Paper short abstract:

This is an empirical study on how Japanese categorize the Slovene mid-central unrounded vowel in their L1. Based on the reports that such mapping displays certain patterns, the paper discusses segmental and prosodic constraints of the target language that possibly contribute to such patterning.

Paper long abstract:

Based on the supposition that nowadays borrowings are mainly conducted on the auditory level, the present empirical study raises a question on how native Japanese listeners perceive and categorize the Slovene mid-central unrounded vowel sound /ǝ/, both in stressed and unstressed positions. Findings would help predict the katakana transcription for any new Slovene word but especially proper names that enter Japanese.

Previous studies have shown that in the borrowing process Slovene mid-central unrounded vowel sound /ǝ/ is an uncategorized vowel which assimilates into phonetically similar native Japanese phonemes (after PAM; Best 1995); it generally maps to the Japanese close back unrounded /u/ or to the open front unrounded /a/, however, mappings to the mid-close back rounded /o/ and mid-open front /e/ are also possible (Golob 2016). The fact that mappings follow certain patterns is intriguing, and the influence of the state of accentedness in the source language and the phonotactic restrictions of the target language have already been discussed (ibid. 2016). The present study, based on a perceptual experiment, offers a thorough insight into the conditions which Japanese language imposes on the foreign phonetic material, following the works of Dohlus 2010; Ito & Mester 1993, 1995, 1999; Kaneko 2007; Tsuchida 1995; etc. on lexical stratification and segmental formation of loanwords, and those of Kubozono 2001, 2002, 2006; Mutsukawa 2005; Sibata 1994; etc. on their prosodic (accentual) characteristics.

Perceptual experiment with the list of words was designed to solve the main research problem, namely why is the Slovene mid-central unrounded vowel sound /ǝ/ sometimes interpreted either as /e/ or /o/ though the two Japanese vowels are phonetically more distant than /u/ or /a/. This could be done systematically by answering the following questions: (1) which Japanese vowel engages when /u/ is ruled out due to Japanese allophonic restrictions; (2) how strong is the influence of the surrounding vowels onto the vowel selection; (3) how much do Japanese accentuation rules contribute to the choice of the vowel category.

(Literature list was withdrawn due to space limitation.)