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Unnecessary English Loanwords in Albanian Language2

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Unnecessary English Loanwords in Albanian Language2 26 Interdisiplinary Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 4, no. 4, 2017 Fatlinda AVDULLAI1 UNNECESSARY ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN ALBANIAN LANGUAGE2 Abstract The aim of this research is tobring the product and content of a new research study. While the numbers of unnecessary loanwords from English are being used increasingly today in Albanian language, I consider that the main reason for studying this topic is to find out the reasons why these words are being used, are the people of Kosovo aware of using these unnecessary loanwords. Also, to see if these unnecessary loanwords or as we call them ‘Anglicisms’ are being used in the official documents implemented by the government of Kosovo, and in the end to know who is responsible for this phenomenon. It emphasizes the large number of loanwords that have penetrated into Albanian after the war in Kosova, and today the main reason why is happening this phenomenon is because of globalization. This research deals with the history of loanwords, time, causes, their use, and recommendations based on the results that have been found in this research. Keywords: Anglicisms, impact, use, Official documents Introduction ‘Observim’ or ‘vrojtim’? Or maybe ‘implementim’ instead of ‘zbatim’ since using them is better than using our own words, and into the eyes of the people we are going to look smarter than the others? Today Albanian language is in danger of losing its grammatical norm from unnecessary loanwords, which are being penetrated into the language because of negligence. During its history 1 AAB COLLEGE; FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE Email: [email protected]@universitetiaab.com 2 Paper presneted in “3 International Conference ‘Foreign Languages in a Global World, Linguistics, Literature, Didactics” Durres, June 2017” Interdisiplinary Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 4, no. 4, 2017 27 our language has borrowed many words from other languages, and that was mainly because of occupation from different nations. Today, for many reasons we are abusing the language by using these unnecessary loanwords or as we call ‘anglicisms’ from English language. After the war in Kosovo, while in Albania after 1990 when it was the end of the last communist regime in Europe, a number of loanwords have been entered into the language and some of them unnecessary words. Meanwhile, in both cases we can see that the first reasons for happening this phenomenon was with the coming of International organization,many businesses started using English as a communication tool. On the other hand, this phenomenon is due to the lack of readiness to analyze and control those foreign words, but also because of the lack of readiness of our institutions either the Academy of Science or the government to manage and to control them. We can say that this change that has already affected our language is because of our dynamic life, which is not allowing us to have time to think about our behavior. In the past, every new word first it needed to be analyzed, and then see if it could be used as it is, or not taking it, and just translating with one similar to us. While now we do not know exactly the number of unnecessary loanwords into our language. Another factor which is influencing in this phenomenon and in every single sphere is globalization, which everyday more is changing every aspect of life including its influence into the language. However, do we indeed have the need for these words? Are these words being understandable by everyone in Kosovo, including here generations that have never learned any word in English? Which are the reasons for using them? Do Kosovo’s people accept their use? These foreign words are being part of many researches of many authors, but until now we have not seen any action, either from linguists of from relevant institutions, whose it needed to start immediately with this case. Naturally, the Albanian language has a need for loanwords and to be developed more, but we have to be careful about what we are borrowing, in this case if a word for us is necessary then let it pass on the borrowing processes. On the other hand, if that word is unnecessary it is not reasonable to get it which is already found in our vocabulary and which best expresses that word. The history of loanwords in English and Albanian languages The greatest focus to the linguists in all the languages of the world was of course borrowing of words. Some of them started earlier and the others later, but so far no language has left that it had borrowed words from another 28 Interdisiplinary Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 4, no. 4, 2017 language at a time, whether dominant or not. English language which is now being considered a global language, its borrowing history had started very early, since the earliest speakers that entered in England, which were Celtics in about a half century BC. At the beginning, it was the Latin language that was spoken in England, but with the entry of Germanic tribes (the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) everything changed including here their influence into the language. After that, another great influence it had St. Augustine journeyed to England in 597 AD and Christianized the country. At that time, many words that were related with the religion were borrowed such as: church, devil, minister, and angles. At the end of the 8th century, Scandinavians (“Vikings”) began small raids on England. Many place names, personal names, and general vocabulary from Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian) were established during the next centuries. The next invaders were Normans 1066 AD (French), who became the language of government and of the upper classes in English society. During this time, many words like: government, court, judge, status, defendant, etc. began to be used by English language speaker. From the 14th century Latin and Greek language have been a continuous source of loanwords. Words from Latin were used more in biology, botany, and chemistry. So far, many other languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, etc have had an impact on the English language, where the latest it had borrowed many words from these languages. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that the borrowing was not only from the eastern world, but since the discovery of America, a considerable number of words came mainly from the native people that lived at that time as we call ‘Indians’, who contributed in enrichment of the vocabulary of English language. Even though, it still continues the fact of borrowing word in the English language, today it is considered a global language which is giving to other languages its own words. A global language is defined as: “A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role is recognized in every country” (D. Crystal, English as a Global Language, 2003). However, what makes a global language, or why do we need that? A language does not become a global language because of its structural properties, or the vocabulary, or because it was once associated with a great culture or region. There is only one reason why a language like English has become a global language, and this is because of the power of its people. On the other hand, the reason why we need a global language it might be because of the necessity of having a language which would act as a lingua franca, or “common language”. On the other hand, unlike English language, the history of borrowing in Interdisiplinary Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 4, no. 4, 2017 29 Albanian does not indicate a certain time when foreign words started to enter into the language, and which influenced our language. But it is said that throughout its history our language has been in contact with other languages. The Lexicology of Albanian language shows the situation of the language over the centuries. During XVI-XVII century, as evidenced by the documents written by the old Albanian authors (Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Budi, Pjetër Bogdani), the Albanian language had a rich vocabulary and was developed. However, it had also borrowed words, mainly from Latin and Greek. Those words came through the translation of religious books and the use of terms that explained different concepts. In this way, the old authors enriched the vocabulary with international terminology (J. Thomai, Leksikologjia e Gjuhes Shqipe, 2002). Throughout its history, the Albanian language has been in contact with Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Turks, and also with the neighboring countries, which had their influence in our language by losing a considerable part of the inherited words. Literature Review Views of foreign linguists on borrowings There are many researchers who have written about borrowing whether foreign or local, and some of them are against of this issue and the others see borrowings as an enrichment of the language. One group see these words as a weakness of a language to avoid unnecessary loanwords, but they are in the same opinion with the second group,who claims that at the moment when a word enters in a language it should be analyzed by its phonetic and phonemic composition, but also in its grammatical norm. Linguist Philip Durkin claims that“the term ‘borrowing’ describes a process in which one language replicates a linguistic feature from another language, either wholly or partly” (P. Durkin, Borrowed words, 2014).Linguists consider that it is easier to borrow a foreign element than to replace it with some adequate language element of the recipient language (Wheinreich: 1953). On the other hand, it is considered that the recipient language should replace a foreign word or expression with some equivalent element of the recipient language, or even to translate it into the recipient language, rather than to borrow it.
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