Publications

Publication details [#50705]

Oñederra, Miren Lourdes. 2009. Early bilingualism as a source of morphonological rules for the adaptation of loanwords: Spanish loanwords in Basque. In Calabrese, Andrea and W. Leo Wetzels, eds. Loan Phonology. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 307). John Benjamins. pp. 193–210.
Publication type
Article in book
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins

Annotation

The present socio-cultural situation in the Basque speaking area of Spain offers a privileged field for the study of Spanish loanwords in Basque, due to the more expanded use of Basque, together with a better knowledge of Spanish among Basque speakers. Within the theoretical framework of Natural Phonology, this paper explores some phonological and lato sensu morphological mechanisms that take part in the integration of Spanish loanwords into Basque. First it deals with the mutual influence between Spanish and Basque when both are first languages for the speaker. Early bilingualism only causes the loss of Basque processes that are suppressed in Spanish, but those processes need not be completely lost. There is clear evidence that continued collective bilingualism and need of translation motivate the transformation of denaturalised phonological substitutions into morphological devices for the adaptation of loanwords.