Current Issues In Language and Society
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Volume: 6 Number: 3 Page: 195–220
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French – An Accommodating Language: The Chronology, Typology and Dynamics of Borrowing
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Henriette Walter
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To borrow is to enrich, at least as far as the history of languages is concerned. French, for example, has greatly benefited from its borrowings from Old German (bleu, soupe, troupe
…) and from Italian (esquisse, violon …). Other more modest borrowings are sometimes surprising because they have been well integrated: char, if, alouette come from Gaulish;
jupe, chiffre, algèbre from Arabic; nénuphar from Persian; chérubin from Hebrew; caviar from Turkish; vanille from Spanish; marmelade
from Portuguese; banane from Bantou; caoutchouc from Quechua. For two centuries there has been an inundation of English, with week-end and tee-shirt, which are borrowings pure
and simple, but also with interview and challenge which have come back on a return ticket! English has also been the vehicle for words coming from afar: bungalow, shampooing from Hindi; ketchup
from Chinese; catamaran from Tamil; toboggan, totem and moccasin from Algonquin. Whilst the chronology of borrowings can in general be established, their classification ad typography
remain a problem which merits discussion.
© Multilingual Matters 1999
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