When we think of the action of lending, it is inevitable to associate it with an amount of money that someone gives in exchange for its return within a certain period and usually with interest. However, there are also loans in relation to words. When this happens we speak of the linguistic loan, a way that all languages have to expand their lexicon.
What does it consist of?
The lexicon of a language has very diverse origins. If we take Spanish as a reference, most of the words are the result of the natural evolution of classical Greek and Latin, but many others come from French, Italian or English.
When in our own language we do not have a precise term to express an idea, we have the need to resort to another language that provides us with the most appropriate word. This phenomenon of language is the essence of the linguistic loan.
Throughout history the Spanish language has borrowed terms from other cultural traditions
We use many words from English: blog, casting, chat, online, email or running. The use of Anglicisms is due to several reasons: the hegemony of English as an international language, the strength of Anglo-Saxon culture in the context of communication or simply because of a question of fashion.
From Italian we have linguistic loanwords that have been incorporated by the powerful cultural tradition of the Italian Renaissance. Some of the most common Italianisms are the following: watercolor, adagio, baton, lyre, oil, soprano, sonata or swordsman.
In the Iberian Peninsula the Arabs remained for seven centuries and for this reason the current Spanish presents abundant Arabicisms: bricklayer, mayor, lagoon, alcohol, syrup or carrot.
The geographical and cultural proximity between Spain and France is the cause of many Gallicisms among Spanish speakers. Some of the most common are: champagne, souvenir, cabaret, driver, elite or menu.
The linguistic loans have been established in our language for cultural, political, economic or social reasons. This phenomenon of language also occurs out of sheer necessity (for example, in the field of computing, English terms are used to name new technological devices and procedures).
The linguistic tracing is a loan modality
Those Spanish words that come from a literal copy of another language are linguistic traces. Thus, the English living room has been translated as living room, weekend as weekend or leader as leader. In the majority of rubbings there is a phonetic adaptation to the lexicon of the recipient language.
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