'My Madam is Fine': The Adaptation of English Loans in Chichewa

• Autores: Silvester Ron Simango
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 21, Nº. 6, 2000, págs. 487-507
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It is well known among sociolinguists that in any language contact situation one language tends to have sociopolitical dominance over the other, and that linguistic borrowing tends to flow from the more dominant to the less dominant language. This paper presents evidence from English loans in Chichewa (Bantu) which shows that the recipient language is not a passive participant in the borrowing process: the borrowing language makes various modifications to the loan words to make them fit the grammatical structure as well as cultural requirements of the recipient language. As a result of these modifications some loan words assume new grammatical categories, meanings and usage.