Borrowings from other languages as adoptions of novel cultural influences

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Theory
2.1. Definitions
2.2. Reasons for Borrowings
2.3. Types of Borrowings
2.4. General Aspects

3. History and development regarding the English language
3.1. From the Celts to the Renaissance
3.2. From the Industrial Revolution to the Present Day

4. Analysis of newspaper article

5. Summary and Conclusion

6. Bibliography

7. Appendix

1. Introduction

Reading a newspaper can be challenging and often people wonder about the meaning of a particular word. It would be interesting to know why some words look so unfamiliar and where they are originated, what they mean and how they entered the language. English as a world language is an interesting example in order to look at these questions and answer them. One way words enter a language is they are borrowed from another and it seems that this is true in many cases for English. In the following paper I want to prove that the English language was constantly adopting words due to cultural influences from the outside. First I will give some theoretical background knowledge, followed by a historical overview and an analysis of an example to underline the given facts. In the following I will start to give you a definition of borrowings.

2. Theory

2.1. Definitions

“Taking a word or phrase from one language into another, or from one variety of a language into another. “ (McArthur 1992, 141) is one definition for borrowing. A second one is taken from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and defines a borrowing as “a word […] taken from […] another language and used in their own”. If “language A uses and ends up absorbing a linguistic item or feature which was part of language B, and which language A did not have” (Graddol 2000, 33) it is called a borrowing. The third definition includes the main aspects of the previous two and the point in all of them is the fact that one language is receiving and the other language function as a donor. There is one difference, the second part of the first definition states that a word can be borrowed in between language varieties. For example a word taken from American English would also count as a borrowing. Since these and most other definitions are very close in meaning and context, the last definition will be the basis for any further remarks. It has to be emphasized that even though the term borrowing implies it, the items are not given back and the reasons for borrowing words in the first place explains partly why.

2.2. Reasons for Borrowings

There are manifold causes for taking a term from another language and to absorb it in ones one. A common one is need, often a word is missing to express a certain idea or to describe items or objects, e.g. new fauna or flora. This fact makes it necessary to adopt a new word. Another reason is the problem of an equivalent translation of a term or phrase which expresses a special feeling or mood. A third cause can be the mastery of a culture over another, like the Norman Conquest in England (which will be discussed later on). The contact between speakers of different languages could also result in borrowings and a last reason could be to emphasize ones standing. People use words to show and define their social status. (Wilton 2003)

2.3. Types

Just as there are several reasons for borrowings different types of borrowings exist. Borrowings can be divided in four categories: guest words, foreign words, loan words and calques. Words which keep their original pronunciation, spelling and meaning are called guest words, they are simply taken into the language as they are, for example ´diva´ from Italian. Foreign words on the other hand are partially assimilated and are harder to be recognized as borrowings, like ´hotel´. Loan words become a virtual native and can hardly be identified, for example ´bishop´ and ´street´. Calques are loan translation from other languages, like ´world view´ which was translated from the German ´Weltanschauung´. The terms guest word, foreign word and loan word are calques themselves as they were simply translated from the German language, which uses the terms Gastwort, Fremdwort and Lehnwort in this context. (cf. Hughes 2000, 54-55)

Another classification criteria is whether the words are direct or indirect borrowings. Whereas direct borrowings are natives in the donor language the indirect borrowings are not and are taken via this language. “A native word is one whose history or etymology can be traced back to the earliest known stages of the language.” (Fromkin 2003, 512) Concerning the English language the earliest period is Old English and words already existent in this time are the natives of English.

2.4. General Aspects

Every language can borrow items from another language and there is no limit given how many words a language can borrow. Some languages are more of a source for other language whereas some are constant borrowers. English is more than any other language borrowing words from foreign languages and can be described as an “insatiable borrower” (Crystal 1995, 126). More than 120 languages are on record as sources of its present day word-stock. The sources for English borrowings range from Latin, French, Greek, German, Italian to more exotic languages such as Zulu, Tibetan, Xhosa and Tswana, just to mention a few. (cf. Crystal 1995, 126/27) Latin, French and Greek are major donors to the English language and other languages play a minor role in providing new terms.

The history of England is interesting, diversified and explains the reasons for the huge amount of borrowed words in the English language. However it is important to point out that the process of borrowing is not finished and continuous to the present day.

3. History and development regarding the English language

3.1. From the Celts to the Renaissance

In order to understand how and when certain borrowings entered the English language, you need to take a closer look to the history of English. It is a key factor in understanding the development of the English language. The following overview will be brief and emphasize on the most important events but will be detailed enough to understand the process of borrowing due to influences from other cultures.^[1]

The first to settle on the British Isles were the Celtic tribes, their language was the first Indo European tongue to be spoken on the island. After the Roman invasion in 55 BC Latin was brought to England and became the major language to be spoken. The Celts including their language were pushed to the north and west of the island. Around 436 the Romans withdrew from Britain and about ten years later Germanic tribes settled. An Germanic word stock with Latin and Celtic elements was the result and can be called the start of the English language. Today we refer to this period as the Old English period. With Christianity in the seventh century Latin is reintroduced and many words entered the English language, such as bishop, priest or candle. 792 AD the Vikings invaded England and settled there, which “alone resulted in about 2000 Scandinavian words coming into English” (Crystal 1995, 126). Words of Scandinavian origin are dirt, egg, skin, sky, husband and many place names ending on -by, e.g. Whitby.

One of the largest waves of borrowings came along with the Norman Conquest and reign of William the Conqueror in 1066. French was introduced as the official language and was spoken by aristocrats and high class people. Even though the people of lower class were a majority and spoke almost only English, the French language had an enormous influence and the lexicon almost doubled. Privileged children who were able to receive an education were taught in French and Latin. In this period many legal terms entered the language as well, such as verdict or jury. Other examples of French adoptions are dossier, gentle, uncle and restaurant. Some borrowings formed combined with already existing English words new ones, e.g. gentle and man became gentleman, and other borrowings replaced existing terms, e.g. crime replaced firen and uncle replaced eam. Sometimes both terms were kept the French and the English one, e.g. desire and wish.

With the loss of the Normandy to France in 1204 French became less important and English was used more often. By the time of the Black Death in 1349-50, which killed one third of the English population, English again was rising in importance. The language was already heavily influenced and the so called Middle English was more a mix of both languages. At this time English was also introduced to the educational system, with the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, which kept Latin as the language of instruction. The same process took place in other areas of life.

With the Renaissance the second large wave of borrowings swept into the language. As the period of learning and humanism many Latin and Greek words came into English. Many scientific terms were adopted from Latin, e.g. data, maximum, calendar, and from Greek, e.g. mathematics, analysis, diagram. By that time the lexicon of English had doubled again and the language had experienced tremendous changes till then regarding its vocabulary. With the introduction of printing on the isles by Caxton there are sources we can rely on and we can reconstruct at which point a word appeared and was adopted.

3.2. From the Industrial Revolution to the Present Day

English remained a constant borrower through time and the Industrial Revolution brought new words into the language too. Many technical terms were adopted to describe new inventions and discoveries, again Latin and Greek were the major sources and words like nuclear, vaccine, oxygen, motor and mechanic entered the language.^[2]

So far the influences originated in the Germanic and Italic branch of the Indo European language. With the spread of the British Empire, it used to include almost a quarter of the earth, the contact with new, more exotic languages increased. A growth of global trade added to the process of new borrowings in that time and also introduced English to the world. Examples from this period are shampoo, pepper, basmati, kimono, safari and karma.

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^[1] cf. Baugh and Cable, 43-231

^[2] cf. Baugh and Cable, 288-364