Combinatory Phonetics

In this independent study, I conducted a comparative phonetic analysis of how English and French adapt borrowed words from one another, focusing specifically on consonantal changes and phonetic assimilation. Drawing on principles of articulatory phonetics and phonological theory, I explored how phonemes interact with surrounding sounds in assimilation environments and how those interactions differ across the two languages.

My final paper, La Francisation et L’Anglicisation: L’Adaptation des Mots Empruntés de l’Anglais au Français et du Français à l’Anglais, examined how affricates, glottal consonants, and dental fricatives are retained, transformed, or deleted when crossing linguistic boundaries. I found that both French and English tend to adapt borrowed sounds just enough to fit their own phonological systems, while still aiming to preserve recognizability. Across a series of qualitative case studies, I argued that these phonetic adaptations are largely bidirectional, showing consistent sound correspondences shaped by each language’s constraints.

This project involved an extensive literature review, the creation of a custom bilingual corpus of loanwords, and detailed phonetic analysis supported by IPA transcriptions drawn from authoritative dictionaries. Ultimately, this research deepened my understanding of phonological integration and offered broader insights into language contact, sociolinguistics, and sound change over time.