Summary Details
| Query: |
International Words
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| Author: | Karen Steffen Chung | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
General Linguistics
Lexicography |
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| Summary: |
Last August I posted a query regarding 'international' words (LINGUIST 9.1151) like _chocolate_, which seem to end up as phonetic loans in just about any language/culture that is acquainted with the referent concerned. I got quite a few interesting replies, which I've collated below. I'd like to ask a further question here: Does anyone know of a word or words for 'chocolate' in native Mexican/Mesoamerican languages? One correspondent, Antony Dubach Green in Germany, suggested that if any language had a word for 'chocolate' that is not somehow a phonetic loan of _chocolate_, it would most likely be a Mexican language, where chocolate is native (Nahuatl: _xoco_ 'bitter' + _atl_ 'water'). John Koontz gave some very detailed and interesting information on Omaha-Ponca and Teton Dakotan, offering exmaples of non-cognate words for 'tea'. See also the note below on 'coffee' in Amharic from Robert Ratcliffe in Japan. Please reply to me privately if you have any further input on any of the above data. John Koontz offered a useful suggestion, i.e. that maybe one cannot be too absolutist in looking for a word that is a phonetic loan in *all* known languages. His comment: > I haven't thought of any potential international non-food terms. I > wonder, though, if you might not need to be somewhat less than > absolute in identifying such terms. Widespread and crossing the > boundaries of known relationships, or of known origin, might suffice. This makes sense, since words like 'tea' and 'coffee' get pretty *close* to being 'international' words, based on the data collected so far. Heartfelt thanks to: Diana ben-Aaron benaaron@cc.helsinki.fi Sylvia Bendel bendel@soziologie.unizh.ch Bart de Boer bartb@arti.vub.ac.be Gordon Brown gordonbr@microsoft.com Wayles Browne ewb2@cornell.edu John Brownie John_Brownie@sil.org Vassilis Christodoulou spdi@eexi.gr Helmut Daller Helmut.Daller@uwe.ac.uk Radu Daniliuc srdan@assist.cccis.ro Karen Davis kmdavis@erols.com Nancy Frishberg nancyf@fishbird.com Antony Dubach Green green@zas.gwz-berlin.de Earl Herrick kfemh00@tamuk.edu George Huttar george_huttar@sil.org John E. Koontz John.Koontz@Colorado.edu Rina Kreitman kreitman@netvision.net.il Rick McCallister rmccalli@sunmuw1.MUW.Edu Mark Mandel Mark_Mandel@Dragonsys.com Mike Moss mmoss@friko2.onet.pl Mohammed Moubatassime moubtassime@fesnet.net.ma Douglas Mullins mullins@tky2.3web.ne.jp Tara L. Narcross narcross.5@pop.service.ohio-state.edu Lukasz Pielasa lluke@kki.net.pl Robert R. Ratcliffe ratcliff@fs.tufs.ac.jp Carsten Sinner c.sinner@arrakis.es Sijmen Tol bl@konbib.nl Larry Trask larryt@cogs.susx.ac.uk Cristina Varga cvarga@lett.ubbcluj.ro Colin Whiteley cwhiteley@tyco.geis.com Sean Witty wittysan@hotmail.com ____________________________________________________________________ Below follow lists of possible candidates for international words, along with others that failed either the Chinese or another language test, based on the responses I received. I used Mandarin Chinese as a key test since it is a language that tends to use loan translations/calques or original coinings where possible rather than phonetic loans. Possible 'international word' candidates (that pass the Chinese test): alleluia bikini card [the chemical elements] chocolate cocoa curry czar/tsar golf jazz ninja OK sauna shock T-shirt yoga Words suggested that didn't pass the Chinese (or some other) test: alcohol allergy automobile banana calculator catastrophe chess class climate cocktail coffee* (see note below) computer democracy detective diskette elephant fax football garage gas gay hygiene jeans jogging kangaroo karate mama (Japanese _haha_) mass metal microphone muesli music organisation papa (Japanese _chichi_) planet radio rendez-vous rock (music) sex appeal striptease sugar symbol taxi tea** television telephone theater tiger train tunnel video violin xerox zoom (lens) ___________________________________________________________________ Notes *But take Coffee. It is indigenous to the area around the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, that is Yemen and Ethiopia. In Yemen (that is in Arabic) it is called _qahwah_, which becomes _kahve_ in Turkish _kafe_ in Italian _kawfi_ in English _koohi_ in Japanese. But in Ethiopia (at least in Amharic) it is called _bunn_. This word _bunn_ is also used in Arabic to refer to fresh coffee beans, before they are roasted and ground. I hope some Americanist on the list will have an interesting story to tell about chocolate. - Robert R. Ratcliffe <ratcliff@fs.tufs.ac.jp> **Omaha-Ponca xa'de maN'kkaN 'tea; lit. grass (or herb) medicine' Omaha-Ponca maN'kkaN sa'be 'coffee; lit. black medicine' Teton Dakotan c^haNkhal'yapi 'tea; lit. warmed wood (bark)' Teton Dakotan phez^u'ta sa'pa 'coffee; lit. black medicine (or weed)' Omaha-Ponca and Dakotan are Siouan languages (North America). In Omaha-Ponca there are no words for chocolate or curry, though presumably the English terms would be used, with little or no adaptation. Omaha-Ponca is certainly not without loan words and certain vocabulary fields (dates, numbers, English given names) are normally filled with more or less unadapted English terms. However, I think there is a feeling that such foreign words are expedients rather than naturalized, and in general there is some resistance to loans. They seem to be much less prevalent than in European languages. Calques are more common, often from the old trade pidgin in the case of European items, e.g., ppe'de niN' 'fire water' for 'whiskey' (cf. ardent spirits?) or maN'ze ska' 'white metal' for 'money' (cf. French argent?). - John E. Koontz John.Koontz@Colorado.edu _______________________________________________________________________ Suggested references (heavily weighted toward 'international' words in European languages only): Braun, Peter, Burkhard Schaeder, & Johannes Volmert (Hgg.). 1990._Internationalismen: Studien zur interlingualen Lexikologie und Lexikographie_. Tubingen: Niemeyer. 193 p. (Reihe Germanistische Linguistik; 102) Goursau, Henri & Goursau, Monique. 1989. _Dictionnaire europeen des mots usuels, francais-anglais-allemand-espagnol-italien-portugais_. Saint-Orens-de-Granville: Edition Goursau. Walter, Henriette. 1994. _L'aventure des langues en occident_. Paris: Editions Robert Laffont. Karen Steffen Chung National Taiwan University karchung@ccms.ntu.edu.tw |
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| LL Issue: | 9.1779 | |
| Date Posted: | 14-Dec-1998 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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