MORPHOPHONEMIC PROCESS OF WORDS BORROWED

FROM ENGLISH IN SERAWAI LANGUAGE

Nopriansah

University of Dehasen Bengkulu

nopriansah@gmail.com

Abstract

This study explains the morphophonemic process of words borrowed from English in
Serawai language. Morphophonemic process is the process of phonological realizations of a
morpheme. This process indicates the sound change of words of Serawai language borrowed
from English that is different from the rules of sound changes to form standard English. In
addition, the process can also identify the integration of English in Serawai language. The
scope of the analysis is in phonological and morphological level.This research is a
descriptive study. The procedures are data collection, data analysis, and presenting the
results of analysis. The data were collected by using observational methods. The results of
the study shows (1) the kinds of morphological process that cause morphophonemic process
in words of Serawai language that are borrowed from English, namely affixation and
reduplication; (2) the kinds of morphophonemic process that emerge in the morphological
process of the aforementioned words, namely epenthesis, paragog, aphaeresis, syncope,
apocope, metathesis, cluster reduction, haplology, palatalization, monophthongization, and
other phonemic changes, developed phoneme/vocoid, fusion, incorporation, lost of vowel,
and incorporation-assimilation at the same time; (3) the formulas of the morphophonemic
process.The researcher concludes that the words of Serawai language that are borrowed from
English have the same morphological system as Serawai language has and the system is
different from what English has. Whereas, the morphophonemic process emerges in the
process of borrowing and in its morphological process.

Key words:Morphophonemic process, allomorphic alternation, words borrowed from

English, loan words, Serawai Language

Introduction
Morphophonemic and morphological processes are two things which under
certain conditions can not be separated. In forming morphemes of languages,
whether they are mono or polymorphemic, it is not uncommon that
morphophonemic process occurs in. The morphophonemic process is defined as the
process of phonological realization of a morpheme.
In borrowing elements of English in Serawai language, the morphophonemic
process can occur in order to customize the system of the native language or the way
of the people speaking. The customization or adaptation is exemplified with a basic
form of a Serawai loan word which means 'school' as the following:

(1) /səkul/ 'school’ ← [sku: l] <school> 'school'

The form of /səkul/ 'school' above represents a loan word derived from one
etimon in English, namely [sku:l] <school> 'school', with the analogy of similarity in

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sound and meaning. The basic form of /səkul/ is a loan element that undergoes
phonological changes. These changes include the addition of phoneme /ə/ between
the consonant phonemes /s/ and /k/ that is called epenthesis (Crowley, 1987) as well
as the change of [u:] to phoneme /u/ which can be classified as the process of
weakening or lenition.
The research on morphophonemic process that occurs in words borrowed from
English in Serawai language needs to be conducted since the process shows the
occurance of sound changes in the loan words that are the same as/different from the
rules of sound change in standard English. In addition, the process can also identify
the extent of English integration in the native language.
This study refers to the theories of descriptive-structural linguistics relate to
morphology and phonology. The data found were analyzed by using the theories of
Nida (1949), Matthews (1979), and Katamba (1989). This research are also
supported by the views of other linguists who have correlations with this study, such
as Pike (1975), Schendl (2001), Crowley (1987), Keraf (1996), Parera (1993), and
others.

Statement of the Problems

1. What are the morphological processes of words borrowed from English in
Serawai language?
2. What are the morphophonemic processes of the words?
3. What are the rules of the processes?

Methodology
This research is a descriptive study. The procedures are data collection, data
analysis, and presenting the results of analysis. The data were collected by using
observational methods. The techniques applied in collecting the data were interview,
reading dictionaries, recording the language production, and taking field notes.
In analyzing the collected data, the researcher used the referential identity and
distributional methods. While dividing the key factors, equalizing, differentiating,
equalizing the main points, segmenting immediate constituents, substituting, and
deleting are techniques applied in analyzing the data. The results of analysis are
presented formally and informally(Sudaryanto, 1988, 1993).

