| The present study is a study of Japanese loanword phonology, and explores the realization of [r] in English-based loanwords in Japanese within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993).; The major findings of this study are summarized as follows.; First, English-based loanwords with [r] can be categorized into five groups with regard to the realization of the [r] in the output.; Second, we need to distinguish the Perceptual Level from the input, as in Silverman's (1992) model. English onset [r] and coda [r] in the input are perceived differently at the Perceptual Level: onset [r] as [r] and coda [r] as [a].; Third, we need three constraint rankings to account for the realization of [r] in English-based loanwords in Japanese. The three constraint rankings are distinguished with regard to the rankings between the two constraints *[a:] and Max-IO. This supports the claim that ‘Loanword’, one of the four categories in Japanese lexicon, consists of co-phonologies.; Finally, constraint ranking for ‘loanword’ has been changing over time. This claim is based on the fact that one of the three ranking applies to the old loanwords, one of them to the new loanwords, and one of them to some of the old and new loanwords with a heavy penultimate syllable in Japanese outputs. |
