Pseudo-anglicism explained
A pseudo-anglicism is a word in another language that is formed from English elements and may appear to be English, but that does not exist as an English word with the same meaning.[1]
For example, English speakers traveling in France may be struck by the "number of anglicisms—or rather words that look English—which are used in a different sense than they have in English, or which do not exist in English (such as rallye-paper, shake-hand, baby-foot, or baby-parc)".[2]
This is different from a false friend, which is a word with a cognate that has a different main meaning. Sometimes pseudo-anglicisms become false friends.[3]
Definition and terminology
Pseudo-anglicisms are also called secondary anglicisms, false anglicisms, or pseudo-English.
Pseudo-anglicisms are a kind of lexical borrowing where the source or donor language is English, but where the borrowing is reworked in the receptor or recipient language.
The precise definition varies. Duckworth defines pseudo-anglicisms in German as "neologisms derived from English language material." Furiassi includes words that may exist in English with a "conspicuously different meaning".
Typology and mechanism
Pseudo-anglicisms can be created in various ways, such as by archaism, i.e., words that once had that meaning in English but are since abandoned; semantic slide, where an English word is used incorrectly to mean something else; conversion of existing words from one part of speech to another; or recombinations by reshuffling English units.
Onysko speaks of two types: pseudo-anglicisms and hybrid anglicisms. The common factor is that each type represents a neologism in the receptor language resulting from a combination of borrowed lexical items from English. Using German as the receptor language, an example of the first type is Wellfit-Bar, a combination of two English lexical units to form a new term in German, which does not exist in English, and which carries the meaning, "a bar that caters to the needs of health-starved people." An example of the second type, is a hybrid based on a German compound word, Weitsprung (long jump), plus the English 'coach', to create the new German word Weitsprung-Coach.
According to Filipović, pseudoanglicisms can be formed through composition, derivation, or ellipsis. Composition in Serbo-Croatian involves creating a new compound from an English word to which is added the word man, as in the example, "GOAL" + man, giving golman. In derivation, a suffix -er or -ist is added to an anglicism, to create a new word in Serbo-Croatian, such as teniser, or vaterpolist. An ellipsis drops something, and starts from a compound and drops a component, or from a derivative and drops -ing, as in boks from "boxing", or "hepiend" from "happy ending".
Another process of word formation that can result in a pseudo-anglicism is a blend word, consisting of portions of two words, like brunch or smog. Rey-Debove & Gagnon attest tansad in French in 1919, from English tan[dem] + sad[dle].
Scope
Pseudo-anglicisms can be found in many languages that have contact with English around the world, and are attested in nearly all European languages.
The equivalent of pseudo-Anglicisms derived from languages other than English also exist. For example, the English-language phrase "double entendre", while often believed to be French and pronounced in a French fashion, is not actually used in French. For other examples, see dog Latin, list of pseudo-French words adapted to English, and list of pseudo-German words adapted to English.
Examples
Many languages
Some pseudo-anglicisms are found in many languages and have been characterized as "world-wide pseudo-English",[4] often borrowed via other languages such as French or Italian:[5]
- autostop – hitchhiking in French, Italian,[6] Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Greek οτοστόπ,[7] Russian автостоп, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Dutch, etc.
- basket – basketball in Danish, French, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish,[8] Greek μπάσκετ,[7] Turkish, etc.; also sneakers in French
- camping – campsite or campground in French, Greek κάμπινγκ,[7] Bulgarian къмпинг,[9] Russian ке́мпинг,[10] Polish kemping,[11] Portuguese,[12] etc.
- smoking – dinner jacket, tuxedo, or smoking jacket in Danish,[13] French, Portuguese,[14] German,[15] Italian,[16] Greek σμόκιν,[7] Russian, etc.[17]
Japanese
- – a white collar employee (salaried worker)
- Pokémon (ポケモン, "pocket monster")
Korean
See main article: Konglish.
- one shot – "bottoms up" (원샷 [wʌn.ɕjat̚])[18]
- hand phone – "cellphone" (핸드폰 [hɛn.dɯ.pon])[19]
- skinship – platonic hand-holding, hugging, etc. (스킨십; seu·kin·sib)[20]
Romance
French
French includes many pseudo-anglicisms, including novel compounds (baby-foot), specifically compounds in -man (tennisman), truncations (foot), places in -ing (dancing meaning dancing-place, not the act of dancing), and a large variety of meaning shifts.
