PHONOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF ENGLISH LOAN NOUNS IN PURKO DIALECT OF THE MAA LANGUAGE IN NAROK NORTH SUB COUNTY

Abstract

This research aimed at analyzing the phonological adaptation of the English loan nouns in Purko dialect of the Maa language in Narok North sub-county. Linguistic borrowing is inevitable in any linguistic contact. The Maa language has borrowed many nouns from the English language since the two languages co-exist through its speakers. The usage of English language among the Maa speakers is unavoidable due to its high status in Kenya; it is one of the official languages and also one of the languages of instruction in the Kenyan schools. Therefore, the borrowed nouns have been adapted phonologically into the Maa sound system for correct and acceptable pronunciation. This research was directed by the following objectives; to compare the Maa language and English language phonemic structure, to derive the phonotactic rules governing the adaptation of the English loan nouns in the Purko dialect and to describe the phonological processes employed in the adaptation of the borrowed English loan nouns in the Purko dialect in Narok North Sub- County. The study majored on the borrowed English nouns as used by the Maa speakers of the Purko dialect, this is because the noun class is the most borrowed class of words as it is used in naming of items not found in the borrowing language. Being a study of phonological adaptation, the CV- phonology theory Clements and Keyser (1983) and Lexical Phonology theory (LP) by Mohanan and Kiparsky(1980) were used. The CV-phonology was appropriate in comparing the phonemic structure of the English and Maa languages and also in deriving the phonotactic rules governing the adaptation of the loan nouns. LP theory was used in describing the phonological processes used in the adaptation of the loan nouns. This study used the qualitative approach where the descriptive and analytical research designs were used to describe and analyze the data. 150 Purko loan nouns which were sufficient for this research were purposively sampled from the Purko nouns. The data was collected using introspection and key informant interview methods of data collection. The collected data was described and analyzed using content analysis and the data presented in tables. This research found out that, the English and the Maa languages have some similarities and differences in their phonemic structure which necessitated the derivation of phonotactic rules such as, phonotactic rules of substitution, phonotactic rule of devoicing, phonotactic rule of vowel reduction, phonotactic rule of vowel epenthesis, phonotactic rule of assimilation and the phonotactic rule of nasalization. These rules governed the adaptation of the Purko loan nouns from the English language. Phonological processes of substitution, devoicing, vowel reduction, vowel epenthesis, assimilation and nasalization were involved in the adaptation. The results of this research will contribute to the studies on phonology especially phonological adaptation of loan nouns between languages. The results will also benefit the curriculum developers on the current Kenyan curriculum, CBC in getting content on the Maa sound system on loanwords.