Borrowed Words

Borrowed Words PDF

Author: Philip Durkin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 0199574995

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This book shows how, when, and why English took words from other languages and explains how to find their origins and reasons for adoption. It covers the effects of contact with languages ranging from Latin and French to Yiddish, Chinese, and Maori, from Saxon times to the present. It will appeal to everyone interested in the history of English.

Twentieth Century Borrowings from French to English

Twentieth Century Borrowings from French to English PDF

Author: Julia Landmann

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2013-01-16

Total Pages: 590

ISBN-13: 1443845833

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French has long been the donor language par excellence in the history of English. French has contributed to the English vocabulary in the form of new words since before the Norman Conquest. The French influence on the English lexicon represents the focus of linguistic concern in a considerable number of investigations of the language and its development. Yet French borrowings which have recently been adopted into English have as yet figured little if at all in such studies. The present study sets out to shed light on the French impact on English in the recent past. The results presented in this book are based on a corpus of 1677 twentieth-century French borrowings collected from the Oxford English Dictionary Online. On the basis of their meanings, the words under consideration have been assigned to different subject fields in order to give a tour d’horizon of the manifold areas and spheres of life enriched by French in recent times. The first part of the present investigation concentrates on the phonological and orthographical reception of the various borrowings. The focus of this study is on the semantic development of the French borrowings in comparison to their sources in the donor language. Emphasis has been placed upon analysing whether a particular meaning a borrowing assumes after its first attested use is taken over from French, or whether it represents an independent semantic change within English.

Problems and Perspectives

Problems and Perspectives PDF

Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 1317886526

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Problems and Perspectives- Studies in the Modern French Language looks at a number of interesting or problematic areas in the phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis of the French language and encourages the reader to think critically about different ways of approaching, describing and explaining these issues or data. The book is divided into two parts- the first section is a preliminary to, and contextualises, the discussion of the more specialised topics of the second part. Part two presents problematic and controversial areas in the description and analysis of the contemporary language. Where appropriate historical and sociolinguistic issues are also integrated into the discussion of modern French. Aimed primarily at advanced students and researchers in French linguistics, the introductory sections of part one also make this book accessible to undergraduates beginning their study of French linguistics, and to less specialised readers.

French Loan Words in the English Language

French Loan Words in the English Language PDF

Author:

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2013-12-02

Total Pages: 13

ISBN-13: 3656552495

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Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Englisches Seminar), course: English Lexicology: Words and their Meaning, language: English, abstract: The dates for the beginning and end of the Middle English period are rather controversial. But many linguists do agree that by 1100 certain changes to the English language were sufficiently well established to justify the use of the adjective middle to designate the language in what was actually a phase of transition from the English of the early Middle Ages – Old English – to that of the first printed books at the end of the 15th century. During this period many changes occurred that may be noted in nearly every aspect of the language: in its phonology, its semantics and in its lexicon, where many Old English words were replaced by borrowed items from the French language. But although the French influence did not cease with the end of the 15th century, due to its size of merely seven pages this term paper will concentrate on the Middle English period. Starting with a short introduction to the historical background of the French Influence on the English language, there will be examples of the borrowed vocabulary, explanations why they were borrowed and how they can be further distinguished into loan words from Norman and Central French. Moreover, there will be an analysis of how the process of borrowing led to the highly distinctive vocabulary of the English language regarding register and style. The structure of this term paper is chronological as it seemed to be the most appropriate regarding the historical nature of this paper’s topic.

The Story of French

The Story of French PDF

Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2008-01-08

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 1429932406

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Why does everything sound better if it's said in French? That fascination is at the heart of The Story of French, the first history of one of the most beautiful languages in the world that was, at one time, the pre-eminent language of literature, science and diplomacy. In a captivating narrative that spans the ages, from Charlemagne to Cirque du Soleil, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow unravel the mysteries of a language that has maintained its global influence despite the rise of English. As in any good story, The Story of French has spectacular failures, unexpected successes and bears traces of some of history's greatest figures: the tenacity of William the Conqueror, the staunchness of Cardinal Richelieu, and the endurance of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Through this colorful history, Nadeau and Barlow illustrate how French acquired its own peculiar culture, revealing how the culture of the language spread among francophones the world over and yet remains curiously centered in Paris. In fact, French is not only thriving—it still has a surprisingly strong influence on other languages. As lively as it is fascinating, The Story of French challenges long held assumptions about French and shows why it is still the world's other global language.

