| dc.contributor.author | Miriti, Gervasio | |
| dc.contributor.author | Thuranira, Simon | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-08-23T19:41:54Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-08-23T19:41:54Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-06 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://repository.must.ac.ke/handle/123456789/720 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The notion of loanwords in languages that are in a contact situation is a phenomenon that is very
common and unavoidable. For languages of the world, language change is remorseless, inevitable and
ceaseless. This is because every day there are new innovations, change of ideas and emerging
technologies that force language to be dynamic so as to keep up with the changes. Even as languages
borrow, linguistic borrowing which entails loan word adaptation is an overwhelmingly phonological
process. This phonological analysis has not been adequately examined in Kĩtigania borrowing from
the Maa language whereby both are in contact situation. That is why this article did a phonological
analysis of Kĩtigania borrowed words from the Maa language using the Optimality Theory’s
markedness and faithfulness constraints. Data used in this article was collected using descriptive
research design. Purposive sampling was done to select ten Maa and ten Kĩtigania speakers who were
neither too old nor too young. These respondents had control over their articulators. Then interviews
were conducted with all the respondents to elicit words borrowed to Kĩtigania and their meanings.
The findings revealed that when borrowed segments are adapted to Kĩtigania, they undergo sound
modification so that those adapted are faithful to those in the source language (Maa Language) and
they are present in the Kĩtigania inventory. However, the loans undergo structure modification so as
to fit the Kĩtigania syllabic structure. Nevertheless, markedness dominated faithfulness in Kĩtigania
borrowing. Therefore, this article concludes that similarity of sounds between two languages brought
by shared features as well as a language’s inventory and syllabic structure play a big role in Kĩtigania
borrowing. In addition, different repair strategies which result to phonological processes are
employed in Kĩtigania borrowing. They include; deletion, substitution and voicing or weakening. | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Miriti, G. and Thuranira, S. (2022, June 28-30). Phonological analysis of Kĩtigania borrowed words from the Maa Language: An optimality approach. [Paper Presentation]. The Inaugural Meru University of Science and Technology International Conference, Meru. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Borrowing | en_US |
| dc.subject | Optimality | en_US |
| dc.subject | Markedness | en_US |
| dc.subject | Structural well-formedness | en_US |
| dc.title | Phonological analysis of Kĩtigania borrowed words from the Maa Language: An optimality approach | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
