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What Do You Know About Loan Words In Languages?
All languages have borrowed words from other languages throughout history. Some languages English, Romanian, Turkish, Persian and Japanese have all been heavy borrowers while others like Icelandic, German and Chinese more often have preferred to invent their own neologisms e.g. Chinese Tin Wa "electric talking" for telephone and German (originally) Fernsprecher (Far-speaker) for 'telephone" yet they too still have borrowings. The Celtic languages have especially been impacted by foreign words where Irish has borrowed its word for slippers "slipéir" (as in SLIPÉIR INÍON MHIC PHÁIDÍN - "Miss Patterson's Slipper.") from the English and Breton its word for slippers "pantouflenn" from the French pantouf .
Often words are not borrowed for any rational reasons. For example' English has borrowed words like 'mosquito and 'tornado' from Spanish even though it had several native words for these phenomena like midge, crane fly, gallynipper, twister, cyclone, funnel cloud, whirlwind etc. some of which are still occasionally used. Likewise, some Mexican Spanish speakers use the English word "bakery" even though Spanish has two words related to "bakery", panadería and pastelería.
Sometimes languages adapt loan words to the phonetics or morphology of their own language in curious ways as in Chinese han bao bao and Spanish hamburguesa for 'hamburger' originally from English or Irish frug and Hawaiian poloka "frog" from the English word. Schnorkel, origninally a dialectal German word for "nose" has been borrowed into English as 'snorkel' (a diving tube) and in turn into Japanese as sunokkeru.
Occasionally, loan words may exist simultaneously in a language alongside the native word as in Puerto Rican Spanish chopín mal and comercio central for "shopping mall" or Romanian sotsie (from Latin socia) and nevasta (from Old Slavic nevestu) for "wife". Just to name a very few examples.
Anyhow, I'd be interested in hearing from any of you Antimooners out there what your knowledge is about loan words, either in English, or in any of the foreign languages you've studied. Anything that is just opinion or speculation is welcome too.
---- Brennus
Hi Brennus,
Br <pantouflenn> = En <slipper> is from Fr <pantoufle> (same meaning).
An interesting part of the stock of loanwords is faux-amis. A never-ending topic with huge quantities of examples.
En <foot> = a body part on which people stand.
Fr <foot> = a sport where 22 people run after a ball.
In Russia, the French word for mushroom, "champignon", is the name of one type of mushroom -- the white ones that are the common mushroom available in US stores.
As far as I could tell when I was in Russia, "limonad" refers to fruit-flavored soft drinks generally.
Sometimes words are borrowed because they describe a new concept or, and other times it just seems that it's fashionable to use a loanword, which may supplant the older word or run alongside it while eventually acquiring a subtly different meaning. This kinda thing inevitably happens pretty much whenever languages are in contact with each other.
When I was living in Argentina I was always amused with the loanwords that were common there. The funny thing is a lot came from English but didn't necessarily mean exactly the same thing.
(un) friser [friser]= freezer
(un) country [kantri]= detached suburban single family home
(un) shopping [SopiN] or [Sopin] = mall
(un) bowling [boliN] or [bolin]=bowling alley
(un) champignon/champiñón [tSampiJon]=mushroom (from French)
a full [aful]=to the max
es re heavy [eh rre xeBi]=it's very rough (a situation)
(un) yuppie [Supi]=yuppie
(una) cancha [kantSa]=sports or soccer field (from Quechua)
(el) (e)slang [ehlaN] or [ehlan]=slang
In taking Korean I was also made familiar with plenty of loan-words, which can be interesting once they're adjusted to be phonologically appropriate to Korean (the Spanish examples show some of that, too, but I think the Korean ones are more drastic) :
aiseukeurim [ais1k_h1rim]= ice cream
areubaiteu [ar1bait_h1]= part time job (from German via Japanese "Arbeit" "work")
deiteu [teit_h1]= date
paekseu [p_hEks_?1]=fax
haembeogeo [hEmp_?OgO]=hamburger
orenji juseu [orendZ_?us1]=orange juice (via Japanese from English)
poto [p_hot_ho] =photo
baiollin [paiolin] =violin
bilding [pilt_?iN]=building
Both lists could go on a long time, but like I said before I think it's particularly interesting how words change to fit the phonology of the language. Despite what the idiot "language experts" who often talk unchallenged on NPR (does this not frustrate anyone else? They literally know negative nothing about what they're talking about...I think the name of the show is like "Language Matters" or something, or maybe it's another one...can't remember) claim, English does no "better job" at "staying true" to the phonology of the original language, altho we may try. Anyway, off my soapbox now :)
I know my dad who grew up in Belgrade and speaks Serbian calls police "zandemarija" (jendarme) - police in French, and "offlinger" for coathanger. I presume offlinger is German and means the same in German, it certainly doesn't sound Serbian or Slavic.
