Taos Phonology - Loanword Phonology

Loanword Phonology

Trager (1944) indicates the type of phonetic/phonological changes that New Mexican Spanish loanwords undergo when being adapted to the Taos language. Different degrees of nativization occur in Spanish loanwords: earlier borrowings have greater differences while later borrowings (borrowed by speakers who are probably increasingly bilingual) have much greater similarity with the Spanish forms. The chart below lists some of the correspondences. The inflected nouns in the table are in the absolute singular form with the inflectional suffix and any reduplicant separated from the initial noun stem with hyphens.

New Mexican Spanish phoneme(s)	Taos phoneme(s)	Example
		Taos		Spanish
		word	gloss
/b/ (initial)	/m/	ˌmūlsɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑næ	"pocket"	< bolsa
/b/ (intervocalic)	/b/	ˈxʷǣbæsi	"Thursday"	< jueves
/d/ (initial)	/t/	tuˈmĩ̄ku	"week"	< domingo
/d/ (intervocalic)	/l/	ˈsɑ̄bɑlu	"Saturday"	< sábado
	/d/ (after Taos /l/)	telẽˈdūne‑nemæ̃	"fork"	< tenedor
/dɾ/	/jl/	kuˌmǣjli‑ˈʔī‑næ	"one's child's godmother"	< comadre
/f/	/pʰ/	ˌpʰīstul‑ˈe‑ne	"pin"	< fistol
/x/	/h/ (initial)	ˈhǣlɡɑ‑næ̃	"rug"	< jerga
	/x/ (intervocalic)	ˈmīlxinæ̃	"the mother Virgin"	< virgen
/xu/ + V ( + V)	/xʷ/ + V	ˈxʷǣbæsi	"Thursday"	< jueves
/nd/	/n/	suˌpɑ̄nɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑næ	"bed spring"	< sopanda
V + /nɡ/	/Ṽk/	tuˈmĩ̄ku	"week"	< domingo
/ɲ/	/j/	kæˈjūn‑e‑næ	"canyon"	< cañón
/ɾ/	/l/	ˈlǣj‑næ	"king"	< rey
/r/	/ld/	ˌmūldu‑ˈʔū‑næ	"donkey"	< burro
/i/	/i/	mɑlˌtīju‑ˈʔū‑næ	"hammer"	< martillo
/i/ (before V)	/j/	ˌjǣwɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑næ	"mare"	< yegua
/ie/	/iæ/	ˈmīǣlnæ̃si	"Friday"	< viernes
/u/	/u/	ˈlūnæ̃si	"Monday"	< lunes
/u/ (before V)	/w/	ˌjǣwɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑næ	"mare"	< yegua
/e/ (stressed)	/æ/	ˌwǣltɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑ne	"garden"	< huerta
/e/ (unstressed)	/i/	ˈmīǣlkulisi	"Wednesday"	< miércoles
/o/	/u/	ˌtūlu‑ˈʔū‑næ	"bull"	< toro
/a/	/ɑ/	ˌmūlsɑ‑ˈʔɑ̄‑næ	"pocket"	< bolsa

Although NM Spanish /a/ is usually borrowed as Taos /ɑ/, it is nativized as /æ/ when it precedes the Taos glide /j/, which is the nativization of NM Spanish /d/ in the cluster /dɾ/ (/dɾ/ > Taos /jl/). Because Taos /ɑ/ when followed by /j/ is typically raised (i.e. /ɑj/ is phonetically ), Taos /æ/ is phonetically a closer match to NM Spanish low /a/. Thus, NM Spanish compadre is borrowed as /kumˌpǣjli‑ˈʔī‑næ/ "one's child's godfather (absolute, singular)" (with /adɾ/ > /æjl/).

Taos /æ/ is a better match than /e/ for NM Spanish /e/ (phonetically ) because Taos /e/ is restricted to affixes in native Taos words.

Another common process is the insertion of /i/ after in New Mexican Spanish words ending in /s/, as native words in Taos cannot have syllables ending in /s/.

The other NM Spanish phonemes are nativized as similar phonemes in Taos: NM Spanish /p/ > Taos /p/, NM Spanish /t/ > Taos /t/, NM Spanish /ɡ/ > Taos /ɡ/ (but see above for NM Spanish sequence /nɡ/), NM Spanish /tʃ/ > Taos /tʃ/, NM Spanish /s/ > Taos /s/, NM Spanish /m/ > Taos /m/, NM Spanish /n/ > Taos /n/, NM Spanish /l/ > Taos /l/.

Later borrowing, which has been subject to less alteration, has led to the development of /ɾ/, word‑initial voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/, syllable‑final /s/, and consonants clusters /pl, pɾ, tɾ, kɾ, kl, fɾ/. The word‑internal cluster /stɾ/ is reduced to /st/ in Taos, as in NM Spanish maestro > Taos /ˌmēstu‑ˈʔū‑næ/ "teacher" — the cluster was reduced further to just /t/ as /ˌmētu‑ˈʔū‑næ/ in one speaker, a reflection of the older pattern where /s/ cannot be syllable‑final.