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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Loan words
1. The Definition of Loanwords
Loanwords are words borrowed from one language to another. Words are generally loaned when two different cultures come into contact with each other.
This might be because of immigration, trade, fashions or foods, the arts, technologies, or wars. Robins 1980 has pointed out that:
“Wherever there are culture contacts of any sort between the speakers different languages, this means virtually everywhere, speakers will make use of
words from other languages to refer to things, processes, and ways of behavior, organization, or thinking, for which words or phrases were not available or
convenient in their own language hitherto. Some of the foreign words so used by individual speakers pass into general currency in the language, being altered in
pronunciation in the process in the direction of the sounds and phonological
patterns of the language acquiring them. These are known as loan words.”
12
Loan words also called as borrowings. In one of his early works Haugen
1950 defined borrowing as the attempted reproduction in one language of patterns previously found in another language.
13
Winfred says, “The study of
variations in languages as speakers of one language adopt elements of another or as speakers of one dialect take on forms of another. The process of introducing
such elements is known as borrowing”.
14
12
R. H Robins, General Linguistics: An Introductory Survey New York: Longman Group Ltd, 1980 p. 235
13
Kombe Sure, Grammatical and Phonological Integration of English Loanwords into Dholu, In Journal of Multilinguial and Multicultural Development 1993. Edited by Professor John Edwards
Frankfurt: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 1993, p. 330
14
Winfred P. Lehmann, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1962, Second Edition, p. 3
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2. Kinds of Borrowings
According to Bloomfield the adoption of the features that differ from those of the main tradition, is linguistic borrowing. Within the sphere of borrowing, he
distinguishes into cultural borrowing, and intimate borrowing.
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a. Cultural Borrowing
Cultural borrowing is where the borrowed features come from the different language. Cultural borrowing comes from trade activity, science and technology,
and religion. English and Arabic are the languages that have cultural borrowing in Bahasa Indonesia. It borrows the English are in terms of science and technology,
and Arabic in terms of religion. The words internet, plaza, and artikel come from English loanwords. The words sholat, saum, wudhu come from Arabic loanwords.
b. Intimate Borrowing
Intimate borrowing occurs when two languages are spoken in what is topographically and politically a single community.
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Conquest and migration are the cause of intimate borrowing. Dutch and Chinese are the example of languages
in intimate borrowing. Dutch loanwords are borrowed because of conquest. Much of the words are used in government terms, such as bursa, pensiun, and Parlemen.
Chinese loanwords are borrowed because of migration. Much of the words are found in culinary terms, such as capcay, bakso, and somay.
3. The Limits of Loanwords
In language development, Bahasa Indonesia got some influences from other languages such as Dutch, Spain, Arabic, French, and especially English.
15
Leonard Bloomfield, Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1933, p. 444
16
Ibid, p. 461
11
Jespersen defines that: “When in two languages we find no trace of exchange of loan-words, one way or
another, we are safe to infer that two nations have had nothing to do with each other. But if they have been in contact, the number of loan-words and still more
the quality of the loan-words, if rightly interpreted will inform us of their reciprocal relations, they will show us which of them has been the more fertile in
ideas and in what domains of human activity each has been superior to the
other.”
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Hence, the borrowing that has occurred between Bahasa Indonesia and English reflects the cultural and social interactions between Bahasa Indonesia and
English. Any prolonged cultural contact, especially with speakers of a language who
enjoy political power or prestige in any sphere, leads to a considerable amount of borrowing of vocabulary from that language in spheres concerned.
18
Normally, loan words are assimilated to the phonetic sound classes and the phonological
patterns of the borrowing language, the original consonants and vowels being replaced by consonants and vowels as close to them as are available. Thereafter,
synchronically as opposed to historically, they are no longer recognizable by their form as loans.
However, in certain cases words continue to be recognized and treated as foreign in origin, and attempts are made to pronounce them as such, English
coupon and restaurant, when pronounced with a final nasalized vowel, and rouge and garage, when pronounced with final ʒ, which does not occur finally except
in a few loans. There is a tendency for doublets of such words to appear,
17
Kombe Sure 1993, op.cit. pp. 331-332
18
R. H Robins 1980, op.cit. p. 235
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assimilated and unassimilated, depending on the attitude or background of the speaker.
19
Historically, loan words occurred by audio, it means by sense of hearing: a stranger said these loan words and then Indonesian people imitate it, according to
what they heard. Because of English phonological system is different with Bahasa Indonesia system, so the imitations of their speech sounds based on the ability of
tongue to pronounce it. Thus Dutch domme krach when pronounced as dongkrak, Sanskrit utpatti pronounced as upeti, Arabic mudharat pronounced as melarat,
Portuguese almari as lemari, and English real estate pronounced as realestat. The use of real estate is caused by Indonesian people thought that there are no
equivalent words in Bahasa Indonesia for its word. It is some common case if there are no equivalent words in Bahasa Indonesia for some foreign words, so that
Indonesian people refer to pronounce real estate into realestat. The word realestat is commonly used by Indonesian people who work on the field of
entrepreneurship or industrial sector. Basically, the changing form caused by the lenition of phonemes e in the end of words, such as accurate, chocolate, and
dictates which is pronounced with akurat, coklat and diktat. In such case, word realestat when it is used in a living environment,
Indonesian people must transform it into a word which is fulfilled the rules of Indonesian form. For example:
Realestat Sukamenak not Sukamenak Realestat
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19
Ibid, pp. 236-237
20
Frans Sayogie, et al. 2009, op.cit. pp. 32-35
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Based on the restrictions above, it can be seen that the loanwords is the process of borrowing from another language and more less adapted to loan the
rules of language.
4. The Form of Loanwords