There are many words in the English language that were borrowed from other foreign languages in order to create a new yet familiar word. For example, the word “ranch” [raanch] in English is pronounced in IPA as /ræn(t)ʃ/ and was borrowed from the donor language of Spanish using their word “rancho” [ran-choh], pronounced in IPA as /ˈræn(t)ʃoʊ/. The word “ranch” in English refers to a large farm where cattle animals are raised. In Spanish, the word “rancho” was historically used in Latin or Spanish America to refer to a village or hut for travelers to settle in. However, the meaning of this word has changed with the progression of modern times (with the influences of western culture due to borrowing the original word) and is widely correlated with farm land for the most part, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In terms of pronunciation, these two words differ as “ranch” in English only has one syllable stressed throughout the word, as opposed to “rancho” in Spanish having two syllables; the last one being stressed. Along with this, the English language omitted the last /o/ in “rancho” in order to help adapt it with their phonotactic constraints since the majority of words found end with a consonant rather than a vowel. In Spanish, the /ch/ sound is generally followed by a vowel in order to stress out the final syllable.

As mentioned in the textbook, there are many borrowed words across different languages that have similar yet different pronunciations. One example would be the word lemon [lemən] pronounced as leh+muhn in English. I found out that this word originates from the Arabic word ليمون or līmūn which means a yellow citrus fruit. Another English word that originated from Arabic is coffee [kɑːfi]. This comes from the arabic word قهوة or Kahwa. The middle and ending of the words are different however the beginning sound [Ka] is the same. I also find it interesting that not only does the pronunciation change between languages, it also changes between the dialects of the language as well. For example, in standard Arabic, it is pronounced Kahwa, however in my Egyptian dialect we don’t pronounce the beginning the same. Instead we say Ahwa. So I think its very interesting how pronunciations of the same word differentiate between different dialects as well as different languages.

One word that is borrowed from Arabic, which is the donor language is ‘coffee’. English would be the borrowing language. ‘coffee’ which comes from the Arabic word ‘qahwa’, was originally referred to a type of wine but later came to specifically mean coffee. ‘qahwa’ was then borrowed into Turkish as ‘kahve’, and from there it spread to various other languages. The English word ‘coffee’ entered the language in the 16th century (1582), likely through trade routes and interactions with the Ottoman Empire. In English, ‘coffee’ is typically pronounced as /ˈkɒfi/ or /ˈkɑfi/, with stress on the first syllable and a short vowel sound in the second syllable. The ‘o’ sound is often pronounced as a short ‘o’ or sometimes as an ‘aw’ sound. In Arabic, ‘qahwa’ is pronounced as /ˈqɑː.wæ/ or /ˈqɑː.wɑː/. The ‘q’ sound is a voiceless uvular stop, which is not present in English, and the ‘a’ sounds are pronounced differently from the English ‘a’.

the english word stampede is derived from the spanish word estampida. pronounced /stæm’pi:d/ in english, it’s original pronunciation is /ɛstam’pi:da/. english and spanish have different phonetic inventories and language rules. spanish does not start words with the /st/ sound in the onset, but will use /ɛst/ to keep the flow of the word. estampida ending with an a is because spanish is a gendered language and nouns will end with an o or an a. english does not have gendered nouns, so we did not keep the a ending sound. we kept the stressed syllable the same. spanish pronunciation has the long a sound that we rarely use and we use the æ that we are more comfortable pronouncing.

The word that I will be using is guru. This word was borrowed from the Sanskrit language for the English language. In the donor language, this word is pronounced as gu-ru (guːruː). In the borrowing language, it is pronounced as GOOR-oo (ɡʊˌru). There is a difference between the two pronunciations. In the donor language (Sanskrit), guru is said much quicker than it is in English. In English (borrowing language), the letters g and u are exaggerated (said like “goo”) and held while then transitioning to the letter r. The letter r is also somewhat exaggerated as well. After that, the letters r and u are also exaggerated (said like “roo”). Notice that most words beginning with the letters g and u are not said like this in English. This could be due to the fact that we tend to stress certain letters or symbols when we talk. In this case, the letter u was very stressed, although the letter r was also slightly stressed as well.

One word that has been borrowed from one language to the English language is the word “cookie”.  The word originates from the Dutch to them it means a small cake or biscuit. In Dutch, “cookie” is pronounced as “koekje” the phonetic translation being, [ kʊk.i ]. The difference between the pronouncing is that the first syllable koekje sounds like cook. The “e” here is a schwa and the “j” is pronounced like “y.” The pronunciation of the word was modified to fit the phonemic inventory chart by adding a schwa sound. The English language continues to borrow from various languages across the world some words are pronounced the same but depending on how it is spelled.

One word originating somewhere else and borrowed by English is “illusion.” The word was borrowed from the French in the 14th century, which itself was derived from the Latin; it has many meanings but the most common is “deceptive appearance.” Similarly, this is close to our English definition of something the senses are likely to perceive incorrectly. When looking at the word “illusion” (English vs. French) the spelling on the IPA chart changes while the spelling of the actual word does not. In English, the IPA version of the word is / iˈluʒən / while the French version is / illyzjõ /. Despite both words being spelled the same, the pronunciation is clearly different. The English pronunciation is “(ill-ou-shun)” while the French pronunciation is “(ill-lou-ze-un).” From centuries of education and literature, it is interesting to see how far one word has traveled.

The word ” ballet” has been actually borrowed and adapted not only in the English vocabulary but also in french. The word “ballet” actually originated around 1500 in Italy. The term “ballet” and “ball” stem from the Italian word “ballare” which means “to dance”. The the term “ballet” made it the french vocabulary which then came into the English vocabulary from the french, while the french borrowed it from Italy. The term “ballet” which again means ” to dance” or “jump up” comes from the Greek word “ballizo”. We can see how a word can be borrowed and adapted from not only one place but to many to fit the phonetic vocabulary of that adopting language. In the english IPA format, the word ballet is spelled like ” [(bal] + [ay)]. In french, they also pronounce it as “balay” also with an unstressed syllable.

In examining the adaptation of words borrowed from one language to another, let’s delve into the examples of “café” from French to English and “pasta” from Italian to Japanese. When “café” made its way into English, its pronunciation shifted from /kafe/ in French to /ˈkæˌfeɪ/ in English. The elongation of the /e/ sound at the end of the word and the change of the initial vowel from /a/ to /æ/ highlight adjustments to fit English phonotactics. Similarly, “pasta” underwent modifications upon being borrowed into Japanese, transitioning from /ˈpɑːstə/ in Italian to [pasɯta] in Japanese. The addition of a short vowel sound, [ɯ], between the consonants “s” and “t” to adhere to Japanese phonotactic rules exemplifies adaptation. While the original meanings remain intact, these examples illustrate how pronunciation adapts to suit the phonemic inventory and phonotactics of the borrowing language. Likewise, when considering words in Spanish and Arabic, one might explore how terms like “café” or “pasta” undergo similar transformations to align with the linguistic structures of these languages.

One word that I found that is borrowed by the english language is sabotage. It was borrowed from the French language, and now it is being used very often in the English language. What the word means is to betray someone, or stab them in the back, so to speak. Sabotage is usually planned beforehand, and it is carried out to be a negative outcome. In the IPA, sabotage looks like /ˈsæ.bəˌtɑːʒ/. The onset is “sa” the nucleus is “bo” and the coda is “tage”. The “tage” at the end is what the last symbol is making, and that sound is not used too frequently in the English language.