- French: [[:fr:wikt:baby-foot|baby-foot]] (m, pronounced in French pronounced as /ba.bi.fut/) – table football
- French: [[:fr:wikt:baby-parc|baby-parc]] – playpen
- French: [[:fr:wikt:blind test|blind test]] – music quiz / 'name that tune'
- French: [[:fr:wikt:brushing|brushing]] – blow-dry and styling[21] [22]
- French: [[:fr:wikt:building|building]] – high-rise building, tower block[21] [23]
- French: [[:fr:wikt:box|box]] – wifi router or parking space
- French: dancing – dance hall
- French: flirt – a brief romance, flirtation, a boyfriend or girlfriend[23]
- French: [[:fr:wikt:footing|footing]] – jogging (though the real English word is also used in French with the same meaning)
- French: [[:fr:wikt:night shop|night shop]] (m, Belgium) – late-opening grocery shop
- French: pressing – dry cleaning shop,
- French: rallye-paper – a "fox-and-hounds" like game, except with paper scraps instead of foxes
- French: [[:fr:wikt:recordman|recordman]] (m; pl: French: recordmans; f:French: recordwoman) – record holder, especially in sports
- French: [[:fr:wikt:relooker|relooker]] (verb) to make over; also: French: relooking (n; masc.) – a makeover
- French: [[:fr:wikt:rugbyman|rugbyman]] (n; masc.) – rugby player
- French: shake-hand
- French: shampooing – shampoo
- French: speaker, French: speakerine (feminine) – radio or television announcer[24]
- French: standing – luxury, prestige[24]
- French: surf – surfing[24]
- French: [[:fr:wikt:tennisman|tennisman]] – a tennis player
Italian
- autobus – a bus
- autogrill (pronounced as /it/)[25] – rest area (used for any brand, not only for Autogrill chain)
- beauty farm[26] (pronounced as /it/) – spa
- The French borrowing bloc-notes (in French pronounced as /blɔknɔt/) is sometimes written in the pseudo-English form block-notes (pronounced as /it/)[27] – notebook
- jolly – the joker in a pack of cards[21] [28]
- pullman – a bus[29]
- smart working pronounced as /it/ – remote work, where "smart" is used referring to other devices with an Internet connection, such as smartphones and smartwatches.
Germanic
Danish
Dutch
German
See also: Denglisch. German pseudo anglicisms often have multiple valid and common ways of writing them, generally either hyphenated (Home-Office) or in one word (Homeoffice).[42] Infrequently, CamelCase may also be used.
- Beamer – a video projector[43]
- Bodybag – a messenger bag
- Charity-Lady (pl.: Charity-Ladys): upper-class woman who uses her fortune and her social influence to do charity work
- Dressman – a male model (Onysko calls this the 'canonical example' of a pseudo-anglicism.)
- Flipper – a pinball machine[44]
- Funsport – a sport played for amusement, such as skateboarding or frisbee[45]
- Handy – a mobile phone[46]
- Homeoffice – working from home, used as a noun[42]
- Jobticket – a free pass for public transport provided by an employer for employees[47]
- Oldtimer – an antique car[21]
- Public Viewing – a public viewing event (party) of a football match or similar
- Shooting – a photoshoot[44]
- trampen (verb) – hitchhiking[48]
- mobbing – bullying
Norwegian
Swedish
- after work – a meeting for drinks after the workday is finished[51]
- backslick – A wet, combed-back hair style
- pocket – A paper-back book[52]
Slavic
Polish
Russian
- Дресс-кроссинг ("Dress crossing") – clothing swap[54] (analogous to postcrossing, bookcrossing); not to be confused with cross-dressing
- Russian: [[:ru:wikt:клипмейкер|Клипмейкер]] ("Clip maker") – music video director
- Russian: [[:ru:wikt:страйкбол|Страйкбол]] ("strikeball")[55] [56] – airsoft
- Russian: [[:ru:wikt:фейсконтроль|Фейсконтроль]] ("Face control") – the policy of screening people based on their appearance
- Аниматор ("Animator") – children's entertainer
- Russian: [[:ru:wikt:кемпинг|Кемпинг]] ("camping") – campsite
- Russian: [[:ru:wikt:рекордсмен|Рекордсмен]] ("records man") – record holder
Austronesian
Tagalog
See main article: Philippine English.
