Tonal adaptation of English loanwords in Cantonese

This study examines the tonal adaptation of English loanwords in Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong. We adopted the analyses of previous research (Kiu, 1977; Silverman, 1992) and incorporated seeming exceptions. The major rules are: 1) The stressed syllable in English usually bears the high tone in Cantonese, and it includes both primary and secondary stress. 2) If the English word is (historically) viewed as the compounding of two free morphemes, both syllables receive the high tone. 3) Pre-tonic unstressed syllable receives a mid tone, while post-tonic unstressed syllable receives a low tone. 4) When the English word contains a consonant cluster, a vowel is inserted to break the cluster and the created syllable usually carries the low tone. 5) A high-tone morpheme that indicates colloquial style is attached to the end of most loanwords. This morpheme changes the final low tone to a rising tone. However, not all the loanwords conform to these patterns. For example, the borrowing of verbs usually has different tonal assignment. The consonant type of the English word also plays a role. If the English syllable ends in a stop, it carries an entering tone and the morphemic high tone cannot be attached. In addition, palato-alveolar codas in English, such as /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, seem to block high-tone morpheme attachment as well. This study shows that the tonal adaptation of English loanwords in Cantonese is not just a stress-to-tone mapping. The tonal assignment is also determined by the consonant types in English, word class, position of the syllables, and so on.