query

[Kevin Tuite]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear Robert,

the phenomenon you pointed out in your message is an interesting one,
and merits a closer look. One angle of exploration that comes to mind
(especially in the light of Giorgio Banti's "scannare" example) is
the sociolinguistic examination of the contexts in which such
pseudo-borrowings are formulated and deployed in speech. Some may
have originated as folk etymologies of the "sparrow-grass" type,
perhaps including more rarified ones like the Latin botanical term
"millefolium", if it comes from Greek "myriophyllon". The Chinese
instances you cite may be linked to the more general problem of
rendering foreign words, proper names especially, but also
borrowings, in the Chinese writing system. I did a post-doc in Tokyo
a decade ago, and met some foreigners living there who had expended
considerable time and ingenuity formulating kanji spellings of their
names which were phonetically accurate, yet also had semantic content
either reflective of their identities or otherwise intended to appeal
to their colleagues. I still have somewhere the visiting card of Jack
Halpern, the author of a well-regarded Japanese-English dictionary,
on which his name was written with the characters /haru/ + /ben/ (=
Halpern) + /jaku/ + /ku/ (= Jack), which can be read "spring" +
"everywhere" + "sparrow" + "come", i.e. "spring is everywhere, the
sparrows return".

Incidentally, the ludic use of forms that can be read very
differently in two languages is a fascinating topic to explore, and I
imagine that anyone who lives in societies where more than one
language is in common use can come up with examples readily. Here are
a couple that come to mind:  In referring to the late Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, French Canadians -- in particular those opposed to his
unyielding federalism -- not infrequently used his initials, PET. No
comment needed. An analogous, and somewhat more complex (and far
riskier), case of cross-linguistic word-play from the Republic of
Georgia involved the name of the Soviet state-security forces. The
official Georgian name of the KGB was "Saxelmc'ipos Ushishroebis
K'omit'et'i" (= state security committee). If one abbreviates it in
the same way as its Russian model, you get SUK', which in Georgian
sounds merely a bit silly (suk'i = tender cuts of beef from the
animal's back), but in Russian, a language known at least passively
by almost all Georgians, it comes across as positively subversive
(suka = "bitch", with even more unpleasant resonances than in
English). Hence the avoidance of referring to the KGB in this way by
the Soviet-period Georgian press. On the other hand, Zviad
Gamsaxurdia, a dissident who led the movement to unilaterally secede
from the USSR, and who became Georgia's first post-Soviet president,
couldn't use the abbreviation often enough. Every third sentence from
his speeches, or so it seemed, contained a reference to "suk'is
agent'ebi" (KGB/bitch agents). Needless to say, with Shevardnadze in
power (yet again), this expression has receded from official use.

best wishes & happy hunting
Kevin



>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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Kevin Tuite                         514-343-6514      (bureau)
Département d'anthropologie         514-343-2494 (télécopieur)
Université de Montréal
C.P. 6128, succursale centre-ville
Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7               tuitekj at anthro.umontreal.ca
Notre site Web:            http://www.fas.umontreal.ca/ANTHRO/
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