INTRODUCTION

LANGUAGE

Language is fundamental to human beings. It is what distinguishes human beings from every

other creatures. Language is an essential component of human culture, not only a means of

communication. It affects how people think and behave in social situations by reflecting and

moulding how they see and understand the world. Through the generational transmission of

customs, values, and collective knowledge, language acts as a repository for cultural legacy.

In addition, it is essential for the development of identities, cohesiveness of groups, and the

balancing of power relations within communities.

The structure of language is hierarchical and consists of syntactic, semantic, morphological,

and phonological layers. While morphology studies the structure of words and their

meaningful units, phonetics and phonology control sounds and their patterns. Semantics

deals with the meaning of words and sentences, while syntax controls how words are

arranged in sentences. Language's rich expressiveness and powerful communication ability

are made possible by the complex interactions between these elements.

According to Wale Adegbite (2020), language is a means of social communication through

vocal sounds and symbols; it is an instrument of thought and experience used in the

perception, organisation, coding and recording of thoughts and experience. He further

simplifies the above definition as follows: Language characterised by a set of vocal sounds

which can be coded. These are produced by the human organs of speech – lips, tongue,

larynx, etc.

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 LINGUISTIC

Linguistics is the study of language. The scientific study of language and its structure is

known as linguistics. It includes the study of the nuances of language evolution, usage, and

function in diverse communities, as well as the analysis of language form, meaning, and

context. In an effort to comprehend the fundamental characteristics of language, linguists—

scholars in the area of linguistics—investigate the laws and patterns governing language.

Phonetics and phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,

psycholinguistics, and other fields are important components of linguistics.

As a field, linguistics is vital to our understanding of the human ability for language, to the

deciphering of the mechanisms that facilitate communication, and to the creation of language

technology and other practical applications.

According to Adegbite (2020), Linguistics can be broadly defined as the scientific study of

language. It is scientific because it follows an objective procedure in describing language. An

objective study of language is data based, whether such data are drawn from intuition,

empirical or textual sources.

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

According to Fafunwa (1974), sociolinguistics is the interdisciplinary study of how language

and society interact. This area of study investigates the ways in which different social factors

—such as class, gender, race, and power dynamics within a community or society—have an

impact on language use and linguistic patterns

Ayoola (2014) addresses topics like linguistic variety, language regulations, and the effects of

colonial history on language use in Nigeria's sociolinguistic landscape. His work highlights

the importance that language plays in reflecting and changing social systems in Nigeria.

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 According to Adegbite (2020), Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies the

relationship between language and society. It refers to the study of language variation, status

and use in a society. Language varies in structure and functions in its various users in social

and situational context of communication.

Sociolinguistics covers many other areas pertaining to utilisation of language by human

beings in society such as language choice, language use, language contact, language change,

language shift, language borrowing or loaning, language maintenance, language

endangerment, language policy and planning. It focuses upon the entire sphere of subjected

composition of social organisation of language behaviour, not only the use but, also language

attitudes and overt behaviours toward the language users.

MONOLINGUALISM

Being fluent in only one language, either by practice or aptitude is referred to as

monolingualism. A person who is monolingual is one who talks, comprehends, writes, and

reads in just one language. This phrase is frequently used in opposition to bilingualism or

multilingualism, which refers to the ability to speak and understand two or more languages.

Both individuals and societies can exhibit monolingualism. For example, a country or

community that has a majority of its people speaking and using only one language is said to

be monolingual. On the other hand, those who speak and utilize numerous languages in their

daily lives are found in a multilingual nation or society.

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What is bilingualism?

The term bilingualism can be defined in a general and weak sense as the co-existence or co-

use of two languages by an individual or a community; that is, the existence of two languages

in the repertoire of an individual or a community. Lambert, (1977 cited in Adegbite 2020)

that is the language exist side by side and are used by the individual or community.

According to Bloomfield (1933) considers bilingualism in a strong sense as the native-like

control of two languages. In the words, the speakers must speak both languages like native’s

speakers do both languages.

According to Myer-Scotton (2006) bilingualism is the ability to use two or more languages

sufficiently to carry on a limited casual conversation. This definition work in line with aspect

of borrowing or loaning language in bi/multilingual society which I will explain later

because:

Firstly, the definition does rule out some people who can use a second language in specialised

ways. For example, if you enter a restaurant and able to read the menu and placed order.

Secondly, that person who uses some words from another language (lexical borrowings) in

their L1 are necessarily bilinguals.

