#rangyan

Extract of a conversation I was having with someone on Cantonese loanword types:

Friend: Are english loans in cantonese commonly assimilated to cantonese phonology? To what extent?

Me:

I think there are 3 levels 1. non-lexicalized 2. semi-lexicalized 3. fully lexicalized

fully lexicalized are words that have dedicated hanzi, I'd say perhaps the first is like code-switching. The second type are words that have a standardized pronunciation that fits almost perfectly if not fully perfectly into Cantonese phonology, but without hanzi

1. ? [nothing came to mind then] 2. haai1 lai1 taa*2 (highlighter) 3. 的士 (taxi)

It's hard to place sometimes. For example the word pro6 (/pʰɹou˨˨/ ”professional”). Technically canto of course doesn't have /r/, so it's not easy to judge whether this is a case of code-switching or semi-lexicalized.

哇，你好pro呀！ "wow, you're very professional!"

It's been noted (Multiple scansions in loanword phonology, Silverman, 1992) that [the last syllable of] Cantonese loanwords have a tendency to receive the 變音 (tone 1 or 2). I think this can be a way to classify type 2 or 3. By this standard, pro6, which doesn't use tone 1 or 2, would fit into group 1, which also makes sense since /r/ isn't in native Canto phonology.

[...]

there is a structure: stressed syllables use tone 1 unstressed syllables use tone 4 epenthetic syllables use tone 6 final syllable uses 變音