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A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken into by one language from another. A calque or loan translation is a related process whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword itself is a calque of the German Lehnwort.
Although loanwords are typically far less numerous than the "native" words of most languages (creoles and pidgins being an obvious exception), they are often widely known and used, since their borrowing served a certain purpose, for example to provide a name for a new invention.
Classes of Borrowed Words
Certain classes of loanwords are more common; function words, such as pronouns, numbers, words referring to universal concepts, are usually not borrowed. Examples of these words being borrowed have been attested, however.
Words referring to exotic concepts or ideas are usually borrowed. What is "exotic" can vary from language to language. Thus, English names for creatures not native to Great Britain are almost always loanwords, and most of the technical vocabulary referring to music is borrowed from Italian.
Beyond Words
Idiomatic expressions and phrases, sometimes translated word-for-word, can be borrowed, usually from a language that has "prestige" at the time. Often, a borrowed idiom is used as a euphemism for a less polite term in the original language. In English, this has usually been Latinisms from the Latin language and Gallicisms from French.
Loanwords in English
English has many loanwords. In 1973, a computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd edition) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff. Their estimates for the origin of English words is as followed:
This survey shows no information about the frequency of words, however. If the frequency of words is considered, words from Old and Middle English occupy the vast majority.
The reasons for English's vast borrowing include:
This lack of restrictions makes it comparatively easy for the English language to incorporate new words. Compare this with Japanese, where the English word "club" (itself originally from Old Norse) was turned into "kurabu" because of Japanese's numerous phonetic restrictions. However, the English pronunciation of a loanword will often differ from the original pronunciation to such a degree that a native speaker of the language it was borrowed from will not be able to recognize it as a loanword when spoken.
The tendency of the English language to borrow extensively is summed up by James D. Nicoll: "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." 1
Affixes
A few English affixes are borrowed. Most important English affixes, such as "un-", "-ing", and "-ly" are native, however.
Other Languages
Direct loans, expressions translated word-by-word, or even grammatical constructions and orthographical conventions from English are called anglicisms. Similarly, loans from Swedish are called sveticisms or svecisms. In French, the result of perceived over-use of English loanwords and expressions is called franglais. Germish is English influence on German.
Reborrowing
It is possible for a language to borrow a word. Then, after a long time of use, the original language borrows it back in its current form. This process is called reborrowing, and is how loanwords are "given back."
A specific example of this is the noun "pokemon". It is a blend of the Japanese Poketto Monsutā. Those words mean "pocket monsters" and were borrowed from English. Thus, pocket monsters started out in English, was borrowed into Japanese, blended, and then reborrowed by English.
See also
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