This study focuses on the question of how Japanese learners create an open syllable to adapt English words into Japanese loanwords. A test consisted of 48 English words required them to spell out in katakana, and it was conducted on 17 non-English native speakers who enrolled an elementary Japanese class. From the findings, it is concluded that the rules considered "marked" from a phonological point of view can be also treated as "marked" from an acquisition point of view. It is also suggested that the variation among the subjects of this study reflects a longitudinal process of the acquisition of Japanese.
