Abstract

This paper describes the process of loanword adaptation in Tshiven a The description also foregrounds the factors that are often assumed to play a role in the alterations that adopted and adapted words in Tshiven a undergo Aided by the intuitive method the study adopted the qualitative approach and descriptive design to analyse its data which was a predetermined set of loanwords gathered from previous loanword research The analysis was also developed by means of a Canonical Approach where loanwords in Tshiven a were classified according to whether they conform to various canonical patterns and if not according to the direction and extent of their derivation from these patterns Clements and Keyser s 1983 CV-Phonology and Chomsky and Halle s 1968 Generative Phonology Model also fortified the description of loanword adaptation in Tshiven a Affixation and other morpho-phonological changes were found to be significant processes operating in loanword adaptation in Tshiven a which starts out with phonetic adaptation and ends with semantic adaptation The paper concludes by endorsing loanword adaptation as a significant phenomenon that combats language death