Phonetic Adaptation of Loanwords on the Example of [R] VS [R'] Variation Preceding the Vowel in Place of the Letter "E"

This paper studies the influence of the stress factor on palatalized/velarized pronunciation of the consonant before the vowel in place of the letter "e" and, in addition, the behavior of [r] and [r'] in borrowed words before the vowel in place of "e" as a social variable. The main hypothesis was that a stressed syllable retains a velarized consonant before "e" longer, and in unstressed words it rather softens (Гловинская 1967, Holden 1976). It is most convenient to test the hypothesis on groups of single-root words in which the context under study is found in both stressed and unstressed positions. The obvious obstacle in the analysis of the pronunciation of [r]/[r'] was that, in addition to the difference in the position of the consonant + "e" with respect to stress, the words differed in their morphological composition. Most of the words in which [r] preceded the stressed vowel were morphologically simple, and the words in which [r] preceded the pre-stressed vowel had suffixes - either borrowed or Russian. Thus, the second hypothesis that needs verification is the factor of morphological simplicity. Finally, the global hypothesis concerning all loanwords is that, over time, the borrowed word adapts to the phonetics of the recipient language. So, if different age groups tend to choose different rival variants, it is assumed that the older generation should use velarized [r] before the vowel in place of "e" more often, and to the younger generation palatalization will increase. To test the hypotheses, 100 Muscovites were interviewed. Statistical analysis of the results fully confirmed the influence of the stress factor in all groups of words and in the speech of all groups of informants. In addition, it was revealed that in the words under study the velarized consonant from the older to the younger generation begins to be pronounced more often, that is, the found tendency is the reverse of the phonological adaptation.