Loan Words Adaptation: Perceptual-Phonological Approach

This paper examines English loan words adaptation in Persian within the framework of Silverman (1992)́s phonological-perceptual approach. This article explores whether vowel epenthesis as a repair strategy in loan word adaptation is phonological or a perceptual illusion and based on what kind of loan word adaptation approaches, English loanword adaptation in Persian can be examined. In an answer to the first question, two experiments were conducted with twelve participants who had very little knowledge of English language. The results indicated that vowel epenthesis in consonant clusters of English loanwords is a perceptual illusion and happens at the perceptual level. In an answer to the second question, the results indicated that loan words adaptation is better to be examined based on phonological-perceptual approaches in that Silverman (1992)́s two level model of loanword adaptation can be an appropriate choice.