query

[ivan]

In a similar vein, the French for sauerkraut (sour + cabbage) is choucroute
(cabbage + crust/snack), the lexical swap, presumably, being motivated by
the phonetic similarities.

If a name doesn't already exist for this kind of motivation, then one ought
to be invented...  A paraphone, perhaps?  (Or maybe interphone would be more
appropriate ;-)

Ivan Birks
Paris X Nanterre



De : "Robert R. Ratcliffe" <ratcliffe at tufs.ac.jp>
Répondre à : ratcliffe at tufs.ac.jp
Date : Tue, 30 Oct 2001 09:03:50 EST
À : HISTLING at VM.SC.EDU
Objet : query


I've recently had my attention draw to a process in borrowing and I wonder
if there is a name for it:

When a concept is borrowed, rather than borrowing the word, or calquing it,
a word which sounds similar to the original with related semantics is
extended, or a compound is made which sounds close to the original and is
semantically plausible.

For example "index" becomes in Chinese inde (formed from /in/ "pull", /de/
"find") [source: student paper, so correct me if I'm wrong.]

This is very common in East Asian languages, I believe. But I've come across
examples elsewhere. For example in Morocco the Arabic word /silk/ "thread"
is used to translate the Frence "cycle" /sikl/ as an academic term, rather
than the usual Arabic word for cycle /daura/.

It is sort of the opposite of a calque-- in the sense of borrowing the sound
without the meaning-- but I don't know what to call it. By the way does
anyone have other examples?
____________________________________
*NEW E-mail address: ratcliffe at tufs.ac.jp*

Robert R. Ratcliffe
Associate Professor, Arabic and Linguistics
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Asahi-machi 3-11-1, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo 183-8534 Japan




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