Mandarin Loanword Phonology and Optimality Theory : Evidence from Transliterated American State Names and Typhoon Names

This paper aims to examine how the consonant clusters and illicit codas are modified in Mandarin loanwords transliterated from English, and to argue that no rules need to be involved and that a purely constraint-based approach—within the framework of Optimality Theory—can explain the data. The data collected from transliterated American state names and state names display the onset-coda inconsistency in Mandarin loanwords. All the onset consonant clusters in the data are faithfully parsed into Mandarin syllables, with inserting vowels to shun consonant cluster. The coda clusters and illicit codas are generally parsed. However, the coda liquids may be parsed in some cases but unparsed in others. The preference of insertion in Mandarin loanwords can be explained by the interaction between the constraints--*COMPLEX, CODACON, MAX-I0, and DEMO. The distinctive behavior of coda liquids can be accounted for by the effect of MINwD.