Phonetic similarity and phonemic contrast in loanword adaptation

Since it has been realized that loanword phonology is an important source of phonological evidence, people have been debating the exact nature of the input. There are two approaches; either the input to the loanword phonology is phonetic, or it is phonemic. In this paper I argue that both possibilities exist, with the actual choice depending on the social relationship between the native and the non-native language. I then demonstrate that if the input is phonetic, then "phonetic similarity" is emphasized, whereas if the input is phonemic, then "phonemic contrast" is emphasized