Definition of Language Loan

When we think about the action of lending, it is inevitable to associate it with an amount of money that someone gives in exchange for the return of it 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 it has very diverse origins. If we take Spanish as a reference, most words are the result of the evolution native to 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 the

communication or simply for a matter of fashion.

From Italian we have linguistic loans that have been incorporated by the powerful traditioncultural of Renaissance Italian. 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 Arabisms: 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 realm of computing English terms are used to name the new devices and procedures technological).

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 most rubbings an adaptation occurs phonetics into the lexicon of the target language.

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