Borrowing (i.e. loan)

Definition

A borrowing is a linguistic item that has been copied from another language, with the phonological and semantic properties basically remaining intact.

Specific types of borrowings are commonly distinguished:

• internal borrowing
• reborrowing
• nonce borrowing

Examples

English borrowings from the 18th century

• from German: cobalt, quartz, spath, feldspar, sinter, gneiss, hornblende, nickel, meerschaum (from the lexical field of mineralogy); landau, pumpernickel, seltzer, waltz;
• from Low German/Dutch: schooner, pea-jacket, caboose (all nautical); from Cape Dutch: steenbok, springbok, klipspringer, hartebeest;
• from Italian: cantata, duetto, finale, soprano, viola, violoncello, adagio, crescendo (and dozens of other musical terms); colonnade, arcade, loggia, alfresco, picturesque, terra-cotta, torso (from architecture and art); influenza, malaria, extravaganza, lotto.
• from Spanish: albino, domino, fandango, flotilla, jade, merino, stevedore

Literature

• Glahn, Richard. 2002. Der Einfluss des Englischen auf gesprochene deutsche Gegenwartssprache. (= Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft 4, ed. by Rudolf Hoberg). Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
• Görlach, Manfred. 2001. Eighteenth-Century English. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Görlach, Manfred. 2002. Einführung in die englische Sprachgeschichte. Heidelberg: Winter.
• Grzega, Joachim. 2003. 'Borrowing as a Word-Finding Process in Cognitive Historical Onomasiology', Onomasiology Online 4: 22-42.
• Riehl, Claudia Maria. 2004. Sprachkontaktforschung. Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Narr.
• Thomason, S.G. and T. Kaufman. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Thomason, S.G. 2001. Language Contact: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Winford, D. 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. London: Blackwell.

See also

• loan