English also has some Slavic words such as "robot", invented by Karel Capek, the Czeck writer, in his play "R.U.R. Robots" the word "rabota" was a slave worker in his play I think. Every slavic speaker would know "rabota" is work and "rabotnik" is a worker.
One interesting feature about my mother tongue, Hungarian, is that many slang words come form the Gypsy language (called Romany, not the same as Romanian!). For example: csávó ("guy, dude", Rom. shavo="young man"), csaj ("chick", Rom. shey="girl",), manus ("chap, guy", Rom. manush="man"), etc.. The interesting thing is that the Gypsy language has a very low privilege in Hungary, yet it has been a heavy lender of slang words. The reason for this may be that Gypsies, who mainly lived in ghettos, were often locked up for stealing, and lower-class criminals learnt those expressions from them in prisons. However, the words listed above are much a part of common usage now. (And of course I don't have any bias towards Gypsies as criminals).
By the way, the Hungarian language has itself been a heavy borrower, although it also has its own words to name things whose names it has borrowed (like "telefon" and "távbeszélö", the latter also meaning "distance speaker"). Its basic word stock is of Finno-Ugric origin, but it also has many loanwords from Turkic, Iranian and Slavic languages, and quite a few from German, Latin, and, increasingly, English.
Deborah,
It's interesting what you said about Russian mushrooms because Ge <der Pilz> is Fr <le champignon> while Ge <der Champignon> is Fr <le champignon de Paris> (a small type of mushroom grown by people).
There are so many Spanish loan words in Tagalog that there are too many to mention. One interesting phenomenon is that modern-day Filipinos frequently codeswitch between Tagalog, Spanish, English, and possibly another native language that there are several different ways to convey a single thought.
For example, when counting, Filipinos will either say isa, dalawa, tatlo...or uno, dos, tres...or one, two, three...
They will either say Lunes, Martes, Miyerkoles and Enero, Pebrero, Marso...or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and January, February, March...
They might call it a chair or silya or upuan; a table or mesa or hapag; a bedroom or kuwarto or silid; a street or kalye or daan; a city or syudad or lungsod, etc.
Another bewildering phenomenon is the spelling of loan words. Frequently you'll see loan words "Filipinized" to fit the Tagalog spelling patterns, but other times you'll see them in their original spellings:
champagne or tsampan, teenager or tinedyer, cookie or kuki, addict or adik, allergy or alerdyi, boxer or bakser, vaccine or baksin, jeep or dyip, teacher or titser, taxi or taksi, restaurant or restawrant, computer or kompyutor, etc.
In French, most loanwords form their plurals with the regular suffix <s> and sometimes two plural forms may coexist.
un match – des matchs – des matches
un solo – des solos
un maximums – des maximums – des maxima (rare)
un média – un médium (rare) – des médias – des média (rare)
un lied – des lieds
un Land –des Lands – des Länder
un ossobucco – des ossobuccos
un spaghetti – un spaghetto (rare) – des spaghettis – des spaghetti (rare)
une pizza – des pizzas – des pizze (rare)
un sandwich – des sandwichs – des sandwiches
un rugbyman – des rugbymans – des rugbymen (rare)
un adagio – des adagios
un apriori – des aprioris
un sanatorium – des sanatoriums
un album – des albums
un apparatchik – des apparatchiks
un canelloni – des canellonis
un lazzi – des lazzis
un kayak – des kayaks
une taliatelle – des taliatelles
un scénario – des scénarios – des scenarii (rare)
un prorata – des proratas
un pasodoble – des pasodobles
un erratum – des erratums – des errata (rare)
un duplicata – des duplicatas
un epsilon – des espsilons
un curriculum – des curriculums
un chichekébab – des chichekébabs
un achkénaze – des achkénazes
une favéla – des favélas
une fatma – des fatmas
un leitmotiv – des leitmotivs – des leitmotive (rare)
Joaquin,
So Filipinos have to be multilingual just to get by in everyday life, it seems. That's interesting.
I remembered a loan word in English that's something like the example of "champignon" in Russian (i.e., the generic term in the original language becomes specific in the borrowing language). "Kasha" in Russian is cereal made from any type of grain, while in the US it refers only to buckwheat (grechnevaya (Greek) kasha in Russia). There is a cold cereal here called "Kashi" that is made of mixed grains, so that is actually using the plural correctly.
