Ways of borrowing and criteria of borrowings.

Ways:

Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between the peoples) and through written speech (by indirect contact through books, etc.). Oral borrowing took place chiefly in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowing gained importance. Words borrowed orally (e.g. L. inch, mill, street) are usually short and they undergo considerable changes in the act of adoption. Written borrowings (e.g. Fr. communiqué, belles-lettres, naïveté) preserve their spelling and some peculiarities of their sound-form, their assimilation is a long and laborious process.

Criteria:

Though borrowed words undergo changes in the adopting language they preserve some of their former peculiarities for a comparatively long period. This makes it possible to work out some criteria for determining whether the word belongs to the borrowed element.

In some cases the pronunciation of the word (strange sounds, sound combinations, position of stress, etc.), its spelling and the correlation between sounds and letters are an indication of the foreign origin of the word. e.g. volcano (It.), vase (Fr.), vaccine

(L.), jungle (Hindi), gesture (L.), giant (OFr.), zeal (L.), zero (Fr.), zinc (G.), etc.

The morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms may also bear witness to the word being adopted from another language. Thus the suffixes in the words neurosis (Gr.) and violoncello (It.) betray the foreign origin of the words.

Last but not least is the lexical meaning of the word. Thus the concept denoted by the words ricksha(w), pagoda (Chin.) make us suppose that we deal with borrowings.

Sometimes the form of the word and its meaning in Modern English enable us to tell the immediate source of borrowing. Thus if the digraph ch is sounded as [∫], the word is a late French borrowing (as in echelon, chauffeur, chef); if it stands for [k], it came through Greek (archaic, architect, chronology); if it is pronounced as [t∫], it is either an early-borrowing (chase, OFr.; cherry, L., OFr.; chime, L.), or a word of Anglo-Saxon origin (choose, child, chin).

38 ASSIMILATION OF BORROWINGS

Assimilation – the process of adjusting a word to the phonetic and lexico-grammatic norms of the language.

There are 3 main types of assimilation: 1). Phonetic2). Grammatical 3). Lexical

1)Phonetic assimilation is the process of adjusting the phonetic form of the loane word to the sound system of the recipient language.

Loans not assimilated phonetically retain their foreign pronunciation.

Most French loans from Parisian dialect are not phonetically assimilated.

2)Grammatical assimilation is the conformation of a borrowed word to the morphological or grammatical standards of the receiving language. If a loan word is grammatically assimilated it acquire (get) English paradigms and categories.

3). Lexical assimilations is the conformation of a borrowed word to the lexico-semantic system of the recipient language. If a loan word participates in word-building according to the rules of English we can say it’s a lexical assimilated word.

A borrowed word may developed a new meanings in the receiving language.

Folk Etymology.

Sometimes an unfamiliar borrowed words is roughly associated with a native word resembling it only in sound. The change of a borrowed word on the basis on fancied analogy with same well-known word / phrase is called joke / false etymology.

Example: cotlet – to cut – to cutlet

Degrees of Assimilation.

The degree of assimilation depends of different factors.

1).Time of borrowing. The earlier word borrowed the more assimilated word is.

2). Way of borrowings ( oral, written, speech)

1). Complete / full assimilation

2) Partial assimilation

3) Words are not assimilate at all ( barbarisms).

1) Complete assimilated words correspound to all phonetic, morphological and semantic loans of English and are not felt as a foreign words. Many of them belong to the basic word-stock From Latin: cheese, pepper, street. From Scandinavian: husband, felloe, to take, to want. From French: table, chair, etc. 2)Partially assimilated words are those which retain (сохраняют) either their foreign pronunciation on foreign morphological features/characteristics (data - datum). Although which are not semantically assimilated reflecting the notions of foreign nature, culture, customs (steepe, taiga, mantilla).

3). They are not assimilated in any way and usually have English equivalents – barbarisms (chao, adios, Holla)