Prosodic adaptation of superheavy syllables in Arabic loanwords in Turkish : an optimality-theoretic analysis

الملخص EN

In the present study, the issue of superheavy syllables in Arabic loanwords in Turkish is investigated with regard to the environments within which a superheavy syllable is created as well as to the repair strategies employed in order to resolve the occurrence of such a potential superheavy syllable in the output form.

The analysis of this problem adopts Moraic Theory for syllables and syllable weight (Hayes, 1989; Davis, 2011).

In moraic theory, a superheavy syllable is avoided because of its trimoraic weight.

I argue that such a potential trimoraic syllable is avoided in the investigated loanwords in Turkish through two major phonological processes: vowel shortening and vowel epenthesis.

In an Optimality Theoretic framework (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004), I show that the avoidance of superheavy syllables in the language follows from the requirements of the high-ranked constraint *3 (Kager, 1999).

The study gives an insight into the nature of prosodic adaptation in loanword phonology.

It also supports the view that adaptation of loanwords can be phonologically-based and it can be attributed to the grammatical representations of the speaker's native language prosodic system.