Conceptual Theory

Morphophonemics and The Scope of Study

Morphophonemics is a study about phonological realization of a morpheme
(Katamba, 1989). In connection with its phonological process at the level of basic
morpheme, Crowley (1987) differs the morphophonemic process into eight types.
They are lenition, sound addition, metathesis, fusion, unpacking, vowel breaking,
assimilation and dissimilation. For the type of lenition, he divides it into five,
namely: cluster reduction, apocope, syncope, haplology, and compression.
Completing the type, Keraf (1996) mentions a kind of sound delition that
occurs at the beginning of a word that is called aphaeresis. Meanwhile, the type of

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sound addition is divided by Crowley (1987) into three, namely anaptixis,
ephenthesis, and prothesis. Keraf (1996) adds the kind of sound addition with a type
called paragog.
For vowel breaking and unpacking, Crowley (1987) gives examples in Kairiru
and Bislama as the following:
1. Vowel breaking in Kairiru */pale/ → /pial/ 'home';
2. Unpacking in Bislama /baik/ ← B.Ing /bæg/ <bag> 'bag'.
In addition to the phonological processes described above, there are also other
kinds of processes called monophtongization, diphtongization (Schendl, 2001) and
fortition and neutralization (Katamba, 1989).
At the level of derivative morphemes, Nida (1949) and Katamba (1989)
classify the morphophonemic process as the following: 1) Assimilation; 2)
dissimilation, 3) Loss of phonemes, 4) fusion, and 5) palatalization. In addition to the
five, there is a new term called incorporation. Parera (1993: 133) says that
incorporation is the integration of case into verbs or morphologically verbalized case
without a semantic difference. In other words, it is a verb formation derived from a
morphologically case.

Loan Words
Loan words closely related to the origin of word is spelled out in principle
etymology (Notosudirjo, 1978). Etymology traces the history of words by means of
associating terms with other words that are already known. In gathering the history
of a word, etymology borrows the data of phonology, morphology, semantics, and
others. To obtain the results of analysis, etymology uses every means that can be
achieved through a variety of disciplines, especially linguistics.
In everyday use by the speakers of Serawai, words borrowed from English in
the native language will possibly undergo morphological process. In the word
formation, it is not uncommon that morphophonemic process is also developed.
Through this research, the morphophonemic process that occurs in the words
borrowed from English in Serawai language will be studied scientifically based on
the theories of some linguists until the rule is found.
In the process of borrowing a word from English in Serawai,
morphophonemic process can occur systematically. From the data, it is known that
the borrowing of words from English in Serawai can be in the process of addition
phoneme in the middle of a word that is called ephenthesis. This happens because of
a relief factor and following the pattern of word formation in Serawai system where
consonant and vowel are likely linked alternately in a single syllable.

Finding and Analysis

In this study, additional forms of phonemes are also found at the end of a
word. It is called paragog. Other processes are weakening the phoneme /k/ to /s/,
reduction of consonant clusters, syncope, haplology, strengthening phonemes,
phoneme breaking, metathesis, palatalization, monophtongization, neutralization,
and other interphoneme changes.
The morphophonemic process does not stop at the stage of borrowing basic
forms. The process can also emerge in the stage of a morphological/grammatical

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adaptation. This second adaptation is a construction of loan words in question with
other morphemes. There are six morphophonemic processes that occur in the forms
of derivative (adapted forms) that are borrowed from English in Serawai. They are:
1) Developed Phoneme or Vocoid

(1) [diyupur] < [ di [ Developed Vocoid ] upur ]Vb

(7) /pəŋəbil/ < [ pəŋ [ Developed Phoneme ] bil ]N

(8) /ŋəbil/ < [ ŋ [ Developed Phoneme ] bil ]Vb

(9) [miteyan] < [ mite [ Developed Vocoid ] an ]Vb / N

(10) [isuwo] < [ isu [ Developed Vocoid ] o ]N

(11) [kuliyo] < [ kuli [ Developed Vocoid ] o ]N

.

