Loan Phonology

For many different reasons, speakers borrow words from other languages to fill gaps in their own lexical inventory. The past ten years have been characterized by a great interest among phonologists in the issue of how the nativization of loanwords occurs. The general feeling is that loanword nativization provides a direct window for observing how acoustic cues are categorized in terms of the distinctive features relevant to the L1 phonological system as well as for studying L1 phonological processes in action and thus to the true synchronic phonology of L1. The collection of essays presented in this volume provides an overview of the complex issues phonologists face when investigating this phenomenon and, more generally, the ways in which unfamiliar sounds and sound sequences are adapted to converge with the native language’s sound pattern. This book is of interest to theoretical phonologists as well as to linguists interested in language contact phenomena.
As of January 2019, this e-book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched.

Haike Jacobs, Radboud University Nijmegen, in Phonology 28 (2011):
In sum, if, as the editors note in their introduction, the way in which unfamiliar sounds and sound sequences are adapted in the recipient language offers a direct window for observing how acoustic cues are categorised in terms of the distinctive features relevant to that recipient language and for studying its phonological processes in action, then this collection of essays really qualifies as a room with a splendid view. It is most certainly a must-have for every phonologist [...] and will be of great interest to linguists interested in language contact and bilingualism or multilingualism.