Here are some English words that have entered the language from other languages -
I. Germanic Period
Latin
ancor 'anchor'
butere 'butter' (L < Gr. butyros)
cealc 'chalk'
ceas 'cheese' (caseum)
cetel 'kettle'
cycene 'kitchen'
cirice 'church' (ecclesia < Gr. ecclesia)
disc 'dish' (discus)
mil 'mile' (milia [passuum] 'a thousand paces')
piper 'pepper'
pund 'pound' (pondo 'a weight')
sacc 'sack' (saccus)
sicol 'sickle'
straet 'street' ([via] strata 'straight way' or stone-paved road)
weall 'wall' (vallum)
win 'wine' (vinum < Gr. oinos)
II. Old English Period (600-1100)
Latin
apostol 'apostle' (apostolus < Gr. apostolos)
casere 'caesar, emperor'
ceaster 'city' (castra 'camp')
cest 'chest' (cista 'box')
circul 'circle'
cometa 'comet' (cometa < Greek)
maegester 'master' (magister)
martir 'martyr'
paper 'paper' (papyrus, from Gr.)
tigle 'tile' (tegula)
Celtic
brocc 'badger'
cumb 'combe, valley'
(few ordinary words, but thousands of place and river names: London, Carlisle,
Devon, Dover, Cornwall, Thames, Avon...)
III. Middle English Period (1100-1500)
Scandinavian
Most of these first appeared in the written language in Middle English; but many were no doubt borrowed earlier, during the period of the Danelaw (9th-10th centuries).
anger, blight, by-law, cake, call, clumsy, doze, egg, fellow, gear,
get, give, hale, hit, husband, kick, kill, kilt, kindle, law, low,
lump, rag, raise, root, scathe, scorch, score, scowl, scrape, scrub,
seat, skill, skin, skirt, sky, sly, take, they, them, their, thrall,
thrust, ugly, want, window, wing
Place name suffixes:
-by, -thorpe, -gate
French
Law and government
attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime,
defendent, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, larceny, noble,
parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, revenue, state, tax, verdict
Church
abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest,
religion, sacrament, saint, sermon
Nobility:
baron, baroness; count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess;
prince, princess; viscount, viscountess; noble, royal
(contrast native words: king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly,
queenly)
Military
army, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal,
defense,enemy,marine, navy, sergeant, soldier, volunteer
Cooking
beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast,
salmon, stew, veal
Culture and luxury goods
art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel,
oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, sculpture
Other
adventure, change, charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor,
feign, fruit, letter, literature, magic, male, female, mirror,
pilgrimage, proud, question, regard, special
Also Middle English French loans: a huge number of words in age, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, -tion, con-, de-, and pre-.
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/loanwords.html
Romanian language, (derived from Ancient Latin ) is the least-known language in the Romance family… and contains many words taken from the surrounding Slavic languages plus:
Greek ( folos < ófelos = use; buzunar < buzunára = pocket; proaspăt < prósfatos = fresh)etc
Hungarian (oraş < város = town; a cheltui < költeni = to spend; a făgădui < fogadni = to promise)etc
Turkish ( cafea < kahve = coffee; cutie < kuta =box; papuc < papuç = slipper)etc
German ( cartof < Kartoffel = potato; bere < Bier = beer; şurub < Schraube = screw)etc
Besides Romanians and Albanians share 300 words. Some linguists believe that in fact Albanians are Dacians(ancient Romanians) who were not Romanized, and migrated south. Also they believe that Romanians are mainly Romans and not Daco-Romans.
Ex: Romanization in Dacia was so noticeable that Polish people that knew Romanians before they met Italians, associated Italians with Walachia (Romania),
Ex: Italy's name in Polish is "Wlochy" derived from Walachia (Romania) In other words Polish and Hungarians believed Italians are Romanians!
Erratum:
Greek ( folos < ófelos = use; buzunar < buzunára = pocket; proaspat-prosfatos = fresh)
Hungarian (oras-varos = town; a cheltui < költeni = to spend; a fagadui < fogadni = to promise)
Turkish ( cafea < kahve = coffee; cutie < kuta =box; papuc < papuç = slipper)
German ( cartof < Kartoffel = potato; bere < Bier = beer; surub < Schraube = screw)
English often gives borrowed words a much more specific meaning than they have in their original language. For example the Italian word "tempo" can mean "time" in any number of contexts, but the English word "tempo" refers just to the speed of music. The Spanish word "salsa" can mean any type of sauce, but the English word "salsa" refers only to a specific type of sauce.
<< Romanian language, (derived from Ancient Latin ) is the least-known language in the Romance family… >>
I don't know about that. Most people have heard of Romanian, but very few people outside of their respective countries are even aware of Catalan, Gascon, Languedocian, Provençal, Auvergnat, Lemosin, Vivaro-Alpin, Franco-Provençal, Rumansh, Friulan, Ladin, Vallader, Surselvan, Logudorese, Campidanese, Nuorese, Corsican, Galician, Aragonese, Asturian, Extremaduran, Fala, Mirandese, Gallurese, Piedmontese, Sassarese, Sicilian, Valencian, etc.
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