1. Borrowings or Loan Words in English
Borrowing words from other languages are characteristic of English throughout More than two
thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Borrowed words are different from native
ones by their morphological structure and also by their grammatical forms. English is very rich
in different types of contacts with other countries, that’s why it is very rich in borrowings. The
Roman invasion, the adoption of Christianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the
British colonialism, trade and cultural relations served to increase immensely the English
vocabulary. The majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their
pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from native words. The main
languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as: Latin,
Scandinavian, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian and others. A loanword (or loan word)
is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By
contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is
borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German
Lehnwort, while calque is a loanword from French. The terms borrow and loanword, although
traditional, conflict with the ordinary meaning of those words because nothing is returned to the
donor languages.However, note that this metaphor is not isolated to the concept of loanwords,
but also found in the idiom "to borrow an idea;" An additional issue with the term loanword is
that it implies that the loaning is limited to one single word as opposed to phrases such as déjà
vu, an English loanword from French. While this phrase may be used as one lexical item by
English speakers, that is to say, an English speaker would not say only déjà to convey the
meaning associated with the full term déjà vu, in the donor language (French), speakers would be
aware of the phrase consisting of two words. For simplicity, adopt/adoption or adapt/adaption
are used by many linguists, either in parallel to, or in preference to, these words. Some
researchers also use the term lexical borrowing.
Loanwords entering a language
Donor language terms generally enter a recipient language as a technical term (terminus
technicus) in connection with exposure to foreign culture. The specific reference point may be to
the foreign culture itself or to a field of activity where the foreign culture has a dominant role.
External associations (from travel abroad)
A foreign loanword is arguably still outside the recipient language, and not yet a "loanword"
when it is fixed in the local culture. What is "exotic" varies from language to language. Thus,
English names for creatures not native to Great Britain are almost always loanwords.
Loanwords from a dominant field of activity
Examples of loanwords from a dominant field of activity:

2. Arts - Most of the technical vocabulary referring to classical music (e.g. concerto,
allegro, tempo, aria, opera, soprano) is borrowed from Italian and likewise in ballet from
French .
Religion - religions may carry with them a large number of technical terms from the
language of the originating culture. For example:
o Hebrew (Judaism) - Some terms in the Hebrew Bible have been carried into other
languages due to being borrowed rather than translated in Bible translations. For
example Hebrew shabbat ("day of rest") has been borrowed into most languages
in the world: in Greek the word is Σάββατο; Latin sabbato; Spanish sábado; and in
English Sabbath. The major exceptions are languages like Chinese, Japanese and
Korean where pictographic characters traditionally prevent transliteration and the
ideogram is translated "peace-breath-day" (an soku jitsu in Japanese
pronunciation) rather than transliterated. Semantically this is still a loanword
since the concept is foreign to Japanese.
o Greek (Christianity) - Likewise Greek words like baptisma have entered many
languages as baptism or similar.
o Latin (Catholicism) - Latin words like missa and communio have entered English
as mass and communion
o Arabic (Islam) - Arabic words like hijab
o Sanskrit (Hinduism) - words like guru (teacher)
Business - English exports English terms to other languages in business and technology
(examples le meeting to French).
Science (Latin) - medicine (itself a Latin loanword) uses a large vocabulary of Latin
terms (sternum, appendix), as a result of medieval advances in medical science being
conducted in Latin - even if some of the earliest Latin medical texts were translations
from Greek and Arabic.
Philosophy - many technical terms, including the term philosophy itself, derive from
Greek dominance in philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, economic theory and political
theory in Roman times. Examples include democracy, theory and so on.
Loanword passing into general currency
When a loanword loses foreign cultural associations it has passed into general use in the
language. This is the case with many English language terms where a dictionary entry will show
that the etymology is French (typically from the Norman Conquest onwards) and not from
Anglo-Saxon origins, but any distinction between Anglo-Saxon and Norman French etymology
Loanword resistant areas
By contrast, function words such as pronouns, and words referring to universal concepts, are the
most static words within each language. These function words are borrowed only in rare cases
such as: (e.g., English they from Old Norse þeir). Sometimes only one word from an opposite
pair is borrowed, yielding an unpaired word in the recipient language.
Linguistic classification

