An Analysis of English Loanwords in Korean

Abstract

This paper investigates sound substitutions that occur in English loanwords in Korean within the the.ory of Natural Phonology (NP). In NP, phonological phenomena are accounted for in terms of two types of phonological processes: fortition and lenition. The crucial part of the present analysis can be found in how an insertion phenomenon is viewed compared to other theories. Specifically, vowel insertion is seen as re.sulting from maintaining a certain length of moras under Broselow and Park’s (1995) mora conservation law. However, Broselow and Park’s analysis turns out to be limited because of counterexamples that vio.late the law of moras. Vowel insertion is hard to see as a result of certain universal principles; rather it can be seen as occurring from an interaction of a set of natural phonological processes.