The contrastive hierarchy in phonology 2009 Dresher.pdf - CUNY ...

8.4.3. Loanword adaptation
We observed in §7.7.2 above that English /s/ is borrowed into Hawaiian as /k/,
but into NZ Ma#ori as /h/. In Herd’s (2005) analysis, these adaptations follow
from the contrastive hierarchies of these languages. If these adaptations are
based on perceived similarity, then /s/ is more similar to /k/ than to /h/ in
Hawaiian, but more similar to /h/ than to /k/ in NZ Ma#ori. Do the different
inventories of these languages yield these results in Structured Specification
theory?
To test these predictions, I assumed the features in (8.25) for Hawaiian,
with /s/ added to the inventory for purposes of comparison. The results are
shown in (8.26). The similarity metric rates /s/ as most similar to /h/ or to /l/;
the expected winner, /k/, ranks third.
(8.25) Features for Hawaiian consonants + /s/
a. [non-syllabic] /p, m, w, n, l, k, /, h, s/
b. [consonantal] /p, m, n, l, k, s/
c. [ sonorant] /m, w, n, l/ d. [obstruent] /p, k, /, h, s/
e. [labial] /p, m, w/ f. [coronal] /n, l, s/
g. [dental] /n/ h. [non-dental] /l, s/
i. [dorsal] /k/ j. [laryngeal] //, h/
k. [stop] /p, m, n, k, // l. [continuant] /w, l, h, s/
m. [spread] /h/ n. [constricted] ///
o. [lateral] /l/ p. [liquid] /l/
q. [nasal] /m, n/
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