3. The studies by Werner Betz (1949, 1939), Einar Haugen (1950, also 1956), and Uriel Weinreich
(1953) are regarded as the classical theoretical works on loan influence. The basic theoretical
statements all take Betz’s nomenclature as their starting point. Duckworth (1977) enlarges Betz’s
scheme by the type “partial substitution” and supplements the system with English terms. A
schematic representation of these classifications is given below.
In English
English has often borrowed words from the cultures and languages of the British Colonies. For
example:

4. Spanish
English definition
definition
sombrero
"hat" "a wide-brimmed festive Mexican hat"
Other examples of words borrowed to English
from Hindi from Afrikaans from Malay
syce/sais trek
dinghy aardvark orangutan
chutney laager shirang
pundit wildebeest amok
wallah veld
bungalow
jodhpurs
[via Afrikaans from Malay]
[from Persian origin] sjambok
pajama/pyjamas
Some English loanwords remain relatively faithful to the donor language's phonology, even
though a particular phoneme might not exist or have contrastive status in English. For example,
the Hawaiian word ʻaʻā is used by geologists to specify lava that is relatively thick, chunky, and
rough. The Hawaiian spelling indicates the two glottal stops in the word, but the English
pronunciation, /ˈɑː.ɑː/ or /ˈɑːʔɑː/, contains at most one. In addition, the English spelling usually
removes the okina and macron diacritics.
The majority of English affixes, such as un-, -ing, and -ly, were present in older forms in Old
English. However, a few English affixes are borrowed. For example, the agentive suffix -er,
which is very prolific, is borrowed ultimately from Latin -arius (with similar forms found in
other Germanic languages). The English verbal suffix -ize comes from Greek -ιζειν (-izein) via
Latin -izare.
In languages other than English
English loanword exports to other languages
Direct borrowings, calques (expressions translated word-by-word), or even grammatical
constructions and orthographical conventions from English are called anglicisms. Similarly, a
straight clone from Swedish – like the word smörgåsbord – is called a sveticism (in Swedish
svecism). In French, the result of perceived over-use of English words and expressions is called
franglais. Such English terms in French include le week-end, le job (in France) or la job (in
Canada), and le bifteck (beefsteak). Denglisch is English influence on German. Another popular
term is Spanglish, the English influence on the Spanish language, and Dunglish, the English

5. influence on the Dutch language. The mix of Spanish and Catalan words or grammar structures
in a sentence is called Catanyol (Catalan-Espanyol).
Loanword transmission in the Ottoman Empire
During more than 600 years of the Ottoman Empire, the literary and administrative language of
the empire was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic called Ottoman Turkish, considerably
differing from the everyday spoken Turkish of the time. Many such words were exported to other
languages of the empire, such as Albanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Greek and Ladino. After the
empire fell in World War I and the Republic of Turkey was founded, the Turkish language
underwent an extensive language reform led by the newly founded Turkish Language
Association, during which many adopted words were replaced with new formations derived from
Turkic roots. This was part of the ongoing cultural reform of the time, in turn a part in the
broader framework of Atatürk's Reforms, which also included the introduction of the new
Turkish alphabet. Turkish also has taken many words from French, such as pantolon for trousers'
(from French pantalon) and komik for funny (from French comique), mostly pronounced very
similarly. Word usage in modern Turkey has acquired a political tinge: right-wing publications
tend to use more Islamic-derived words, left-wing ones use more adopted from Europe, while
centrist ones use more native Turkish root words.
Linguistic protectionism
The Italian government has recently expressed its displeasure over the use of English words and
syntax in Italian. English words are often used in everyday language where they have fewer
syllables than a longer Italian expression, as in computer for elaboratore elettronico or week-end
for finesettimana; but also where equally short Italian words already exist, as in fashion for moda
and meeting for conferenza.
Cultural aspects
In order to provide a more well-rounded understanding of the complexities of loanwords, certain
historical and cultural factors must be taken into account. According to Hans Henrich Hock and
Brian Joseph, “languages and dialects… do not exist in a vacuum” -- there is always linguistic
contact between groups. This contact influences what loanwords are integrated into the lexicon
and why certain words are chosen over others. Using the example of Plautdietsch/Mennonite
Low German, the influence of many historical and cultural factors can be seen in the loanwords
adopted by this unique language. For example, as Mennonites were pushed from the lowlands of
Germany into Poland and then on to Russia due to religious persecution, Plautdietsch took
vocabulary from Dutch, Frisian, Russian, and Ukrainian and integrated it into their own
language. Mennonites also emigrated worldwide, where they took their language with them to
four continents and over a dozen countries.
Some examples of Plautdietsch loanwords are given below:
Plautdietsch Word Donor Language Word English Gloss

