VOWEL EPENTHESIS IN LOANWORD ADAPTATION.

ABSTRACT

The title of this research is vowel epenthesis in loanwords adaptation in Ika, vowel epenthesis is the deliberate insertion of vowel sound into borrowed words to align their phonological structure with the host language in loanwords adaptation. The study aims to solve the problems of vowel epenthesis in loanword adaptation in Ika, it aims to successfully adapt loanwords while maintaining it's grammatical and phonological coherence, the objective of this research is to investigate the nature of vowel epenthesis in Ika language, examine the reasons, analyse and examine the methods of resolving vowel epenthesis in loanwords adaptation in Ika. The method of data collection is through the use of questionnaire, this is achieved from the youths and elderly men, from the  youths within the age range of 20 - 50, and the adult within the age range of 50-70; the theoretical framework used in this theory is the CV phonological model which was introduced by Clement and Keyser (1983); the findings of this research shows that the adaptation of loanwords into the  Ika syllable structure has made language speakers to communicate fluently, the choice of vowel used in epenthesis is influenced by syllable structure and phonotactic constraints.