Theoretical issues in the interpretation of Cappadocian, a not-so-dead Greek contact language

Cappadocian is a mixed Greek-Turkish dialect continuum spoken in the Turkish Central Anatolia Region until the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s. Only a few Cappadocian dialects are still spoken in present-day Greece. Since the publication of Thomason and Kaufman’s Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics in 1988, Cappadocian has attracted the attention of historical and contact linguists, because of its unique mixed character. In this paper, I will discuss a number of theoretical issues in the interpretation of the linguistic structure of Cappadocian, focusing on the following topics: (1) the status of loan phonemes and loan morphemes in contact languages, (2) the distinction between code switching and code mixing in relation to Poplack’s Free Morpheme Constraint, (3) the schizoid typology of contact languages

Sino-Vietnamese grammatical vocabulary and sociolinguistic conditions for borrowing

Vietnamese has been demonstrated to be a Mon-Khmer Austroasiatic language (Haudricourt 1954, Shorto 2006), albeit one which differs substantially from the typical Austroasiatic phonological template (Alves 2001). Some of that linguistic transformation was most likely due in part to language contact with Chinese, primarily through the massive lexical borrowing that took place over the past two millennia. However, the question of the sociolinguistic conditions under which this borrowing occurred over this large period of time has nevertheless been little described. The main purpose of this paper is to consider the borrowing of grammatical vocabulary in particular from Chinese into Vietnamese to exemplify the long-term Sino-Vietnamese language contact. This requires an exploration of the socio-historical context in which the elements of Chinese came into Vietnamese and a sorting out of the spoken versus literary means of transmission of linguistic borrowing. This case study in the borrowing of grammatical vocabulary sheds light on the issues of language contact and linguistic borrowing when a prestigious written language is accessible to a linguistic community

Sociolinguistic study of language contact in Ubolo speech community, Enugu State-Nigeria

This paper presents a preliminary report of the linguistic study of language contact in a rural speech community of Ubolo, Enugu State, Nigeria, using a sociolinguistic approach. The researchers selected seven linguistic groups in the area of study. They are Ubolo (the indigenous community), Awka, Onitsha and Owerri from different regional linguistic groups of Igboland. Others include: Hausa, Idoma and Yoruba from other ethnolinguistic groups in Nigeria. The researcher relied mostly on unstructured oral interview, direct observations, group discussions, and interactive sessions. The data collected for the study were analyzed using Higa’s directionality model of analysis. From the study, five basic issues that influenced language contact in Ubolo speech community were established from the factors examined. These are trade/historical antecedents, access roads, border areas, migrations. More specifically, the research revealed the effects of language contact to include linguistic borrowing, code-switching, and hyperadoptation. In addition, it was discovered that the factors that influenced linguistic borrowing in the area of study include: Domain or the contact area, age, convergence, prestige, referee design, and interaction

Semantička adaptacija anglicizama u francuskome

Adaptation of anglicisms at the semantic level comprises various changes of meaning that occur in the process of linguistic borrowing. Three types of semantic changes have been analysed in this paper: 1) changes in semantic extension; 2) ellipsis; 3) pejoration. The analysis at the semantic level has been carried out in accordance with the theoretical tenets of languages in contact theory of R. Filipović (1986, 1990

A POSSIBLE THEORETICAL MODEL OF THE APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC BORROWING

Ovaj se članak bavi analizom procesa jezičnoga posuđivanja i prilagodbe stranih riječi pravilima koja djeluju unutar sustava hrvatskoga jezika. Sam proces analizira se na primjerima posuđivanja iz engleskoga jezika te se, u kontekstu teorije radijalnih kategorija i koncepta enciklopedijskoga znanja (koji svojim metodološkim aparatom vrlo temeljito objašnjavaju tijek i logiku jezičnoga posuđivanja), kritički pristupa rezultatima ranijih proučavanja istog procesa, kao i jezičnih promjena uopće. Predlaže se pritom i jedan potpuno novi model analize jezičnoga posuđivanja koji, s jedne strane, čvrsto integrira rezultate nekih ranijih promišljanja o ovoj temi i prikazuje ih u svjetlu međusobne uvjetovanosti, dok s druge strane pruža cjelovitiji uvid u prirodu i tijek jezičnog posuđivanja nego što su to činili prijašnji pristupi, koji su se sustavno bavili samo njegovim pojedinačnim aspektima, ali bez potpunoga uvida u širinu procesa. Iz samoga novog modela mogu se izvesti i neki opći zaključci o prirodi dvaju temeljnih pristupa normiranju leksika (purističkoga i funkcionalnog), kao i neka načela normativnosti leksika, ukoliko zbog izravne uvjetovanosti jezičnoga posuđivanja izvanjezičnom stvarnošću napustimo pomalo paradoksalan pojam leksičke norme.The present paper discusses the process of linguistic borrowing and adaptation of foreign words to the rules of Croatian. The process is analysed on the examples of borrowings from English. Earlier studies of this process and linguistic changes in general are critically analysed within the context of the theory of radial categories and concepts of encyclopedic knowledge (whose methodological apparatus provides a detailed description of the course and logic of linguistic borrowing). A new model for the analysis of linguistic borrowing is proposed. This model, on the one hand, integrates the results of earlier studies of this phenomenon and presents them in the light of their mutual interdependence, and on the other hand, offers an integral insight into the nature and course of linguistic borrowing. Earlier attempts studied only individual aspects of linguistic borrowing and did not provide a complete insight into the whole process. On the basis of the proposed model some general conclusions about the nature of two basic approaches to interrelations of lexic and norm (puristic and functional), as well as some principles of lexical normativity can be made, if we abandon somewhat paradoxical notion of lexical norm due to the direct interdependence of linguistic borrowing and extralinguistic reality

