Phonetic adaptation of English borrowings in the contemporary media discourse of Korea

under globalization, modern Korean media are characterized by the active adoption of English lexical units, which creates the need to examine the peculiarities of their phonetic adaptation. The aim of the study is to identify the regularities in the transformation of borrowings within the framework of the Korean phonetic system and to analyze the influence of media discourse on language integration processes. he article substantiates the relevance of studying the phonetic adaptation of Anglicisms as one of the manifestations of language contact in the information space of South Korea. Both the historical aspects of borrowing and the contemporary trends driven by the widespread use of the internet and the advanced digital media system are discussed. The study is based on a corpus analysis of materials collected from various media sources (television, radio, online platforms) over the past ten years. Methods such as comparative phonetic analysis, statistical processing of the sample, and audio transcription were employed, which allowed the identification of stable adaptation models. Special attention was given to the analysis of phonetic-morphological changes observed in the adapted lexical units, as well as the influence of their positional structure within a word. The analysis revealed systematic regularities manifested in the softening of consonants, changes in vocal intonation, and the rearrangement of stress positions compared to the original English pronunciation. The obtained data indicate a dynamic process of bringing the adapted pronunciation closer to the traditional phonetic norms of the Korean language. Additionally, regional and genre variations in adaptation models were discovered, indicating the impact of the specifics of media discourse.

phonetic adaptation, English borrowings, media discourse, contemporaneity, Korea