Loanword adaptation in the French of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Montréal

This paper examines the adaptation of rhotics in loanwords in French by Hispanophone and Francophone Montrealers, in order to investigate the linguistic integration of immigrant communities and the mutual influence of native and nonnative speakers on the outcome of borrowing. Multivariate analysis reveals that many factors govern the variation among the three possible variants. Immigrants have only acquired some of the constraints. Second-generation immigrants share the grammar of the larger community but resemble other Hispanophones in terms of the rates of use of each variant. The author concludes that both native and nonnative speakers influence the integration pattern of loanwords in particular ways.