However, Adegbite (2020) claims that source of bilingualism could be traced to the following

factors: colonialism, conquest, trade and commerce, annexation, borderline areas and

intermarriages which can be classified as one of belief about how monolingual speaker can

turn to bilingual sometime multilingual in most cases. Bilingualism may be refer to the

assignment of social functions to two or more languages in a society or nation.

He continues by define the term bilingualism in different categories, there is societal

bilingualism and individual bilingualism. Moreover, bilingualism can occur at dialectical

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stage. Bilingualism is common throughout the world, many schools have a policy that

recognises (and replicate) the hierarchy of relations within a territory and in the world as a

whole.

WHAT IS LINGUISTIC BORROWING?

The process by which languages affect and absorb elements from one another is known as

linguistic borrowing in the setting of a multilingual society. This phenomenon happens when

speakers of several languages interact and trade words, phonological traits, grammatical

structures, and other language components. Both or all of the languages engaged in the

linguistic contact may be affected by the reciprocal borrowing. Because of historical, cultural,

or geopolitical causes, different languages frequently coexist in a multilingual society. People

may come across phrases or terms from other languages that they find interesting, practical,

or culturally relevant as they navigate their language environment. There are various ways

that linguistic borrowing can appear, such as loanwords, loan translations (calques), and

structural borrowing. Cultural exchange, economic interactions, migration, and technological

advancements are some of the factors that can influence the process of linguistic borrowing.

Loanwords are the adoption of foreign words into a language, often retaining their original

phonetic and semantic characteristics. Loan translations, on the other hand, involve

translating the components of a foreign term into the native language, creating a new

expression. Structural borrowing is the integration of features of one language's grammar or

syntax into another.

Linguistic borrowing creates concerns about language identity, purity, and preservation even

as it advances language progress and richness. Linguists frequently investigate the trends,

drivers, and effects of linguistic borrowing in order to gain a deeper understanding of the

intricate dynamics that exist within multilingual populations. Furthermore, studies in this

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field might look at how linguistic borrowing reflects the interactions between language

groups in a given culture on the social, political, and economic levels.

BORROWING / LOANING

Borrowing is a technical term for the incorporated of an item from one language into another.

These items could be (in terms of decreasing order of frequency) words, grammatical

elements or sounds. Rajend et al (2000). They proceed to give clear distinction between code-

switching and the term ‘borrowing’, they state that “borrowing is different from code-

switching, which assumes a mastery of two or more languages being switched. By contrast,

borrowing usually involves the adaptation of a word into the phonetic and grammatical

system of other language. The note that the borrowing of a word does not presuppose a

knowledge of the language from which it is taken” For example, the English speaker in South

Africa who use words like fundi (an expert, a learned person) and donga (a dry watercourse,

gully) might actually speak Zulu or Xhosa. The term ‘borrowing’ does not have the sense of

evanescence and single ownership evident in its everyday meaning. Know that once a word is

borrowed, it becomes a part of borrowing language: there is no intension of returning it.

According to Adegbite (2020) borrowing or loaning can be defined as the occasional use of

items from one language in utterances of another language. The occurrence of this action

arises due to the fact that there is no language in this world that is self-sufficient. That every

language borrows, from another. Many scholars claim that borrowing is not only

characteristics of bilingualism and multilingualism alone; it also a feature of Monolingualism.

Adegbite (2020) give example of monolingual speech in English such ‘resume’, ‘elite’ which

are borrowed into English. However, in Nigeria context, each of the indigenous languages

has borrowed items from others.

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According Myers-Scotton (2006) opine that the term borrowing and loan word is when one

language takes in words from another language, the process is referred to as borrowing, but

the elements taken in aren’t truly borrowed (or loaned)- because the recipient language never

gives them back! Just because these term are very established, we will use them too, but you

must realise that what is taken isn’t returned.

However, most “borrowing” occur at lexical elements, when “lexical” is used it means

content words such as nouns or verb. As we have already indicated that one language can

take in grammatical structures from another language, “borrowing” is best used only as the

term for borrowing of words that is lexical borrowing.

Characteristics of Borrowing

(1) The introduction of alien words, that is, new words into indigenous language.

(2) Borrowing occur between most prestigious language to less prestigious language.

However, the more prestigious language has control over power or socio-economic status.

(3) Borrowing form new words, for example the borrowing of new words to English

language is called neologisms.

(4) Most borrowed language become lingual franca examples is English and indigenous

language in Nigeria. Some country in Southeast Asia haven taken in words from Chinese

(5) Lexical borrowing or borrowing is inevitable consequence between any place of different

language contact

(6) Borrowing can be considered as an adaptive strategy undertaken by speaker to enrich

certain registers of a language, rather having to switch to the new language for that register.