Malaysian Malay
Indonesian
Other languages
Chinese
- coser – cosplayer, modelled after the verb "cos" (to cosplay)
Maltese
See also
Sources
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- Book: Ayres-Bennett . Wendy . Carruthers . Janice . Temple . Rosalind . Problems and Perspectives: Studies in the Modern French Language . https://books.google.com/books?id=WQftAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA335 . Longman linguistics library. . 25 February 2014 . Routledge . London . 978-1-317-88652-5 . 335 . 12.4 'Hybrids' and pseudo-anglicisms . 871224464 . .
- Book: Baldwin . Yuliya . English Loans in Contemporary Russian . 2020 . Routledge . 978-1-000-20618-0 . en.
- Book: German . Betz . Werner . Kolb . Herbert . Lauffer . Hartmut . Sprachliche Interferenz . 1977 . Niemeyer . 978-3-484-10285-9 . .
- Book: Carstensen, Broder . German . Viereck . Wolfgang . Studien zum Einfluß der englischen Sprache auf das Deutsche . Studies on the Influence of the English Language on German . https://books.google.com/books?id=oy7tCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77. 16 November 2015 . BoD – Books on Demand . 1st pub. Gunter Narr:1980 . Tübingener beigrag zur Linguistik #132 . 978-3-87808-132-6 . 1006045710 . 77 . Semantische Scheinentlehnungen des Deutschen aus dem Englischen .
- Atlantis Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies . Campos-Pardillos . Miguel Ángel . All Is not English that Glitters: False Anglicisms in the Spanish Language of Sports . 37 . 2 . 2015 . AEDEAN: Asociación española de estudios anglo-americanos . 24757788 . 0210-6124 . 1989-6840 . 155–174 .
- Book: Duckworth, David . German . Best . Werner . Kolb . Werner . Lauffer . Hartmut . Zur terminologischen Grundlage der Forschung auf dem Gebiet der englisch-deutschen Interferenz. Kritische Übersicht, und neue Vorschlag . The Terminological Basis of Research in the Field of English-German Interference. Critical Overview, and New Proposal. . Tübingen . . 1977 . 9783484102859 . 185584225 . Neubildungen der deutschen Sprache mit Englischem Sprachmaterial. .
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- Book: Furiassi, Cristiano . False Anglicisms in Italian . 2010 . Polimetrica . Monza (Milano) . 978-88-7699-203-2 . 712112149 .
- Book: Furiassi . Cristiano . Pulcini . Virginia . Rodríguez González . Félix . The Anglicization of European Lexis . 2012 . John Benjamins Publishing . Amsterdam . 978-90-272-1195-8 . 158 . .
- Book: Furiassi . Cristiano . Gottlieb . Henrik . Pseudo-English: Studies on False Anglicisms in Europe . https://books.google.com/books?id=W_BeCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17 . 10 March 2015 . De Gruyter . Berlin . 978-1-5015-0023-7 . 17 . 2 Qualifying pseudo-Anglicisms . .
- Book: Geyer's Stationer: Devoted to the Interests of the Stationery, Fancy Goods and Notion Trades . 1903 . Andrew Geyer . New York . 1009011742 . 13 May 2018 . .
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- Alicante Journal of English Studies . Luján-García . Carmen . Analysis of the presence of Anglicisms in a Spanish internet forum: some terms from the fields of fashion, beauty and leisure . 30 . 2017 . 30 . 277 . 10.14198/raei.2017.30.10 . . free . 10553/41634 . free .
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- Book: Picone, Michael D. . Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French . 14 February 2018 . Lingvisticae Investigationes Supplementa Ser.,18. . 18 October 1996 . John Benjamins Publishing Company . Amsterdam . 978-90-272-7614-8 . 350 . 769341957 .
