English Loanwords in Ewe: A Phonological Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the processes that words borrowed from English go through on the phonological level in their adaptation into Ewe - a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo. The paper analyses the adaptation of English loanwords into Ewe at the level of phonemic adaptation, syllable structure adaptation and the adaptation of stress. In terms of phonemic adaptation, it was found out that certain sounds in the English words borrowed into Ewe are foreign to the speakers of Ewe. In the adaptation process, the speakers replace the foreign sounds with native ones which are acoustically closer to the foreign ones. The analysis reveals that two main operations: deletion and insertion are used to compel foreign syllable structures to conform to the phonotactic constraints of Ewe.  For the adaptation of stress into Ewe, it was realized that stressed syllables in English are generally realized as high tones and unstressed syllables are realized as low tones. The conclusion of this study is that English phonemes are mapped onto Ewe phonetic forms but phonotactic constraints that exist in Ewe result in the processes of deletion and insertion of segments into some English words borrowed into Ewe.

Key words: syllable structure, nativization, loanwords, phonotactic constraints