(7) Borrowing is a process of learning and acculturation.

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(8) We have the donor language and the recipient language.

There two processes that occur during borrowing; the first one is process of innovators

Who are bilingual, and adopters, who are centrally placed in the society and are open to new

developments.

Type of Lexical borrowing or Borrowing

We have direct and indirect borrowing

According to Myers-Scotton (2006), direct borrowing is divided into two categories: cultural

and core borrowings

Cultural borrowings

Cultural borrowings are words that fill gaps in the recipient language’s store of words

because they stand for objects or concepts new to language’s culture. Perhaps the most

common cultural borrowings around the world are versions of the English word automobile

or car because most culture did not have such motorized vehicles before contact with western

cultures. Also the adaptation of some food names, cloths, etc. Any of the new vocabulary

items that have to do with computer qualify as cultural borrowings. Even many of these

words are new even to English, because computers are new to native speaker of English.

Factors that contribute to cultural borrowings

These factors can contribute negatively or positively.

The classical language as a supply source

Many of the technical terms in the fields of science, medicine, and the law come Latin or

Greek. David Crystal (1987:380) points out that “[S]cience is in fact the main birthplace

for new words in a language: in a comprehensive English dictionary, the vast majority of

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the words would be scientific (or technological) terms.” For example, vitamin was first used

in 1912; its base comes from the Latin word vita ‘life’

New words that are home-grown

Some languages are less inclined to borrow a new word along with a new object and

instead make up words from their own lexical stock for the new object. German and

Japanese do this much more than English, for example. So when the phone was invented,

Germans called it Fernsprecher (‘far’+ ‘speaker’). but today most Germans simply call a

telephone Telefon although they still use Fernsprecher for a ‘long-distance call’. However,

most planners for some languages in the Third World that have recently become official

languages, such as Swahili in Tanzania and Somali in Somalia, also are anxious to achieve

unique identity and so avoid too many foreign borrowings. For examples, Swahili planners

introduced kamusi for or ‘dictionary’ in the 1960s in preference to using a borrowing based

on the English word.

Cultural borrowing in reverse

An opposite process from borrowing is to replace existing borrowing with native words.

That is, for a variety of reasons, but all having to do with promoting a group’s unique

identity, speakers have been known to rid their languages of borrowings, For example. The

use of ‘cell phone or telephone’ in Yoruba language have been change to ‘ero-

ibaraenisoro’. A famous case is Turkey. When they gain independent of the Ottoman

dynasty in the 1920s and under reforms introduced by Ataturk, Arabic script was replaced

by the Latin alphabet in 1928. Ataturk also created the Turkish Language Society for the

purification of the language which replaced Arabic words with Turkish-based words.

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Core Borrowings

Core borrowings are words that duplicate elements that the recipient language already has

in its word store. They are gratuitous- by definition, another layer of cake, because the

recipient language always has viable equivalents.

Then, why they borrowed?

Cultural pressure: when two languages are spoken in the same community, but one

language prevails in most public discourse and certainly in all status-raising discourse, then

the other language loses some of its vitality to the language, and it becomes the recipient

language in borrowing and will even replace its own words with words from the dominant

language.

The sheer magnetism of the dominant culture: the dominant culture of the donor

language seems to motivate speakers to borrow core elements. And it doesn’t even seem to

matter if the donor language is widely spoken in the community in question.

Core borrowings in reverse

Sometimes core borrowing goes the other way for a few words. That is, speakers of the

dominant language take up a word or two of a language that is less prestigious in their eyes.

For example, this often happen when happens when the speakers of the dominant language

are temporary residents in another culture. Like the adaptation of some Yoruba words into

English dictionary.

The reasons for reverse core borrowings

For claim some understanding, that is reasoning for add such words to one’s conversation

would be just to claim mutual understanding (no matter how limited) of the local culture.

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 Words from a culture very different from one’s own have always smacked of the exotic;

that is, they have a magic quality about them. For example, todays words from hip-hop

music are been adopted by teenagers for the same reason.

Less direct borrowings or Indirect borrowings

We have three types of less direct borrowings or indirect borrowings

1. Calque or loan translation.

2. The phonological form of a word.

3. Loan blends or hybrids.

Myer-Scotton (2006:218) observed that, single word that are borrowed directly are by far

the most frequent, and the indirect borrowed words type is more common than we may

realise. This is the calque or loan translation. These loan differ from borrowings in two

ways.

