Borrowing

Borrowing

• Speakers do not exist in a vacuum

• Borrowed words are not returned (but they survive in the donor language)

• Wanderwörter ('migrating words'):

• Skt. śarkara- 'sand, grit; granulated sugar' > Pers. shakar > Arab. sukkar > O.Ital. zucchero > O.Sp. azúcar > O. Fr. sucre > Engl. sugar / Germ. Zucker < Ital. zucchero < Med. Gk. sákkharon "sugar" > Eng. saccharin.

Borrowing

• Lexical borrowing: rouge, macho, umlaut, faker (can also bring new sounds into language, i.e. [ʒ]

• Morphological borrowing: Latin, Greek, French have contributed many suffixes to English: i.e. "randomize". "-ize" extended to football term "audiblize".

• Sg. "court martial" Pl. "courts martial" - Pl. of "mother-in-law" is ... ?

Borrowing

• Basic vocabulary most resistant to borrowing

• Verbs more resistant to borrowing than nouns

• Specialized / technical vocabulary likely to be borrowed

Nativization

• We borrowed it ... now what?

• Level out non-native sounds - apply the most similar native one (thirteen thirsty thespians ... )

• Fr. pur [ü] > Mid. Eng. [piur] "pure"

• Severe L2 impact: "We play for MacArthur's election"

Calques

• Loan translations

• Don't introduce foreign feature but do intoduce new words (although they often adopt native morphological rules):

• Eng. chain-smoker > Germ. Kettenraucher

• Eng. skyscraper > Germ. Wolkenkratzer

Hyperforeignization

• Based on the belief that foreign words must have foreign sounds in them:

• Fr. [ku də gʀas] anglicized to [ku də gra] (which is French for "blow of grease")

• "No problemo" based upon taco, nacho

Motivations for Borrowing

• Prestige

• Economics

• Sub-group identification

• Derision

Linguistic Nationalism

• Social attitudes can effect borrowing / nativization

• Adaptation (often calques) vs. Adoption

(arverða "far - being" absence

samtal "together-speak" conversation

ritsima "write-wire" telegram

hershöfðingi army-chieftain general

Icelandic

Linguistic Nationalism

• US Eng. "freedom fries", "victory cabbage"

• Académie française

• Nazi Germany:

• Personenkra%wagen - "powered wagon for people" instead of Auto

• Sag "Anzug" sag nicht Englisch "dress", darüber &eut sich Rudolf Hess = "Say "Anzug", don't say English "dress" (i.e. suit), and you'll make Rudolf Hess happy"

• Often minimally successful

Effects of Borrowing

• Between 65%-75% of English vocabulary is borrowed

• Core vocabulary / syntax remain distinctly native (Germanic)

• Phonological adaptation has nativized most foreign borrowings

For Next Class

• Using non-English languages you know, try to find examples of:

• General / technical borrowings

• Calques

• Nativizations

• Hyperforeignizations

• Linguistic Nationalism