Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau

While there are many useful studies on Indonesian native phonology and loanword phonology, none has yet explored Minangkabau loanword phonology in depth. Therefore, based on a list of 52 well-established native Indonesian loanwords elicited from 10 adult native speakers of Minangkabau and verified b...

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Main Author: Saleh Saeed Batais
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2024-04-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241240576
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author Saleh Saeed Batais
author_facet Saleh Saeed Batais
author_sort Saleh Saeed Batais
collection DOAJ
description While there are many useful studies on Indonesian native phonology and loanword phonology, none has yet explored Minangkabau loanword phonology in depth. Therefore, based on a list of 52 well-established native Indonesian loanwords elicited from 10 adult native speakers of Minangkabau and verified by native speakers and transcribed in IPA, and within the ambit of Optimality Theory, this paper aims to investigate the following research questions: What are the phonotactic repair strategies employed in Minangkabau to adapt these words? Why are they triggered? Are they phonologically or phonetically driven? And why? The study finds that the two observed repairs are consonantal debuccalization and consonantal deletion, which are both employed in order to fulfill the phonotactic conditions of Minangkabau. In Minangkabau, obstruent and liquid consonants are disallowed word-finally; as a result, word-final voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in native Indonesian words are debuccalized into the glottal stop /ʔ/, and the voiceless fricative /s/ into the glottal fricative /h/. However, unlike word-final obstruents, the word-final liquid consonants /r, l/ in native Indonesian words are adapted through deletion when entering Minangkabau. The results, moreover, show that that the above repair strategies are guided by phonology rather than phonetics; that is to say, among others, they are guided by coda restrictions in Minangkabau phonotactics in terms of word-final obstruent and liquid consonants. Finally, by presenting evidence from Minangkabau in favor of the phonological stance, it is believed that the paper contributes to the significant debate as to whether loanword adaptation is phonological or phonetic.
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spelling doaj.art-d1b79fa07ef64bdaaf8cb601f36e5a5e2024-04-11T19:03:19ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402024-04-011410.1177/21582440241240576Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in MinangkabauSaleh Saeed Batais0King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaWhile there are many useful studies on Indonesian native phonology and loanword phonology, none has yet explored Minangkabau loanword phonology in depth. Therefore, based on a list of 52 well-established native Indonesian loanwords elicited from 10 adult native speakers of Minangkabau and verified by native speakers and transcribed in IPA, and within the ambit of Optimality Theory, this paper aims to investigate the following research questions: What are the phonotactic repair strategies employed in Minangkabau to adapt these words? Why are they triggered? Are they phonologically or phonetically driven? And why? The study finds that the two observed repairs are consonantal debuccalization and consonantal deletion, which are both employed in order to fulfill the phonotactic conditions of Minangkabau. In Minangkabau, obstruent and liquid consonants are disallowed word-finally; as a result, word-final voiceless stops /p, t, k/ in native Indonesian words are debuccalized into the glottal stop /ʔ/, and the voiceless fricative /s/ into the glottal fricative /h/. However, unlike word-final obstruents, the word-final liquid consonants /r, l/ in native Indonesian words are adapted through deletion when entering Minangkabau. The results, moreover, show that that the above repair strategies are guided by phonology rather than phonetics; that is to say, among others, they are guided by coda restrictions in Minangkabau phonotactics in terms of word-final obstruent and liquid consonants. Finally, by presenting evidence from Minangkabau in favor of the phonological stance, it is believed that the paper contributes to the significant debate as to whether loanword adaptation is phonological or phonetic.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241240576
spellingShingle Saleh Saeed Batais
Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
SAGE Open
title Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
title_full Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
title_fullStr Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
title_full_unstemmed Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
title_short Consonantal Debuccalization and Deletion in Minangkabau
title_sort consonantal debuccalization and deletion in minangkabau
url https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241240576
work_keys_str_mv AT salehsaeedbatais consonantaldebuccalizationanddeletioninminangkabau