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Volume :35 Issue : 139 2017
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Arabic Loanwords in Wolof: A TCRS-Based Analysis.
Auther : Muteb al-Qarni
Within the framework of the Theory of Constraints and Repair Strategies (TCRS) proposed by Paradis and further developed in Paradis & LaCharité, I sketch an analysis of Arabic loanwords in Wolof, a language primarily spoken in Senegal. The analysis draws on an English-translated 89-word list extracted from Wolof-French Dictionary (Diouf). In TCRS framework, the Threshold Principle stipulates that an ill-formed segment can be universally adapted with 2 repairs, otherwise it will be completely deleted, e.g., Fula, a Senegalese language, requires only two repairs for loanword adaptation (Paradis & LaCharité). The current article, however, presents a challenge to the Threshold Principle. It demonstrates that Wolof still adapts an ill-formed segment with more than two repairs (i.e., three repairs) before the segment gets deleted.