[Multilingual Monday] Technology and Word Borrowings

[aadroma]

Comments

[progbear]

If there’s anyone who insists on resisting, resisting, resisting at all costs, it’s the French. Witness their usage of numérique in lieu of digital.

That’s why I love the Québecois so. They honestly do not care!

[robearal]

I did my undergrad honors thesis on loan words in Spanish.

[aadroma]

I'd be curious to read it, or if nothing else the highlights of the thesis. ^o^

[muckefuck]

Do you have a source for a reliable estimate of Arabic loans in Modern Spanish? Recently, I've been hearing what to me sound like inflated quotes--in the range of 4,000 words--and I'd like to see what an authoritative work has to say.

[aadroma]

I'm curious -- where'd you hear that? I know there's quite a bit of Arabic influence on Spanish (THANK YOU Arabic for the "let's make an "h" equivalent to an alif! 9_9), but yeah, 4,000 words seems extreme ...

[kinnerc]

Via skribadoj estas la plej belega ke mi legas sur LJ-o, eĉ se mi ne povas legi la belegaj sekcioj. :-)

Mi ordinare komprenas ke Esperanto akceptas vortoj el la angla, kaj afiŝas «-o» se la vorto estas substantivo. Ekzemple: komputilo, modemo. Kelke da vortoj estas malsimila. Ekzemple: klavaro.

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(Your writings are the most beautiful I read on Live Journal, even if I can't read the beatiful parts. :-)

I usually see that Esperanto takes words from English, and posts an "-o" if the word is a noun. For example: computer, modem. Several words are different. For example: keyboard.)

[theotherqpc]

icelandic is very "pure," since the language is a point of national pride.

computer = tölva - a portmanteau of "tölur" (numbers) and "völva" (soothsayer)
telephone = sími (an old word for "string" or "thread")
email = netfang - compound of "net" (internet) and "fang" (address)
radio = útvarp - "út" (out) + "verpa" (to throw or broadcast)
TV = sjónvarp - "sjón" (vision) + "verpa"
electricity = rafmagn - "raf" (amber) + "magn" (power)
software = húbunaður - "hugsa" (to think) + "búnaður" (equipment)
hardware = vélbunaður - "vél" (machine) + búnaður
bacon = flesk (though i have no idea where this comes from - "beikon" is also used)

typo alert

[theotherqpc]

software should be "hugbúnaður," and hardware "vélbúnaður"

[werecub]

An interesting note on french use...

It is very common to see "wi-fi" signs everywhere. They pronounce it Wee-Fee, and most people have no idea that it is short for wireless fidelity.