Many calques consist of more than one word

The actual word (i.e. phonological shape) from the donor language is not borrowed;

instead,

how that language convey a particular notion is borrowed? For example, the word ‘wahala’

using by Yoruba people is originally borrowed from Hausa language “that means trouble” but

Yoruba people using when you are trouble them, they will say;

Wahala re po –your trouble too much

O fun mi ni wahala – you’re giving me trouble

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 That is, the recipient language replaces the words that the donor language uses to convey

the desired notion with its own. So what is “loaned” is a translation, not words. In English

the word ‘weekend’ is borrowed from Italian.

Phonological form of the word

The second type of indirect borrowings. In this case, according to Myer-Scotton opines that

speakers borrow the phonological form of a word, but gives it a different meaning from its

original. She gives example that over twenty years, both French and the Spanish have

borrowed English gerunds (verb forms endings in -ing that are used as nouns, as in the

sentence, brushing my hair is a lot of trouble). But their meanings are shifted from what

they are in English.

Loan blends or hybrids

This type of indirect borrowings consists of two or more parts, with input from both the

donor language and the recipient languages. For example, English and French language

blends together and form words such as:

English French Result

Father + Grand = Grandfather

Shampoo + in (+ a French derivational suffix) = Shampoo-in-age (process of

shampooing).

How borrowed words are integrated

According to Hall (1964), when words are borrowed they are normally adopted to the

structure of the borrowing language, in sound and form. Arguably, Myer-Scotton state that

many linguists still present this as an accurate statement about borrowings. The problem is

that such a statement oversimplifies the facts, especially regarding how borrowings are

treated phonologically.

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Where the borrowed words are integrated are stated below:

Phonological integration

Morphological integration

Phonological integration: this is the process of making borrowed words fit the sound system

of the recipient language. Actually, many borrowed words are so modified that it is hard to

tell that they were not original words in the recipient language (quoting Myer-Scotton

2006:219). For example, if a Yoruba speaker says “gudugudu meje ati yahyah mefa” any

young speaker of Yoruba language might not know that is actually borrowed word from

English with historical background. However, the word was derived from English word

“good good seven times and yeah yeah six times” there are many words that show partial

integration and some hardly show any integration at all.

The key areas of phonological integration rule out by Myer-Scotton (2006) are:

Phonotactics

Inventory of distinctive sounds

Attitudes toward sounding ‘native’

Trying to stay true to the donor language or not

Bilinguals can do better

Staying close to the classics

Summing up pronunciation

Phonotactics: A language’s Phonotactics are the combinations of sounds that are permissible

in that language. This show that we have different Phonotactics rule for different languages.

For example, Yoruba Phonotactics did not allow consonant cluster and is a tonal language

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meanwhile, English language permit consonant cluster and is a stress language, imagine if

tonal language borrowed word from stress language definitely the spelling, sounds will

change. For instance,

English Yoruba

Rice Iresi

Bread Buredi

Cup Kopu

Inventory of distinctive sounds: not all languages have the same inventory of distinctive

sounds by any means. So consider the sounds in the recipient language to donor language.

For examples, English has a /v/ sound (a voiced, labio-dental, fricative) and not found in

Yoruba language, so they replace it with lookalike sound that is, /f/ (a voiceless, labio-dental,

fricative) and sound like /z/, /ts/, etc.

English Yoruba

Love lofu

Felix felisi

Attitudes toward sounding ‘native’: different cultures and different individuals vary in how

much importance they place on the importance of approximating native sounds, or

attempting to “sound like” when they borrow a word. That is speakers what the character to

“sound like” the borrowed word.

Trying to stay true to the donor language or not: borrowed words are integrated may

depend on any values that is attached to sounding like a speaker of the donor language. That

if the recipient language cannot pronounce the borrowed word like the donor language

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speaker they fit the borrowings into their own sound system. For example, ‘perfume’ in

English is pronounced ‘pafumu’ in Yoruba language.

Bilingual can do better: on the contrary, when the pool of recipient language speakers

includes many who are fairly fluent in the donor language speak then you will hear very close

approximations of how the borrowed word is pronounced in the donor language.

Staying close to the classic: in all the languages of Europe (and probably in many languages

today), learned words- coming from Latin directly or a Latin form of a Greek word-are

important area of loan words. They are largely technical terms and, perhaps partly for the

reason, they have undergone very little modification in their sounds.

Summing up pronunciation: in summary, it is reasonable to recognised that borrowed

words are frequently adapted to the sound system of the recipient language.

Morphological integration: the second type of integration that can affect borrowed is

morphological integration. That is borrowed words are almost always adapted to recipient

language in morphology (adapted in form). In regard to morphological integration both

borrowings and indigenous ones- are treated the same by the morphosyntax. That is, both

receive the same inflections and they follow the same requirements for word order.

