf. Farwaneh 2009). Finally, it is lengthened in three words in (30).

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(30) jumbo dʒaambu

rubbish rɑɑbiʃ

trump ṭarniib

The lengthened vowel receives stress in the three examples. Again, this shows a high correlation between stress and syllable weight, as will be shown in Chapter five. (See also §3.2.7.1).

3.2.1.6 Adaptation of /ɒ/

In the majority of cases it is adapted to its closest AA phoneme, /u/, or its allophone [o]. Some illustrative examples are given in (31).

(31) boss b[o]ṣṣ

stock stukk

morris m[o]ris

It is also lengthened in seven cases and realised as [oo], e.g. ‗dettol‘ > diitool and as [uu] in ‗lobby‘ > luubi. Again, all these lengthened cases are stressed on the lengthened syllable.

In four cases, it is realised as [ɑ] or [a] as in (32)

(32) body bɑdi

coffee shop kɑfiʃub

convoy kɑmboj

corridor karadoor

These words, especially the first two, are recent borrowings and most probably have entered the dialect through American English where /ɒ/ is pronounced as [ɑ]. Compare this with the old borrowing ‗body‘ > budi. Moreover, in karadoor, it could also result from vowel harmony to the following vowel, which is pronounced with a schwa in American English or it could be the case that the short high front vowel is lowered due to the rhotic sound, which is realised as an emphatic in AA. That is, the rhotic lowers the vowel that in turn triggers harmony.

111 3.2.1.7 Adaptation of /ə/

The adaptation of the most common vowel sound in the adaptation process, the schwa, is expected to vary considerably. This relates to the fact that its variable phonetic qualities depend on context and its being stressless induces shortening which leads to contrast loss that leads to co-articulation (cf. Kato 2006: 107; Silverman 2011: 632). Also orthographically, it is spelt in many different ways.

The closest AA phoneme to English schwa is the low front short vowel /a/. Therefore, it is expected that the majority of cases will opt for /a/ in the adaptation process. The results show that this is the case. It is also adapted as [a] followed by /r/ in many words; all of them are spelt with a following ‗r‘ in the source language. Consider the following illustrative examples in (33) that show how /r/ is kept in the adaptation.

(33) boiler bojlar

cancer kaansar

centre santar

geyser kiizar

Less faithful adaptations are attested in its realisation as [ɑ] in five cases due to emphasis, as in ‗ambulance‘ and ‗balance‘. It is also realised as [i] in 18 cases such as

‗aspirin‘, ‗condition‘, ‗gentle‘, ‗pixel‘ and ‗system‘. These cases are due to spelling,

as in ‗aspirin‘ and ‗pixel‘ or to the unpacking of the syllabic /n/ or /l/ as AA does not

have syllabic consonants in coda position so a syllabic consonant is realised with a default /i/.38

It is backed and rounded in 32 cases and realised as [u] or [o] as shown in (34).

(34) cholesterol kulistrool

compressor kumbreesa

computer kumbjuutar

control kuntrool

Note that all these 32 words, except for one, are spelt either with ‗o‘ or ‗u‘. This shows that orthography is behind this adaptation. The only exception relates to the

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word ‗accordion‘ where it is spelt with ‗a‘. Its realisation as [u] is attributed to vowel

harmony.

Lengthening is attested in 22 cases. It is realised as [oo] or [uu] in 11 cases where the source vowel is spelt with ‗o‘ or ‗u‘ as in maraθoon ‗marathon‘. The lengthened vowel also carries stress. In the other forms it is realised as [ee] in ‗panel‘ and

roundel‘, which could have come via French, or as [aa] in nine cases such as

‗continental, and ‗jacuzzi‘. For these nine cases, it could be argued that lengthening is

due to foot-binarity and/or to stress, as discussed in §3.2.7.1.

Note that although word-final schwa is more stable than word medial ones (Flemming 2007), this does not affect its realisation in AA, which indicates that its phonetic qualities do not affect its adaptation, contrary to perceptual models‘ predictions.