+ Complete Reduplication
Apocope = Basic Form
..+
(42) /ŋətoŋətos/ < [ ŋ Developed phoneme tos ]Vb

2) Assimilation-Loss of Phoneme (Fusion)

Fusion

(2) /pəməros/ < [ pə ŋ b əros ]N

Fusion

(4) /pəŋumpris/ < [ pə ŋ k umpris ]N

Fusion

(6) /pənəray/ < [ pə ŋ t əray ]N

3) Palatalization

Palatalization

(3) /pəñəmis/ . < [ pə ŋ c əmis ]N

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 Palatalization

(5) /pəñərpis/ < [ pə ŋ s ərpis ]N

4) Incorporation

Incorporation

(13) /ñəmis/ <[ c əmis ]Vb

Incorporation

(14) /ñərpis/ <[ s ərpis ]Vb

Incorporation

(15) /məros/ <[ b əros ]Vb

Incorporation

(16) /ŋumpris/ < [ k umpris ]Vb

Incorporation

(17) /nəray/ <[ t əray ]Vb

Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(37) /məroməros/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form ]Vb

b əros

Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(38) /ñəmiñəmis/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form ]Vb

c əmis

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 Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(39) /ŋumpriŋumpris/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form ]Vb

k umpris

Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(40) /ñərpiñərpis/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form ]Vb

s ərpis

Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(41) /nəranəray/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form ]Vb

t əray

5) Loss of Vowel

(20) /disuka/ < [ d [ Loss of Vowel ] isu ka ]Vb

6) Incorporation and Assimilation

Incorporation Assimilation

(25) /nərai/ <[ t əra y i ]Vb

Incorporation + Complete Reduplication

(57) /nəranərai/ < [ + Apocope = Basic Form Assimilation ]Vb

t əra y i
After analyzing the morphological processes that can cause morphophonemic
processes as described above, it is known that not all the words borrowed from
English in Serawai can be processed morphologically and cause morphophonemic
process. The loan words that have been analyzed in this study is the ones that can be
processed by affixation or reduplication and undergo given morphophonemic
processes.

At the level of derivative morpheme (polymorphemic), morphophonemic

process can bring two kinds of alomorphic alternations, namely :
1) Affixal alomorphic alternation, such as /pəm ~ pəñ ~ pəŋ ~ pən/, /di ~ d/, and [o
~ wo];
2) Lexical alomorphic alternation in different phonological environments, such as
such as /bəros ~ məros/, /cəmis ~ ñəmis/, and /kumpris ~ ŋumpris/, and in

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 different morphological environments, for examples /bəros ∞ bəro/, bəlaŋkit ∞
bəlaŋki/, and /babu ∞ babun/.
When considering phonotactic in compiling orthographic transcription in
English and Serawai, it can be said that all loan words in the native language are
borrowed through adaptation. Although there are few words in the language that
phonologically and semantically have similarities with the etymon in English, the
orthographic writing of the basic form of the loan words is different from the
etymon.
So far, it is known that the morphophonemic processes occur not only in the
morphological processes, but also in the process of borrowing the basic form itself.
These two are closely related to their phonologically/morphologically environmental
factors involved in the formation of the loan words and the construction with other
morphemes, either free or bound morphemes. In addition, the factors of prevalence,
easiness, and efficiency are also involved in the processes.

Conclusion
Lots of morphological processes that can cause morphophonemic process in
words borrowed from English in Serawai language are in the processes of affixation
and reduplication. Both mechanisms of morphophonemic processes, namely the
process of borrowing and morphological one, are indeed an effort to adapt the forms
of foreign language to the native language.
Based on the principles proposed by Nida (1949), it is known that any word
in the Serawai language that is borrowed from English is integrated as a single
morpheme that can not be separated anymore. The element is also classified into free
morpheme because it has a lexical meaning.

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