Calque

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In linguistics, a calque (pronounced /kælk/) or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") or root-for-root translation.

For example, the common English phrase "flea market" is a phrase calque that literally translates the French "marché aux puces".[1]

Going in the other direction, from English to French, provides an example of how a compound word may be calqued by first breaking it down into its component roots. The French "gratte-ciel" is a word-coinage inspired by the model of the English "skyscraper" — "gratter" literally translates as "to scrape", and "ciel" translates as "sky".

Used as a verb, "to calque" means to loan-translate from another language so as to create a new lexeme in the target language.

"Calque" itself is a loanword from a French noun, and derives from the verb "calquer" (to trace, to copy).[2] Loan translation is itself a calque of the German "Lehnübersetzung".[3]

Proving a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than an untranslated loanword, since in some cases a similar phrase might have arisen in both languages independently. This is less likely to be the case when the grammar of the proposed calque is quite different from that of the language proposed to be borrowing, or the calque contains less obvious imagery.

[edit] English

[edit] From Chinese

[9][10][11]

[edit] From French

[edit] From German or Dutch

[edit] From Dutch

[edit] From German

[edit] From Hebrew

  • English scapegoat, a mistaken calque of Hebrew עזאזל (Azazel) as ez ozel ( literally, "the goat that departs"; hence "(e)scape goat". Mistranslation attributed to William Tyndale in his 1530 translation of the Bible. [43]
  • English eye for an eye calques Hebrew עין תחת עין, ayin tahat ayin

[edit] From Latin

  • English commonplace calques Latin locus commūnis (referring to a generally applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos[44]
  • English devil's advocate calques Latin advocātus diabolī, referring to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic Church[45]
  • English wisdom tooth calques Latin dēns sapientiae[46]
  • English Milky Way calques Latin via lactea, which is itself derived from the Greek root galaxias [γαλαξίας], meaning "milky."[47]
  • English Rest in Peace calques Latin requiescat in pace[48]
  • English in a nutshell calques Latin in nuce[49][50]

[edit] From Spanish

  • English blue-blood calques Spanish sangre azul[51]
  • English moment of truth calques Spanish el momento de la verdad, which refers to the time of the final sword thrust in a bullfight.[52]

[edit] From other languages

[edit] Latin

  • Latin compassio calques Greek sympathia "sympathy" (Latin: "suffering with", Greek: "suffering together")
  • Latin deus ex machina calques Greek apo mechanēs theos" (Latin: "god out of the machine", Greek: "out of the machine, god")
  • Latin insectus calques Greek entomos ("insect", from words meaning "to cut into" in the respective languages)[54]
  • Latin musculus "muscle" (= "common house mouse", literally "little mouse" from mus "mouse") calques Greek mys "muscle" (= "mouse")
  • Latin magnanimus calques Greek megalopsychos (from words meaning "great-souled" in the respective languages)[55]

[edit] Romance Languages

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Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:

  • French lune de miel, Catalan lluna de mel, Spanish luna de miel, Portuguese lua-de-mel, Italian luna di miele and Romanian luna de miere calque English honeymoon
  • French gratte-ciel, Catalan gratacels, Spanish rascacielos, Portuguese arranha-céus, Romanian zgârie-nori and Italian grattacielo calque English skyscraper
  • French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot
  • French jardin d'enfants, Spanish jardín de infancia and Portuguese Jardim de infância calque Garden of Infants/children, from German Kindergarten (children's garden)
  • Spanish baloncesto and Italian pallacanestro calque English "basketball"

[edit] French

  • French courriel (contraction of courrier électronique) calques English email (contraction of electronic mail)
  • French disque dur calques English hard disk
  • French bienvenue calques English welcome (as if 'well' + 'come'. Eng. 'welcome' is an alt. of O.E. willcyme, willcuma — desired arrival)[citation needed]
  • French carte mère calques English motherboard
  • French en ligne calques English online
  • French hors-ligne (literally: "out of line, off line") calques English offline
  • French haute résolution calques English high resolution
  • French disque compact calques English compact disc
  • French haute fidélité calques English hi-fi (high fidelity)
  • French large bande calques English broadband
  • French modulation de fréquence calques English frequency modulation (FM)
  • French média de masse calques English mass media
  • French surhomme calques German Übermensch (Nietzsche's concept)
  • French OVNI (Objet Volant Non Identifié) calques English UFO (Unidentified Flying Object)
  • In some dialects of French, the English term "weekend" becomes la fin de semaine ("the end of week"), a calque, but in some it is left untranslated as le week-end, a loanword.

[edit] Spanish

Many calques found in Southwestern US Spanish, come from English:

  • Spanish escuela alta calques English high school (secundaria or escuela secundaria in Standard Spanish)
  • Spanish grado (de escuela) calques English grade (in school) (nota in Standard Spanish)

See also: Spanglish.

