Demystifying Diphthong Adaptation Patterns within English Loanwords in Iraqi Arabic: An Optimality-Theoretic Analysis

This paper aimed to provide an explanatory account of the phonological adaptation patterns of diphthongs within English loanwords in Iraqi Arabic (IA). The Optimality-Theoretic framework was employed to identify the phonological constraints imposed on 346 English loanwords in IA and then examine the interaction and ranking of those constraints. Results revealed that five phonological constraints were involved in adapting English diphthongs into IA: four faithfulness constraints and one markedness constraint. The undominated ranking of the markedness constraint NoDIPH explained the complete lack of diphthongs in IA output forms. The unique importance of the distance between a diphthong's two elements in determining its adaptation to IA and the high ranking of the faithfulness constraint UNIFORMITY in adapting wide diphthongs explain the atypical tendency of IA output forms to maintain the two-element feature of wide GB diphthongs /aɪ/, /aʊ/, and /ɔɪ/, adapting them into vowel-plus-glide sequence The preservation of the [mid] feature of the GB diphthongs /eɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /əʊ/, and /ʊə/ and their reduction into monophthongs in their IA output forms were attributed to the undominated ranking of the faithfulness constraints IDENT V1 (mid) and IDENT V2 (mid) in narrow diphthong adaptation.