Paper Part 4

(One more part left for tomorrow)

No borrowing takes place unless two cultures and their languages come into contact with each other. So who would use loanwords?  Those who come in contact with and acquire new knowledge from a foreign culture use foreign words in an attempt to disseminate their new knowledge (Higa 284).  One reason could be linguistic innovation. When new things or concepts are learned by one culture form another there arises a need to name them in the persons own language. Examples of this can be seen with English words spreading throughout the Earth. Words like Internet, Walkman, TV etc. new technologies that don’t have existing words in other languages so they are borrowed and used straight up with little change in the new language. Hence new words may be created or it may directly borrow from the ready-made foreign word. Visitors and immigrants to foreign countries tend to use borrowed words in their native languages to show their progress of acculturations. These borrowed words then are subject to the phonological rules of the language that does the borrowing. New concepts do not always mean new sounds or words. Loanwords are like immigrants in many respects and there are analogous relations between the two. Both involve national sentiments in some way and both may receive governmental control as in the case of the French Academy. Both must go through a period of acculturation before they are given full fledge citizenship. (Higa 287)

Word borrowing appears to be a simple and often random linguistic phenomenon but it is actually regulated by certain linguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic principles.

A typological approach was used to analyze why a particular loanword and not another was used in one language to another. The question always arose, why did the borrow have to take place at all? Because all languages have the means to create new expressions out of their own resources so why not make up a new word. Two main factors present themselves. 1) Social and attitudinal factors and 2) grammatical factors. (Haspelmath 35) To be better understood in the new global economy, it was easier to keep the word everyone is familiar with besides make a new one.

The source words of loanwords often have properties in the donor language that do not fit the system of the recipient language. In such situations of lack of fit loanwords undergo changes to make them fit better with the recipient language. This is called loanword adaptation. This is evident in spelling changes and phonetically changes. As shown above with the wall street example. The double ‘aa’ use in Dutch words was dropped for simplification and to help the new word fit with the surroundings.

Loans from the Dutch culture are seen in other places besides the language. Depending on where you live there may be a community that still keeps the traditions. But the biggest and most obvious, in my opinion, which no one sees or looks right through, is evidence in sports teams for the New York area. This area was the first to receive Dutch immigrants and one of the oldest settled areas so they have had a long history of Dutchness living there. Syracuse University located in Syracuse NY has as its mascot Otto the Orange. Otto is literally an orange with legs and arms. Their team colors are orange and white. Yes he is shaped like an orange but, you may ask why would New York have anything to do with Oranges, an obviously warmer climate fruit? Not because they’re trying to be funny but in truth it is homage to the Dutch royal family whose family color is orange. Each year Holland still has Queen’s Day (This year it switches to Kings Day as the queen has abdicated in favor of her son) celebrated in April when the whole country wears orange. Same goes for the New York Knicks NBA team. Their colors are Orange and Blue. Knickerbockers are the name for a pair of pants popular in the 18^th century. Again there is no reason to use the color orange other than the heritage of the area being Dutch in origin. There are examples even locally of Dutch influence. We have a town named Rensselaer and I live near Van Buren Street. The president who that street was named after even spoke Dutch as his 1^st language, English was his second.