Also technological terms calqued from English are used throughout the Spanish-speaking world:

  • Spanish tarjeta de crédito calques English credit card
  • Spanish alta tecnología calques English high technology
  • Spanish disco compacto calques English compact disc
  • Spanish correo electrónico calques English electronic mail
  • Spanish alta resolución calques English high resolution
  • Spanish enlace calques English link (Internet)
  • Spanish ratón calques English mouse (computer)
  • Spanish en un momento dado calques Dutch op een gegeven moment (At any given moment)[56]

[edit] Italian

  • Italian aria condizionata calques English air conditioned
  • Italian fine settimana calques English week-end
  • Italian ferrovia (railway) calques German Eisenbahn

[edit] Germanic Languages

 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006)

[edit] Afrikaans and Dutch

  • Afrikaans aartappel and Dutch aardappel calque French pomme de terre (English potato "earth apple")
  • Afrikaans besigheid calques English business
  • Afrikaans e-pos calques English e-mail
  • Afrikaans hardeskyf and Dutch harde schijf calque English hard disk
  • Afrikaans klankbaan calques English sound track
  • Afrikaans kleurskuifie calques English colour slide
  • Afrikaans pynappel calques English pineapple calques French pomme de pin
  • Afrikaans sleutelbord calques English keyboard
  • Afrikaans tuisblad calques English homepage
  • Afrikaans wolkekrabber and Dutch wolkenkrabber calque English skyscraper

[edit] German

[edit] Icelandic

  • Icelandic rafmagn, "electricity," is a half-calqued coinage that literally means "amber power."
    • raf translates the Greek root ηλεκτρον (elektron), which means "amber"
    • magn, "power," is descriptive of electricity's nature but not a direct calque from the source word "electricity"

[edit] Norwegian

  • barnehage (kindergarten) calques German Kindergarten (Kinder "children", Garten "garden").[57]
  • hjemmeside calques English home page.[58]
  • hjerneflukt (brain drain) calques English brain drain.[59]
  • idiotsikker (foolproof) calques English "foolproof".[60]
  • loppemarked (flea market) calcques English flea market and French marché aux puces ("market with fleas").[61]
  • mandag (Monday), from Old Norse mánadagr ("moon day") calques Latin dies lunae.[62] The name of every day of the week, except lørdag (Saturday), are loan-translations from Latin.
  • overhode (head of a family, chief) calques German Oberhaupt (ober "over", Haupt "head").[63]
  • samvittighet (conscience) calques Latin (through Low German) conscientia (com "with", scire "to know").[64]
    • From sam- (co-) and vittig (today meaning "funny" but which stems from Low German, where it meant "reasonable", related to "vite" (to know) and English "wit".)
  • tenåring (teen, teenager), is from Swedish tonåring, which calques English teenager.[65]

[edit] Swedish

  • skyskrapa calques skyscraper.

[edit] Slavic languages

 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources (ideally, using inline citations). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

[edit] Macedonian

  • Macedonian ракопис (rakopis) calques Latin-derived 'manuscript' and 'handwriting':
    • Mac. root рака (raka) = Lat. manus = 'hand'
    • Mac. root пис- (pis-) = Lat. scribo = 'to write'
  • Macedonian правопис (pravopis) calques Greek-derived 'orthography':
    • Mac. root право (pravo) = Gr. ορθός (orthos) = 'correct';
    • Mac. root пис- (pis-) = Gr. γράφειν (graphein) = 'to write'
  • Macedonian православие (pravoslavie) calques Greek-derived 'orthodoxy':
    • Mac. root право (pravo) = Gr. ορθός (orthos) = 'correct';
    • Mac. root славие (slavie) = Gr. δοξα (doxa) = 'glorification'

In more recent times, the Macedonian language has calqued new words from other prestige languages including German, French and English.

  • Macedonian натчовек (natčovek) = calques German-derived 'overman' (Übermensch)
    • Mac. root над- (nad-) = Ger. über = 'over'
    • Mac. root човек (čovek, man) = Ger. mensch = 'people'
  • Macedonian облакодер (oblakoder) = calques English skyscraper:
    • Mac. root облак (oblak, cloud)
    • Mac. root дере (dere, to flay)
  • Macedonian клучен збор (klučen zbor) = calques English keyword:
    • Mac. root клуч (kluč, key)
    • Mac. root збор (zbor, word)

Some words were originally calqued into Russian and then absorbed into Macedonian, considering the close relatedness of the two languages. Therefore, many of these calques can also be considered Russianisms.

[edit] Russian

The poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799–1837) was perhaps the most influential among the Russian literary figures who would transform the modern Russian language and vastly expand its ability to handle abstract and scientific concepts by importing the sophisticated vocabulary of Western intellectuals.

Although some Western vocabulary entered the language as loanwords — e.g., Italian salvietta, "napkin," was simply Russified in sound and spelling to салфетка (salfetka) — Pushkin and those he influenced most often preferred to render foreign borrowings into Russian by calquing. Compound words were broken down to their component roots, which were then translated piece-by-piece to their Slavic equivalents. But not all of the coinages caught on and became permanent additions to the lexicon; for example, любомудрие (ljubomudrie) was promoted by 19th-century Russian intellectuals as a calque of "philosophy," but the word eventually fell out of fashion, and modern Russian instead uses the loanword философия (filosofija).

