Abstract:
This paper examines the processes that words borrowed from English go through on the phonological level in
their adaptation into Ewe - a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo. The paper analyses the adaptation of
English loanwords into Ewe at the level of phonemic adaptation, syllable structure adaptation and the adaptation
of stress. In terms of phonemic adaptation, it was found out that certain sounds in the English words borrowed
into Ewe are foreign to the speakers of Ewe. In the adaptation process, the speakers replace the foreign sounds
with native ones which are acoustically closer to the foreign ones. The analysis reveals that two main operations:
deletion and insertion are used to compel foreign syllable structures to conform to the phonotactic constraints of
Ewe. For the adaptation of stress into Ewe, it was realized that stressed syllables in English are generally
realized as high tones and unstressed syllables are realized as low tones. The conclusion of this study is that
English phonemes are mapped onto Ewe phonetic forms but phonotactic constraints that exist in Ewe result in
the processes of deletion and insertion of segments into some English words borrowed into Ewe.