(morphology is the study of word forms, including any affixes added to words, and syntax is

the study of how words are put together into phrases and clauses. Each language has its own

constraints on morphosyntax.) Thus, if Yoruba speaker use borrowed word from English in a

sentence the spelling structure will change. For example, the borrowed noun baagi ‘bag’ will

receives the demonstration of ‘mi’ ‘me’ to indicate possessive.

Bami gbe baagi mi wa

Help bring my bag

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Nouns versus other categories

From the standpoint of lexical categories (parts of speech). It clearly understands that the

singly occurring nouns are lexical category most frequently borrowed. Most time nouns are

‘mapped’ onto syntactic structure of the recipient language. This standpoint based on five

hypotheses.

(1) Speakers generally borrow words to fill lexical gaps in their language when the

speaker wants to talk about entities (things or notions) that in some sense are new to

the recipient language. The bottom line is that nouns are so often borrowed because

they are the referents for most of these entities.

(2) Another hypothesis to explain the prevalence of nouns as borrowings is the most

borrowed words are culturally borrowings. Most of these are for new “things”, and

“things”, of course, are usually conveyed by nouns.

(3) A third hypothesis has to do with adding words to one’s vocabulary in order to make

new distinctions in what you want to convey. Some words are borrowed because they

encode fine differences not made previously in the recipient language.

(4) This hypothesis based on the grammatical nature of nouns versus verbs. By their

semantic nature, nouns largely encode entities (whether concrete or abstract). Animate

nouns can be “agent”, but many types of nouns can be “patient” (in the sense that they

acted upon). This depict that what is an “agent” or a “patient” in one language tend to

appears as an “agent” or “patient” in another language- just because you’re speaking

other language doesn’t mean the nature of entities changes.

(5) Note that function element that “go with” nouns are hardly borrowed expect they are

perceived as part of a noun. For example, derivational affixes, determiner, etc.

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In contrast, verbs do not transfer cross-linguistically so easily. The reason seems to be that

verbs are syntactically more complex than nouns. I claim that nouns can be ‘mapped’ onto

syntactic structure of other languages, but verbs are the elements that do the “mapping”. This

means that verbs not only have their own semantic content, but they control the number and

type of nouns that are present as “arguments” in a clause.

Similarly, discourse makers (particles) also are easily to borrow because they encode

universally present discourse roles such as “contrast” or “in addition” “so”.

Conclusion

To sum up, the goal of this academic discussion is to expand on our knowledge of language

borrowing in multilingual societies. Through deciphering the complexities of this

phenomena, academics can clarify the changing dynamics of language contact and advance

our understanding of the complex fabric of multilingualism.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Language
Linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Monolingualism
Bilingualism
Multilingualism
Borrowing/Loaning
Characteristics of borrowing or Lexical borrowing
Types of lexical borrowing or borrowing
i. Cultural borrowings
- Factors that contribute to cultural borrowings
- The classical language as a supply source
- New words that are home-grown
- Cultural borrowings in reverse
ii. Core borrowings
- Cultural pressure
- The sheer magnetism of the dominant culture
- Core borrowings in reverse
- The reason for core borrowings in reverse
Less direct borrowings or Indirect borrowings
Type of less direct borrowings or indirect borrowings
- Calque or loan translation
- The phonological form word
- Loan blends or hybrids
How borrowed words are integrated
i. Phonological integration
- Phonotactics
- Inventory of distinctive sounds
- Attitudes toward sounding ‘native’
- Trying to stay true to the donor language or not
- Bilinguals can do better
- Staying close to classic
- Summing up pronunciation
ii. Morphological integration
- Noun versus other categories
- Conclusion

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 OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Term paper presentation

Course Code: EGL 609

Problems and Principles of Bilingualism and Multilingualism.

Topic: Linguistic Borrowing in Multilingual Society

Submitted by: TAIWO OYINLOLUWA TANIMORAN ARP22/23/H/1234

Professor O.O Taiwo

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Fafunwa,A.B. (1974). History of Education in Nigeria. London: George Allen And Unwin

Ltd.

Hall, R.A. (1964). Introducing Linguistics. Philadelphia. Chilton.

Lambert, W.E. (1978). Some Cognitive and Sociocultural Consequences of Being Bilingual.

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Myer-Scotton, C. (2006). Multiple Voices: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Blackwell

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Mesthrie, R, Swann, J, Deumert, A, Leap,W.L. (2000). Introducing Sociolinguistics.

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Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

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