Linguistic Borrowing & Loan Words: Theoretical Considerations

Each of the authors would disagree on how social change will impact the language within the United States, and whether or not people should encourage the change or try and stop it altogether. Each article however, does agree on the fact that language will always be an ever-changing part in

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

The next four lines describe how language changes. The change in language is compared to a river. The change, like a river eroding a landscape, takes time. In order for a river to change course it must erode away land for years upon years. In the same way, a language slowly evolves. New words and pronunciations may change its course. Not only can spoken words change the course, but gestures and written language can change it as well.

The first concept I am going to talk about is language borrowing. Language borrowing is basically when you loan a word that is imported into a certain language called loan form. These forms now function in the grammatical processes, with nouns taking plural or possessive forms of the new language receiving native morphemes. An example would be the English word alligator. Alligator came from the Spanish which is el largato. El largato in Spanish means lizard. Loanshift another process that occurs also known as calque is when adapting native words to the new meanings. "The verb bad mouth . . . is a calque or loan translation: it seems to come from Vai day ngatmay (a curse; literally, 'a bad mouth ').

By welcoming the diverse languages and religions of the world, America is considered a melting pot of both cultural and ethnic identities. In the essay about bilingualism “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa she writes, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (172). Anzaldúa believes that her ethnicity and language are what make her who she is. Therefore, by insulting her language, she is insulted as well. Her identity is “twin skin” with how she speaks. Linguistic identity is the ability for a person to speak freely in any language and ultimately their identity is shown through shared language. The things that define a person are their actions, their behavior, the way they walk, and the way they talk. A person’s culture has a heavy influence on their identity throughout their lives. To disrespect an important part of their culture, their language, is to disrespect the person on an extremely interpersonal level. The person would be, therefore, discouraged from speaking their native language. Anzaldúa shows that her language constitutes who she is; it binds her to the existence of her identity therefore a person’s language defines his/her identity.

Languages are always changing and evolving. The English language itself is full of words from other languages.

The Mayan languages of Guatemala and Mexico can be called a “linguistic area” (Study Guide, 2014, p. 102) because they are geographically in close proximity and the “languages” of the speech communities there would “have been spoken side by side for many generations” (ibid). Due to long-term contact between speech communities in this linguistic area, bilingualism and language mixing in the speeches of the close-knit natives are sure to have existed due to demographic movements. (Winford, 2003, p. 19). However, when language contact involves foreign and native languages, communicating in a common language becomes an issue. Therefore, to overcome language barriers, lexical items are borrowed from the former into

First and foremost, language is ever-evolving if you think about it. The language high school students communicate

Before the group discussion, I believed that the statement “And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with” (Tan, 1), was significant because it shows the reader how important the dialect of Amy Tan’s mother is to her. Additionally, this statement brings to light her diverse background in a variety of English dialects; making her opinion seem more valid. It also shows the reader how the dialects we listen to everyday change the way we think and speak in the future. This belief is proven by Tan when she says, “But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a role in shaping the language of the child (P4). On top of that, my personal experiences prove Tan’s point; in

Some of these include the process of changing the meaning of a word and the language gap between children and adults. Since

Language change happens every day. New words are constantly being added and new dialects are forming. People have always argued about the causes of language change and tried to control the changes that occurred but ultimately they accomplished nothing. Languages changes and spread as a result of the people who use it daily. African American English and California English are both examples of the different ways language can change. People try to resist the changes in their language because they do not want to see it change. Language change is a natural process that can be affected by others but never stopped. This course has done an excellent job explaining how language change starts and spreads.

Among the most important concepts to emerge are those relating to dialects and language standards. Sociolinguists have documented the presence of dialects in every language. These dialects, all of which are legitimate, are associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Hence, even if an individual scrupulously studies all the possible dictionaries of a random language, he would still be somewhat of a stranger to that language since he is unaware of all the dialectal changes.

It has been noted that while considering changing word meanings is vital to the diachronic study of language, the notion and practice of studying them has been historically belittled as an intellectual pursuit. Semantic change is often irregular and arbitrary as a concept, as its causes are wide-ranging and multi-faceted. However, critics such as Willem B. Hollmann now give weight and notoriety to studying semantics synchronically . By considering individual cases, one can explain some word changes and apply common rules. These often occur intra-linguistically or through common social or political changes, especially surrounding class conflict. However, although we can catalogue the semantic change of similar or groups of words, word

Since America is a multinational society, the link between languages to personality may also promote the loss of identity. An example is Amy Tan, from her article “Mother Tongue”. In the beginning of her life, Tan was always ashamed of her mother’s “Broken” English. As an attempt to get away from this side of her heritage, she becomes a great writer. She writes with great English and diction, and uses plenty of vocabulary. However, she soon realizes that she is being someone she is not. Tan’s story is a revelation of what the majority people think today that no one wants to be misunderstood by their language mastery. Because of this thought, people are desperate to clear their accents, and try their best to speak English perfectly, and more perfectly. Soon, there would be no other identities in America except Americans. If that is the case, it would be a great loss to the country because no one would want to immigrate to a country that fulfilled with forced assimilation.

Through looking at patterns of social interaction of different languages it is easy to predict the linguistic results of language contact. This could be seen through multilingualism which is a result of language contact between multiple different languages. Multilingualism can create diglossia which helps display the multilingualism of a country or community and helps show it is useful for predicting the results of language contact. Code switching in which people switch from one language to another depending on the situation, helps show how social interaction between speakers of different languages helps us predict the linguistic results of language contact. Then there is dialect levelling and language change which helps show the beginning