AN ACCOUNT OF THE PHONOLOGY OF ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN EDO: ANOPTIMALITY THEORY APPROACH

The study examines the phonological adaptation exerted on Edo loanwords of English origin. It examines the different strategies employed by the native speakers of the Edo language, and explains these in terms of the demand of the native phonology. This study focuses on the phonological processes that occur as repair strategies in Edo-English loanwords, utilizing a dataset of one hundred loanwords and employing Optimality theory as its theoretical framework. Data was elicited from ten informants who were tasked to produce popular loanwords to assess how well they fit into the Edo language structure. Findings show that based on the phonological characteristics of Edo, the loanwords have been seen to exhibit insertion, syllable structure modification, phonological substitution, and deletion. The study also show that Edo's constraints against complex onsets and codas necessitate vowel insertion, while faithfulness constraints aim to preserve input forms. It notes that prioritizing markedness over faithfulness explains loanword adaptation patterns, with *COMPLEX and NOCODA driving modifications by restricting consonant clusters and final consonants.