HUGVÍSINDADEILD English Loanwords in the Icelandic Language of the Sea Particularly in the Jargon of Trawlermen Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs 05.16.95 Sverrir Konráðsson Maí 2005 Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindadeild Enskuskor English Loanwords in the Icelandic Language of the Sea Particularly in the Jargon of Trawlermen Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Sverrir Konráðsson [email protected] Kt.: 190653-3239 Leiðbeinandi: Dr. Gauti Kristmannsson Maí 2005 © Sverrir Konráðsson, Kjarrmóar 36, 210 Gardabær, Iceland. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author. ii Table of Contents Preface and acknowledgements ....................................................................................... iii List of abbreviations ......................................................................................................... v Phonetic notation – list of symbols used in the thesis .................................................... vii Summary ........................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 .......................................................................................................................... 2 1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2 1.1 On loanwords ........................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Linguistic purism ................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................ 23 2.0 An overview of the history of fishing and trawling operations in Iceland ......... 23 2.1 Industrialization .................................................................................................. 26 2.2 Legislation on trawling ....................................................................................... 28 2.3 British trawlers in Icelandic waters .................................................................... 30 2.4 Interaction between Icelanders and British trawlermen ..................................... 31 2.5 The first Icelandic trawling companies .............................................................. 33 2.6 A developing new industry ................................................................................. 38 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................ 40 3.0 The Icelandic language of the sea and foreign borrowings ................................ 40 3.1 The trawlerman ................................................................................................... 45 3.2 A list of English loanwords, examples of usage and comments ........................ 50 3.3 Survey on the usage of English loanwords on board trawlers .......................... 129 Chapter 4 ...................................................................................................................... 133 4.0 Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 133 4.1 Bibliography (including works consulted but not cited in the thesis) .............. 139 iii Preface and acknowledgements Ships and the sea have always fascinated me. As a young boy I witnessed merchant ships sailing in and out of the Port of Reykjavík and I knew they were coming from countries far away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. To the young boy, they were tokens of life of adventure and excitement. My father brought me down to the quay and sometimes we went aboard a ship to talk to the watchman. The smell of the harbour was a mixture of exotic scents from the cargoes on the quay, fuel oil, fumes from the engines and fish from the fish factories. Trawlers were a source of excitement too, with their complex gear in disarray on the deck, bobbins on the quay, nets and miscellaneous mysteriously looking tackle and equipment with foreign-sounding names. It was my destiny many years later to become a deckhand on a merchant ship sailing from the Port of Reykjavík to foreign countries and continents. Later, I became a student at the College of Navigation in Reykjavík and received my master mariner’s certificate enabling me to become a mate and master on merchant ships of unlimited tonnage. After graduation, I flew to Ecuador and signed as second mate on a Danish merchant ship on a fixed route between the west coast ports of South America, North America and the Far East. Another dream had come true. I stood my watch on the bridge of a large freighter ploughing the waves of the Pacific Ocean. This was before the time of the global navigation systems. We found our way over the vast oceans by applying celestial navigation and the sextant was the mate’s best friend. After some years as a mate sailing between the continents of the world, I felt I had to fulfil another dream. During my days as a student in higher secondary grammar school, English had been my favourite subject. Therefore, in the autumn of 1984, I registered in the English Department of the University of Iceland. I gained my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1987. During the next two years, I studied for my Master of Arts degree. In 1990, I began to work on my M.A. thesis on English loanwords in the Icelandic language of the sea. One of my teachers, Magnús Fjalldal Ph.D. proposed this subject and told me that little or no work had been done on the numerous English borrowings in the trawling industry. Subsequently, in search of those borrowings, I read a large part of the biographies and autobiographies of Icelandic seamen, a great deal of the published material on nautical issues in Iceland, the complete history of marine salvage and shipwrecks in the 20th century as well as numerous Icelandic sea stories and accounts. In 1990, I became a translator at the Institute of Lexicography, which had taken on the task of translating a large amount of the European Union legislation for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Few years later, I was employed at the Ministry as a iv translator and system operator. My work on the thesis lay dormant during these years but every now and then I read sea stories and non-fiction on the subject of the sea to fulfil an ex sailor’s need for experiencing, now in my armchair, the adventurous life of the mariner. When our two little girls were born in 1997 and 1999, all work on the thesis was interrupted – my wife Dagný and I concentrated on the upbringing. In 2004, Dagný, assisted by Dr. Gauti Kristmannsson my old friend and co-student at the English Department earlier, urged me to resume my work on the old subject of the English loanwords. I decided to heed their call and requested a leave of absence from my present work at the Icelandic Maritime Administration (IMA). I am indebted to my director, Helgi Jóhannesson, and Director General of the IMA Hermann Guðjónsson for their support and for granting me a leave of absence of two months last winter so I could concentrate full-time on finalizing the paper. Several persons have been most helpful to me during my work on the thesis. My supervisor, Gauti Kristmannsson, was especially inspirational from the outset and optimistic when any doubts rose. I owe him for that. Magnús Fjalldal professor at the English Department urged me to take on this assignment initially and he was extremely helpful during the final stages, for which I am thankful. I would like to thank my colleague at the IMA, Kristján Sveinson mag. art. for his invaluable advice on the subject of history as well as his wise words in general. I would especially like to thank my mentor and friend, Guðjón Ármann Eyjólfsson former principal of the College of Navigation in Reykjavík, who read the first proof of the thesis with enthusiasm and encouraged me all the time, while being one of the group of former trawlermen advising in the process of writing the paper. Many thanks to my friend Ari Guðmundsson B.Sc. naval architect for his encouragement through the years and stimulating discussions on our favourite subject of ships and the sea. Also, I thank his father, Captain Guðmundur Arason for the enthusiastic contributions from his wealth of experience as seaman, first as a trawlerman in his youth and later master of merchant ships flying various flags. Moreover, I want to especially thank Ron Walker M.Sc. Germersheim Germany for proofreading the paper. Last but not least my sincere thanks are extended to my wife Dagný Þórgnýsdóttir M.A. for her encouraging advice, support and for reading the final proofs and likewise to my two little daughters, Edda Rún and Guðrún Lóa for their patience. Garðabær 25 May 2005 SK v List of abbreviations adv. adverb Arm. Armenian Cat. Catalan Catal. catalogue cogn. cognate Com. common comb. combination(s) Da. Danish dat. dative deriv. derivative Du. Dutch EFris. East Frisian Eng. English fem. feminine Fær. Faeroese G. German Goth. Gothic Gr. Greek Hind. Hindi, Hindustani Icel. Icelandic intr. intransitive It. Italian L. Latin LG. Low German masc. masculine MDu. Middle Dutch ME. Middle English med.L. Medieval Latin MHG. Middle High German MLG. Middle Low German mod.Du. Modern Dutch mod.F. Modern French mod.G.