Is there a correct term for foreign words or phrases which have nade their way into English? I thought about assimilation, but that has a different meaning. Anyone have an ad hoc explanation?
I don’t think there is a term for the worde themselves. Dictionaries seem to refer to the words being “absorbed” into English, or even “naturalised”.
“loan word” is the linguistic term for the actual words, themselves.
what dogface said, optionally called “borrowed words.”
When the foreign word has been included in English usage for so long as to be considered an English word, is it not called a cognate? Or is there some other qualifier for that?
A cognate is a word with a “cousin” in another language…such as English “make” and German “machen” - there is no borrowing, both just have a common ancestor.
There are different classifications of cognates as well, though I can’t remember the exact terms just now. A true cognate (I believe) is identical in spelled identically in two separate languages, and means the same thing. Like “color” in Spanish and English. A false cognate is something that is spelled the same in two languages but means something completely different. “Quince” means fifteen in Spanish, but in English is a type of fruit.
There are different classifications of cognates as well, though I can’t remember the exact terms just now. A true cognate (I believe) is spelled identically in two separate languages, and means the same thing. Like “color” in Spanish and English. A false cognate is something that is spelled the same in two languages but means something completely different. “Quince” means fifteen in Spanish, but in English is a type of fruit.
Kizarvexius: Very good, but spelling doesn’t have to be exact. The only requirement is for the spelling and pronunciation to be similar, and for the meaning to be the same. For example, the German Vater means the same as the English father and the Dutch vader. All of those are cognates of each other due to their similarity in aspect and exact assonance in meaning.
Looking for cognates is a good way to find related languages. For example, German and English share a large amount of cognates. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that German and English share a common ancestry. This is, in fact, the case. French and Basque share no cognates (cognates being distinct from loanwords in that cognates are not borrowed into an existing language, but grow up as an ancestral part of a language). Therefore, French and Basque do not share an ancestry. As a point of fact, it is a matter of research where Basque’s ancestry actually lies.
Actually spelling doesn’t have much to do with cognates. Cognates sound alike and have related meanings. After all, Russian and English have cognates, yet they have different alphabets. So spelling can’t really be a factor.
Neato. I’d always be taught (or I learned?) the term faux amis, which French is ironic considering we’re trying to talk about borrowed words into English.
Interesting. I’ve heard false cognates being called false friends, but I’ve never imagined the phrase would carry over into French.
Cognates don’t even have to sound alike. They need only to be descended from the same ancestral word. For example, the English “father” is cognate to the Armenian “hayr”; both are descended from Proto-Indo-European “p@ter”.
It’s “Gairaigo.”
Hey, why not? A loanword for a loanword…
If you want to be absolutely correct, Ranchoth, that would be "a loanword for ‘loanword’ ", since gairaigo means “loanword” in Japanese.
(A combination of three characters which literally mean: “foreign”,“come”,“word”.)
I’ve always disliked “loanword” and “borrowed word”… sounds like we have to give it back some day…
So, gairaigo it is!:dubious:
…and then back into English if that’s the route! I don’t speak French at all…
All this raises a question, at what point does a word stop being “foreign” and become a “loan word”?