Abstract Loanwords may or may not affect the phonological system of a language. Much of the loanword literature has focused on the adaptation of “foreign” contrasts to native systems; however, there are certain cases where languages appear to have borrowed new phonemes. We argue that loanwords alone cannot introduce a new phoneme into a language unless there are special circumstances. We examine three case studies of apparently borrowed “unusual” phonemic contrasts: Swiss German initial geminates, Bengali retroflex stops, and English voiced fricatives. In each case, we find that rather than the loanwords introducing brand-new phonemes, an existing allophonic alternation has become phonemic due to a large influx of loanwords. Thus, the phonology rather than the phonetics alone – marked or otherwise – dominates the absorption of loans.

中文翻译：

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外来词中的此类音素

摘要外来语词可能会或可能不会影响一种语言的语音系统。许多外来词文献都集中在“外国”对本机系统的适应上。但是，在某些情况下，语言似乎借用了新的音素。我们认为，除非有特殊情况，否则仅借词不能将新的音素引入一种语言。我们研究了三个案例研究，这些案例研究显然是借来的“不寻常的”音素对比：瑞士德语的首批单词，孟加拉语的reflexflex音标和英语发音的擦音。在每种情况下，我们发现，由于大量外来词的涌入，而不是外来词引入了全新的音素，现有的等位音替代已经变成了音素。因此，语音学而不是语音学本身（标记或其他方式）主导了贷款的吸收。