Émigrés

Émigrés PDF

Author: Richard Scholar

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2022-06-14

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0691234000

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The fascinating history of French words that have entered the English language and the fertile but fraught relationship between English- and French-speaking cultures across the world English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases—such as à la mode, ennui, naïveté and caprice—lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that would otherwise elude the language. Richard Scholar examines the continuing history of untranslated French words in English and asks what these words reveal about the fertile but fraught relationship that England and France have long shared and that now entangles English- and French-speaking cultures all over the world. Émigrés demonstrates that French borrowings have, over the centuries, “turned” English in more ways than one. From the seventeenth-century polymath John Evelyn’s complaint that English lacks “words that do so fully express” the French ennui and naïveté, to George W. Bush’s purported claim that “the French don’t have a word for entrepreneur,” this unique history of English argues that French words have offered more than the mere seasoning of the occasional mot juste. They have established themselves as “creolizing keywords” that both connect English speakers to—and separate them from—French. Moving from the realms of opera to ice cream, the book shows how migrant French words are never the same again for having ventured abroad, and how they complete English by reminding us that it is fundamentally incomplete. At a moment of resurgent nationalism in the English-speaking world, Émigrés invites native Anglophone readers to consider how much we owe the French language and why so many of us remain ambivalent about the migrants in our midst.

Loanwords in the World's Languages

Loanwords in the World's Languages PDF

Author: Martin Haspelmath

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 1104

ISBN-13: 3110218437

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"This landmark publication in comparative linguistics is the first comprehensive work to address the general issue of what kinds of words tend to be borrowed from other languages. The authors have assembled a unique database of over 70,000 words from 40 languages from around the world, 18,000 of which are loanwords. This database allows the authors to make empirically founded generalizations about general tendencies of word exchange among languages." --Book Jacket.

The influence of the French language on the English language

The influence of the French language on the English language PDF

Author: Angelika Felser

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2017-10-19

Total Pages: 14

ISBN-13: 3668552592

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Essay from the year 1998 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the influence of the French language on the English language. The English was replaced by the French nobility. A bilingual situation was predominant: Whereas people from the upper class spoke the French language, people from lower classes spoke English. The French nobility led a separate life from ordinary people. The English language was considered to be inferior to the French language, and only people like merchants who wanted to communicate with people from the lower classes had to know the English language.

Korean Language in Culture and Society

Korean Language in Culture and Society PDF

Author: Ho-min Sohn

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2005-12-31

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 9780824826949

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Intended as a companion to the popular KLEAR Textbooks in Korean Language series and designed and edited by a leading Korean linguist, this is the first volume of its kind to treat specifically the critical role of language in Korean culture and society. An introductory chapter provides the framework of the volume, defining language, culture, and society and their interrelatedness and presenting an overview of the Korean language vis-à-vis its culture and society from evolutionary and dynamic perspectives. Early on, contributors examine the invention and use of the Korean alphabet, South Korea’s "standard language" vs. North Korea’s "cultured language," and Korean in contact with Chinese and Japanese. Several topics representative of Korean socio-cultural vocabulary (sound symbolic words, proverbs, calendar-related terms, kinship terms, slang expressions) are discussed, followed by a consideration of Korean honorifics and other related issues. Two chapters on Korean media, one on advertisements and the other a comparative analysis of television ads in Korea, Japan, and the U.S., follow. Finally, contributors look at salient features of the language, narrative structure, and dialectal variation. All chapters are accompanied by a set of student questions and a useful bibliography. A beginning level of proficiency in Korean is sufficient to digest the Korean examples with facility, making this volume accessible to a wide range of students. Contributors: Andrew S. Byon, Sungdai Cho, Young-A Cho, Young-mee Y. Cho, Miho Choo, Shin Ja J. Hwang, Ross King, Haejin Elizabeth Koh, Jeyseon Lee, Douglas Ling, Duk-Soo Park, Yong-Yae Park, S. Robert Ramsey, Carol Schulz, Ho-min Sohn, Susan Strauss, Hye-Sook Wang, Jaehoon Yeon.