- Book: French . Rey-Debove . Josette . Gagnon . Gilberte . Dictionnaire des anglicismes : les mots anglais et américains en français . Dictionary of Anglicisms: English and American Words in French . Usuels du Robert . Paris . Le Robert . 1990 . 9782850360275 . 756955952 . .
- Rosenhouse, Judith, Rotem Kowner, eds., Globally Speaking: Motives for Adopting English Vocabulary in Other Languages, 2008,
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- Book: Scheibel, Larissa . German . Anglizismen/Amerikanismen im Deutschen und Russischen am Beispiel von Online Zeitschriften . https://books.google.com/books?id=jFAtvCczC9wC&pg=PA10 . 21 February 2007 . GRIN Verlag . 978-3-638-59645-9 . 10– . 2.2 Entlehnungen . Master's thesis .
- Book: Sicherl . Eva . Šabec . Nada . Gabrovšek . Dušan . The English Element in Contemporary Standard Slovene: Phonological, Morphological and Semantic Aspects . Razprave Filozofske fakultete. . 1999 . Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete . 978-86-7207-114-6 . 14 . 442412304 . .
- Book: Winter . Werner . Societas Linguistica Europaea. Meeting . On Languages and Language: The Presidential Addresses of the 1991 Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea . 14 February 2018 . Trends in linguistics., Studies and monographs; 78. . 1995 . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin . 978-3-11-013257-1 . 924736602 .
- Book: Winter-Froemel, Esme . German . Entlehnung in der Kommunikation und im Sprachwandel: Theorie und Analysen zum Französischen . https://books.google.com/books?id=9Zx8xmDm7mEC&pg=PA45 . Berlin . 29 August 2011 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-023506-7 . 45– . 3.4 Entlehnung un Scheinentlehnung nach traditionellen Auffasungen .
- Book: Yang, Wenliang . German . Anglizismen im Deutschen: am Beispiel des Nachrichtenmagazins 'Der Spiegel' . https://books.google.com/books?id=dRiYUpTcEm0C&pg=PA12 . Reihe Germanistische Linguistik, 106 . 1 January 1990 . Walter de Gruyter . Tuebingen . 978-3-11-167615-9 . 12– . 1.5.2.1 Fremdwort und Lehnwort .
- Book: Zenner . Eline . Kristiansen . Gitte . New Perspectives on Lexical Borrowing: Onomasiological, Methodological and Phraseological Innovations . 1 January 2014 . De Gruyter Mouton . Boston . 978-1-61451-430-5 . 2, 10 . .
Further reading
- James Stanlaw 2004, Japanese English: Language And The Culture Contact, Hong Kong University Press.
- Laura Miller 1997, "Wasei eigo: English ‘loanwords' coined in Japan" in The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright, edited by Jane Hill, P.J. Mistry and Lyle Campbell, Mouton/De Gruyter: The Hague, pp. 123–139.
- Geoff Parkes and Alan Cornell 1992, 'NTC's Dictionary of German False Cognates', National Textbook Company, NTC Publishing Group.
- Ghil'ad Zuckermann 2003, ‘‘Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew’’, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, (Palgrave Studies in Language History and Language Change, Series editor: Charles Jones). .
External links
Notes and References
- Ilse Sørensen, English im deutschen Wortschatz, 1997, p. 18, as quoted in Onysko, 2007, p. 53: "words that look English, but which deviate from genuine English words either formally or semantically"
- Nicol Spence 1976, as quoted in Ayres-Bennett, 2014, p. 335
- Henrik Gottlieb, "Danish pseudo-Anglicisms: A corpus-based analysis", p. 65 in Furiassi 2015
- Broder Carstensen, "Euro-English", in Linguistics across historical and geographical boundaries: in honour of Jacek Fisiak..., 2, in Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 32, 1986, p. 831
- e.g., Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής s.v. σμόκιν
- http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/autostop/ «Autostop»
- Georgios Babiniotis, Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, 1998, s.v.
- Web site: SBL Herr. www.sblherr.se.
- https://en.pons.com/translate/bulgarian-english/%D0%BA%D1%8A%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3 PONS Online Dictionary
- https://en.pons.com/translate/russian-english/%D0%BA%D0%B5%CD%81%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3 PONS Online Dictionary
- https://en.pons.com/translate/polish-english/kemping PONS Online Dictionary
- Web site: Camping .
