Mandarin adaptations of voiced alveolar fricative [z] in English loanwords

Abstract

This paper explores the adaptation of English voiced fricative [z]_E into Mandarin. The principal findings are that the adaptation of [z]_E depends on its position in the source word. If [z]_E occupies the word initial or middle position, it tends to be borrowed as Mandarin [ts]_M or [s]_M. If [z]_E is in the ending position, more variations would be observed as it may correspond to [ts]_M, [s]_M, [ʈʂ]_M or [ʂ]_M. Moreover, adapting [z]_E into Mandarin is also heavily influenced by the orthography. The English [z]_E can be spelled with <s> or <z>. The letters of <s> and <z> are also listed in Mandarin Pinyin, a Romanization system that transcribes the sounds of Chinese characters using Roman alphabets. Specifically, <s> is pronounced as [s]_M, while [z] is pronounced as [ts]_M. It turns out that [s]_M sounds different from [z]_E, while [ts]_M is perceptually similar to [z]_E. Generally, there emerged two major adaptation patterns, that is, <z> [z]_E " <z> [ts]_M and <s> [z]_E " <s> [s]_M. The latter is based on the spelling similarity, rather than perceptual similarity. It is therefore concluded that the loanword adaptation is not only determined by the speech perception, phonology and legitimacy of sound structures, but also systematically interfered with the orthography, that is, the source-loan spelling similarity.