English Loanwords in Japanese TV Ads

Historically speaking, linguistic borrowing is a common phenomenon in the evolution of a language. However, unlike countries where English was adopted as an institutional variety as a result of linguistic legacy, the English found in Japan - specifically in television advertising - is a particularly intriguing linguistic puzzle. Although most of the English one sees on products and garments is often incomprehensible, pointless, or simply rude, advertisers/copy writers do have the power to manipulate the English language and \u27engineer\u27 changes to satisfy their own utilitarian purposes

Linguistic Borrowing in the English Language of Economics

The aim of this paper is to discuss the function of loanwords in English economic discourse. In the introductory part, the author presents very briefly an inventory of foreign words used in English. Being a linguist and an economist, the author is interested in the language of economics and she will try to show how different languages have helped to shape the current economic lexicon in English. In this article, an attempt will be made to discuss which languages have influenced English economic vocabulary and which particular domains, such as technical analysis or options, rely heavily on loanwords. The author also discusses how borrowed lexical items determine the language of economics. The article finishes with an attempt to predict the future situation of borrowings in English business communication.Le but de cet article est de montrer la fonction des mots empruntés dans le discours économique anglais. L’article commence par une courte présentation de l’origine des mots étrangers utilisés en anglais. Pour mener à bien son analyse, l’auteur limite son champ de recherches pour ne prendre en considération que la langue économique. Elle souligne la diversité des langues étrangères qui ont exercé une influence sur l’état actuel du vocabulaire économique anglais. L’auteur examine tour à tour chaque domaine de l’économie du point de vue de l’influence particulière d’une langue sur un domaine économique déterminé et en explique la raison. L’article s’achève par une réflexion sur le devenir des emprunts dans la communication commerciale anglaise

Linguistic borrowing of arabic lexical in european languages

El artículo muestra que la lengua árabe tiene una notable presencia en la formación de algunas lenguas europeas, sobre todo, en aquellas cuyo origen está en las llamadas lenguas clásicas como son el latín y el griego antiguos. Este estudio lexicográfico se ocupa del estudio de los préstamos lingüísticos, concretamente los préstamos del léxico árabe en las lenguas europeas. Que el árabe haya dejado su huella en los diccionarios europeos es un hecho fácil de constatar hoy en día, sobre todo en los campos semánticos relacionados con los ámbitos científicosThe article indicates that the Arabic Language has a share and an effect in forming European Languages, such as ancient languages Latin and Greek.This lexicographical study, which deals with the study of linguistic borrowing, is the direct Arabic lexical borrowing in European languages. The Arabic language has left its impression in European languages that represented in a number of Arabic words that are still existing in these dictionaries that include scientific field

General linguistics and Indo-European reconstruction

There is good reason to be ambivalent about the usefulness of general considerations in linguistic reconstruction. As a heuristic device, a theoretical framework can certainly be helpful, but the negative potential of aprioristic considerations must not be underestimated. E.g., there is a whole range of phenomena which receive a natural explanation when we assume that glottalization is ancient in Germanic. The methodological question is: why have scholars been reluctant to identify the vestjysk stød with the English glottalization as a historical reality which may have been inherited from the proto-language? The role of general linguistics is to provide an idea of what can be expected in linguistic development, not by theoretical reasoning but by inspection of what actually happens

English in french-speaking african countries: the case of Gabon

A number of historically French-speaking countries have adopted English as second or one of the official languages. This does not only pose a problem of multilingualism at State level as well as at social level, but it also questions the actual status of English as a language at both levels. In fact, English does not only have to compete with French, but also with native African languages. This article gives an insight into the status of English in Gabon – a French-speaking country in western central Africa. Gabon has not (yet) adopted English as one of the official languages, but the status of the language needs to be investigated from a sociolinguistic perspective. The paper retraced the story of English in Gabon by outlining three periods of contact between the English language and the populations of Gabon. The presence of English throughout the three periods is then linguistically attested through an empirical study of English loanwords in the general vocabulary of Gabonese native languages. The second topic that the article covers is the contemporary situation of the language in the country whose policy refers to it as foreign language. Meanwhile, the influence of the American lifestyle and music, the education system and the elites that were educated in English-speaking countries produce a different social view on the language. This growing social status may signal prominent new developments in the future. This leads the author to set perspectives of the language as it is spoken in Gabon