English
has gone through many periods in which large numbers of words from a particular
language were borrowed. These periods coincide with times of major cultural
contact between English speakers and those speaking other languages. The waves
of borrowing during periods of especially strong cultural contacts are not
sharply delimited, and can overlap. For example, the Norse influence on English
began already in the 8th century A.D. and continued strongly well after the
Norman Conquest brought a large influx of Norman French to the language. It is
part of the cultural history of English speakers that they have always adopted
loanwords from the languages of whatever cultures they have come in contact
with. There have been few periods when borrowing became unfashionable, and
there has never been a national academy in Britain, the U.S., or other
English-speaking countries to attempt to restrict new loanwords, as there has
been in many continental European countries. There are some of the loanwords
that came into English in different periods and from different languages. It
was started by Germanic period or Pre-Old English, followed by Old English
Period, Middle English Period, Early Modern English Period and ended with
Present-Day English which is what we are using. There are three loanwords will
be listed down below and which country it derives from.
First of all is Malay language. The
Malay language is part of the Austronesian language family and it is widely
used in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia with its own variation. Malay
has borrowed words from Sanskrit, Tamil, Portuguese, English, Dutch, Chinese
and Arabic. As an example, “Abjad” which means alphabet in Arabic, “Agama”
which means religion in Sanskrit/Dharma, “Almari” which means cupboard that has
been borrowed from Portuguese (almário) and “Kongsi” which means share in
Chinese-Hokkien (Kong-si). Some of the Malay words that are spelled correctly
with English words such as hospitals, formats, transit, etc. Some Malay words
have also been borrowed in English.
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| Photo 1: Malay loanwords |
Second, Indonesian language. It has
absorbed many loanwords from other languages, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi,
Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and other Austronesian languages.
For an example, “Angkasa” which means sky in Sanskrit (ākāśa), “Amoi” which
means girl/sister in Chinese-Hakka, “Acar” which means pickles in Hindi
(achaar), “Medan” which means field in Persian (meidan), “Nahkoda” which means
captain of a ship in Persian (nākhodā), “Ilusi” which means illusion from Dutch
(ilusie), “Buku” which means book in Dutch (boek) and “Bulat” which means round
in French (boulette).
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| Photo 2: Indonesian loanwords |
Third, Hawaiian language. Many
loanwords in Hawaiian Pidgin (or Hawaiian Creole English) derive from the
Japanese language. The linguistic influences of the Japanese in Hawaii began
with the first immigrants from Japan in 1868 and continues with the large
Japanese American population in Hawaiʻi today. For an example, “Furikake’ which
defines a seaweed and sesame seed based condiment commonly used to season rice,
“Hanakuso” which means fried nasal mucus. Hana (nose) and kuso (waste). It typically
refers to human excrement, “Bocha” which means take a bath (bocha-bocha), “Skosh”
which means a little (sukoshi) and “Hanabuddah/ hanabata” which defines The
fluid version of hanakuso. Bata is from English "butter". The term in
Japanese is usually hanamizu ("nose water").
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| Photo 3: Hawaiian loanwords |
Furthermore, as to why I think
loandwords are important in English language is because by borrowing words from
other languages, it will reveal what was previously not in the culture of any race
or religion. It is also one of the most important things in communication.
Language is always used by a group of people to communicate, collaborate, and
perform daily activities. It is not only defines about the information of
communication or any weather issues, language also maintains relationships with
one another and has its own ability to acquire and use complex systems of ommunication,
especially the human ability to do it, and it is one of the specific examples
of the system of huge variety of
languages in this world.
As a solid conlusion, The story of
English loanwords is one of the elements which must be taken into
consideration, because it supplies specific and significant material. It is
necessary to examine cultural, political and economic factors in order to
obtain a clear picture of the linguistic influence involved.
