The Adaptation of English Consonant Sequences in Mandarin Chinese

Preservation and Deletion Strategies

Abstract

Borrowed words usually need to be adapted to conform to the phonology of the recipient language. This paper investigates how English consonant sequences are adapted in Mandarin Chinese, taking into account the peculiarities of Mandarin Chinese, such as its different phoneme inventory, its strict phonological rules and its use of logographic characters. The study investigates the patterns of various preservation strategies (for example, vowel epenthesis) and deletion strategies and responds to Paradis and LaCharité’s Preservation Principle (2011). The analysis is based on a self-compiled corpus of 61 English loanwords with consonant sequences adapted into Mandarin Chinese. The results show that preservation is most frequently realised by epenthesis of the mid vowel, and the choice of which consonant in a consonant sequence is deleted is linked to sonority. Preservation is more common than deletion, although the deletion rate is much higher than suggested by Paradis and LaCharité, which can be linked to the characteristics of Mandarin Chinese.