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=smoking smoking
- Web site: Smoking .
- Web site: Duden Smoking Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-08-13. www.duden.de. de.
- Oxford Paravia Italian Dictionary, 2001,, s.v.
- Gorlach, 2001, s.v.
- Web site: Search result for '원샷'. 2023-08-09.
- Web site: Search result for '핸드폰'. 2023-08-09.
- Web site: 8 words that look like English but actually aren't – ESL language studies abroad . 1 October 2019 . ESL Stories . 29 July 2021.
- Matthew Anderson, "The foreign words that seem like English – but aren't", BBC Culture 13 October 2016
- Collins le Robert French Dictionary, 11th ed., 2020, s.v. (usage note)
- Collins le Robert French Dictionary, 11th ed., 2020, s.v.
- Clyde Thogmartin, "Some 'English' Words in French", The French Review 57:4:447-455 (March 1984)
- http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/autogrill/ «Autogrill»
- http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/beauty-farm/ «Beauty farm»
- http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/tag/block-notes// «Bloc-Notes»
- Cristiano Furiassi, "How jolly is the joker? Problemi di traducibilità dei falsi anglicismi" in the Atti del 5° congresso di studi dell’Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata (AItLA). Bari, 17,18 febbraio 2005
- Web site: English Translation of "autobus" | Collins Italian-English Dictionary .
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=babylift babylift
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=butterfly butterfly
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=cottoncoat cottoncoat
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=cowboytoast cowboytoast
- https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/doorstep doorstep
- Web site: Legekøkken | Køb dit legetøjskøkken online her | Coop.dk. shopping.coop.dk.
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=monkeyclass monkeyclass
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=speedmarker speedmarker
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=stationcar stationcar
- https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=timemanager timemanager
- Web site: Beamer (LaTeX) . Vullers . Pim . 2012 . Radboud University . 2020-12-09.
- Web site: Box . etymologiebank.nl . 2024-06-12.
- Web site: Duden Homeoffice Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-08-13. www.duden.de. de.
- Web site: Duden Beamer Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-03-14. www.duden.de. de.
- Web site: German Pseudo-Anglicisms – Yabla German – Free German Lessons.
- Web site: Duden Funsport Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-08-13. www.duden.de. de.
- Web site: Handy ohne Vertrag: Angebote März 2023. www.sparhandy.de.
- Web site: Duden Jobticket Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-03-13. www.duden.de. de.
- Web site: Duden Trampen Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft. 2021-05-13. www.duden.de. de.
- Web site: hands . 2024-07-05. www.naob.no.
- Web site: Sixpence . 2022-09-18 . www.skittfiske.no.
- News: After work ett svenskt påhitt. Dagens Nyheter. 11 March 2015. 12 December 2015. Swedish.
- Web site: Topplistan Pocket – Akademibokhandeln. www.akademibokhandeln.se.
- Web site: dres. Słownik wyrazów obcych. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. 11 April 2012. Polish.
- Web site: Преимущества и недостатки дресс-кроссинга . 19 September 2015 .
- https://translate.academic.ru/страйкбол/en/ru/страйкбол «страйкбол»
- [:ru:Страйкбол|Страйкбол]
- Web site: 16 English Words and Sayings Travellers Won't Understand in the Philippines. Escalona. Katrina. 5 September 2017. theculturetrip.com. 7 January 2019.
- Web site: 21 'English Words' Yang Menyimpang Jauh Maksudnya Bila Orang Kita Guna Untuk Bersembang. Johari. Farouq. says.com.
- Web site: 9 perkataan English yang terpesong maknanya bila di-Melayukan. 13 August 2016. soscili.my. 5 September 2022.
- Web site: 10 Perkataan English Yang Telah Di Melayukan. Mat Salleh Pun Takkan Faham. Roslan. Rizmi. 18 January 2015. The Vocket.
- Web site: Kompasiana.com . 2012-09-05 . Istilah Bahasa Inggris Kreasi Orang Indonesia . 2023-12-11 . KOMPASIANA . id.
- Web site: Chucky . 2016-11-26 . 5 Kelmiet Li Taħsibhom Ingliżi Imma Mhumiex . 2024-02-24 . Lovin Malta . en-GB.