Abstract
This thesis presents the first linguistic investigation of the Somali language as it is spoken in Norway. The goal is to describe what happens to Norwegian words when they are borrowed by Somali speakers. Both languages have simple tone systems, and this study explores what happens when these two systems meet: Do Norwegian loanwords show the same tone patterns as native Somali words, or is Norwegian tone preserved when words are borrowed by Somali speakers? Previous research on loanword prosody suggests that the former is likely when the recipient language has strong restrictions on tone. In Somali, the distribution of tone is governed by and predictable from grammatical features, so the same principle may apply here. However, previous research also suggests that such restrictions may be violated in loanwords in situations of intimate language contact. The speakers in the present study are bilinguals living in Norway, and use both Norwegian and Somali every day. Therefore, their borrowing provides a test case for these two competing possibilities. The material presented here was collected during fieldwork in Oslo, and consists of spontaneous speech from nine native Somali speakers, in addition to some elicited forms. The results suggest that in most cases, the tone patterns of Norwegian loanwords are in accordance with native Somali morphological tone assignment. In some cases, though, Norwegian tone is preserved in violation of these restrictions. There are even cases where both strategies are found in different locations within the same word. This results in words with two high tones, which is surprising because native Somali words have maximum one. Hyman's property-driven approach to prosodic typology is adopted when describing and comparing Norwegian and Somali. The results are explored in light of the typological profiles of the prosodic systems of the two languages, as well as the language contact situation and type of bilingualism involved. The study is intended to contribute to already existing bodies of research on both loanword adaptations and bilingual competence. Because loanword adaptations illustrate the rules and processes that are active in a language, this study also sheds new light on the Somali language system.