English Loanwords in Persian: Vowel Adaptation

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze English loanwords adaptation in Persian language. It especially, focuses on different phonological and phonotactic systems of the two languages and the English vowel adaptation in Persian vocalic system. This process would lead into (a); the change of English lax vowels into Persian tense ones; (b) the Persian constraint of hiatus existing in English; (c) the change of English off-glide diphthongs /aI/ or /eI/ into a vowel and a glide sequences in Persian; (d) the change of English diphthongs /AU/, /@U/ into Persian simple vowels [A] or [o] respectively; (e) the change of English syllabic consonants [n=, m=, l====] into the Persian non-syllabic ones through vowel insertion. Concerning the above mentioned points, a number of English loanwords have been selected through Persian dictionaries. The used approach in the article is Optimality Theory (OT).

Keywords: Loanword, adaptation, phonological constraint, English, Persian, vowel.