Yuliya Chornogor, Smolensk State University, Russia
Accentual assimilation of borrowed suffixes in the English language
The contact of English with various foreign languages has led to the adoption of numerous foreign suffixes. English owes 70% of its suffixes to foreign languages. Most borrowed suffixes came into English from or via French. The stress system of the French language is simple: the stress is assigned to the last syllable in the word. Nevertheless, in English there are only 8 stressed one-syllable suffixes (-ee, -ese, -esque, -ade, -een, -eer, -ette, -enne). The number of derivatives with these suffixes is about 1000 (Lehnert, 1971). That makes the conclusion that English stress system rejects the French stress pattern, and suffixes coming from/via French have to assimilate. They adapt themselves to some typical derivative stress patterns of the English language.
This paper aims, firstly, at revealing phonological factors that influence French suffixes in English and make them assimilate. Besides, it deals with reasons for non-assimilation of some French suffixes and seeks evidence of their possible forthcoming assimilation.
Factors that influence borrowed suffixes in English are those that dominate in the accentual system of the English language. It has long been held that derivatives either acquire their accent due to stress-shifting (Class 1) suffixes (Siegel, 1974), or, in derivatives with Class 2 suffixes, follow the homological, or retentive, stress tendency (Marchand, 1960). Most Class 2 suffixes are of native origin. That’s why our primary concern is about Class 1 suffixes which are all borrowed. We decided to see if stress assignment in underived words differs much from that in derivatives, and came to the conclusion that it follows the same principles, i.e. rules of syllable weight. Stress assignment in derivatives with most Class 1 suffixes (67% in our survey) falls under the principle of quantity-sensitivity. Stress pattern ‘on the antepenult’ is characteristic of ‘heavy’ suffixes, and ‘light’ suffixes place stress either on the heavy penultimate syllable or on the antepenult. Therefore, most foreign suffixes adapt their accentual behavior to the principles of syllable weight.
The second question is: why do some borrowed suffixes retain their French pattern of stress assignment? According to our data, reasons for non-assimilation lie in the domain of etymology and productivity.
Language is developing, and theoretically grounded presuppositions may in time be observed in speech. We supposed that French suffixes might acquire English accentual behavior. We looked for evolutionary changes in stress patterns of derivatives with French stressed suffixes in two editions of Jones’ “English Pronouncing Dictionary” of 1922 and 1997. Having compared accentual patterns of derivatives with French stressed suffixes, we found out that most of them tend to lose stress and acquire patterns natural for the English language.
References
Jones, D. “English Pronouncing Dictionary” – ed.1922 and 1997.
Lehnert, Martin. Reverse Dictionary of Present-Day English. – Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopaedie, 1971.
Marchand, Hans. The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation. A synchronic-diachronic approach. –
Wiesbaden. 1960. – 380 p
Siegel, Dorothy. 1974. Topics in English phonology. Doctoral dissertation. MIT.