6. (Recipient Language)
drock Dutch drok busy
ladig Dutch ledig empty
kjast Frisian kest wedding
kjwiel Frisian kwyl spit
schessnikj Russian чеснок garlic
lauftje Russian лавка general store
Borscht Ukrainian борщ beet soup
Warenikje Ukrainian dumplings
Assimilation of loan words
The role words in the formation and development of English vocabulary is dealt with in the history of
language.The term assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total conformation to the
phonetical,graphical and morphological standards of the receiving language and its system.The degree
of assimilation depends upon the length of period during which the word has been used in the receiving
language,upon its importance for communication purpose and its frequency.
The following 3groups may be suggested:completely assimilated loan words ,partially assimilated
loan words and unassimilated loan words or barbarisms.
Completely assimilated loan words are found in all layers of older borrowings.They may belong to the
first layer of Latin borrowings(cheese,street,wall,wine ).Among Scandinavian loan words we find such
frequent nouns as fellow,gate,root,and wing;verbs-call,die,take,want;adjectives-happy,ill,low,wrong
Partially assimilated loan words can be subdivided into subgroups:
a)Loan words assimilated semantically,because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country
from which they come.They may denote foreign clothing:mantilla, sombrero ;foreign titles and
professions:shah,rajah,sheik,bei,toreador;food and drinks:pilaf,sherbet;foreign
currency:krone,rupee,cloty,peseta,and rouble.
b)Load words not assimilated grammatically,for example,nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek which
keep their original plural forms:crisis-crises;formula-formulae;index-indices;phenomenon-phenomena.
c)Loan words not completely assimilated phonetically.Some of them keep the accent on the final
syllable:machine,cartoon,and police.Others,alongside with peculiarities in stress,contain sounds or
combinations of sounds that are not standard for the English language and do not occur in native words.
d)Loan words not completely assimilated graphically.This group is fairly large and variegated.For
example,words borrowed from French in which the final consonant is not
pronounced:ballet,buffet,corps.Some may keep a diacritic mark:café
Barbarisms are words from other languages used by English people in concversation or in writing but not

7. assimilated in any way,and for which there are corresponding English equivalents:addio,ciao=good
buy;affiche=placard
Reborrowing
It is possible for a word to travel from the recipient language to another and then back to the
original donor language in a different form, a process called reborrowing. Some examples are:
Original Borrowed to: Reborrowed to Original as:
English as beef, the root of the
French bœuf “cow” bifteck
English word beefsteak
Greek κίνημα English as cinema “motion σινεμά (transliteration: sinema)
(transliteration: kinima) picture” “motion picture”
Hebrew keli-zemer “musical Yiddish as klezmer “(traditional klezmer “(traditional
instrument” Ashkenazic) musician” Ashkenazic) musician”