Blog post #2

There are a lot of words that are borrowed. For instance, for cafe and coffee, the donor language is from France (Donor language), and it is borrowed from English (Borrowed language) However I noticed one word that stood out to me. The borrowed word is “sushi,” which originated from Japanese and was borrowed into English. Donor Language (Japanese) the pronunciation is /sɯɕi/ In Japanese, “su” is pronounced as /sɯ/ and “shi” as /ɕi/. Japanese has a straightforward phonemic list with limited consonants and vowels. Borrowing Language (English) the pronunciation is /ˈsuːʃi/. English pronunciation of “sushi” to fit its phonemic list and phonotactics. Us English speakers tend to put in a vowel sound between the “s” and “h” sounds, giving us  /suːʃ/. The vowel sound /uː/ is similar to the Japanese /ɯ/, and the affricate /ʃ/ replaces the Japanese fricative /ɕ/.In summary, the pronunciation of “sushi” in English involves phonetic changes to accommodate English phonology, such as vowel lengthening and substitution of consonants, while still keeping the core essence of the Japanese word.

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