  • Russian любомудрие (ljubomudrie) calqued Greek-derived 'philosophy':
    • Russ. root любить (ljubit' ) = Gr. φιλεῖν (filein) = 'to love';
    • Russ. root мудрость (mudrost' ) = Gr. σοφία (sofia) = 'wisdom'
  • Russian зависимость (zavisimost' ) calques Latin-derived 'dependence':
    • Russ. root за (za) = Lat. de = 'down from'
    • Russ. root висеть (viset' ) = Lat. pendere = 'to hang; to dangle'
  • Russian полуостров (poluostrov) calques German Halbinsel, both meaning 'peninsula':
    • Russ. root полу- (polu-) = Ger. halb = 'half; semi-'
    • Russ. root остров (ostrov) = Ger. Insel = 'island'
  • Russian детский сад (detskij sad) calques German Kindergarten, both literally suggesting 'children's garden'

[edit] Ukrainian

  • велике спасибі (velyke spasybi) calques Russian большое спасибо (bol'shoe spasibo), both literally "a big thank-you"[citation needed]

[edit] Greek

  • Διαδίκτυο from English Internet
  • Τηλεόραση from Television

[edit] Finnish

Since Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language, differs radically in pronunciation and orthography from Indo-European languages, most loans adopted in Finnish either are calques or soon become such as foreign words are translated into Finnish. Examples include:

  • from Greek: sarvikuono (rhinoceros, from Greek "rinokeros"),
  • from Latin: viisaudenhammas (wisdom tooth, from Latin "dens sapientiae"),
  • from English: jalkapallo (English "football", specifically referring to association football),
  • from English: koripallo (English "basketball"),
  • from English: kovalevy (English "hard disk"),
  • from French: kirpputori (flea market, French "marché aux puces"),
  • from German: lastentarha (German "Kindergarten"),
  • from German: panssarivaunu (German "Panzerwagen"),
  • from Swedish: moottoritie (highway, from Swedish "motorväg" and ultimately German "autobahn"),
  • from Chinese: aivopesu (brainwash, from Chinese "xi nao"),
  • from Spanish: siniverinen (blue-blooded, from Spanish "de sangre azul")

[edit] Hebrew

When Jews make an aliyah to Israel, they sometimes change their name to a Hebrew calque. For instance, Imi Lichtenfield, founder of the martial art Krav Maga, became Imi Sde-Or. Both last names mean "light field".

  • mesilat barzel (railway) from German Eisenbahn
  • iton (newspaper) from German and Yiddish zeitung
  • tappuach adamah (potato) from French pomme-de-terre
  • gan yeladim from German Kindergarten
  • kaduregel (כדורגל) (football, specifically association football) from English football

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b flea market. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  2. ^ calque. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  3. ^ Robb: German English Words germanenglishwords.com
  4. ^ brainwashing. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ long time no see: Information and Much More from Answers.com
  7. ^ lose face - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  8. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  9. ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No. 35 (1967), pp. 613–648. (In English; examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)
  10. ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No. 36 (1968), pp. 295–325. (In English; examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)
  11. ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No. 37 (1969), pp. 48–75. (In English; examples of loan words and calques in Chinese)
  12. ^ Adam's apple. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  13. ^ free verse. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  14. ^ old guard. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  15. ^ Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style — N
  16. ^ new wave. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  17. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  18. ^ Foreign Words. Fowler, H. W. 1908. The King's English
  19. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  20. ^ masterpiece. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Accessed 2008-11-17.
  21. ^ Plant Info O-R
  22. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  23. ^ antibody. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  24. ^ English in Europe by Manfred Görlach
  25. ^ beer garden. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  26. ^ concertmaster - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  27. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  28. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  29. ^ heldentenor - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  30. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  31. ^ loanword - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  32. ^ a b German Loan Words in English M-Z
  33. ^ superman. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  34. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  35. ^ standpoint. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  36. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  37. ^ storm trooper. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  38. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  39. ^ "thought experiment." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Accessed 2008-11-17.
  40. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  41. ^ worldview. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  42. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  43. ^ The Mavens' Word of the Day. January 28, 1997.
  44. ^ commonplace. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  45. ^ devil's advocate. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  46. ^ wisdom tooth. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  47. ^ Milky Way. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  48. ^ RIP. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  49. ^ in a nutshell - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  50. ^ Pliny VII.21
  51. ^ blue blood. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  52. ^ moment of truth. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  53. ^ gospel. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
  54. ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary
  55. ^ Arnold, Em. Prof. M.A. (1987). "Glossary of Anatomical Terms". http://medicalsciences.med.unsw.edu.au/somsweb.nsf/resources/histology02/$file/AnatomyGlossary2004_V2.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-02-24. 
  56. ^ Cruijff de film
  57. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker
  58. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker
  59. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker
  60. ^ Ordnett.no - Ordbok
  61. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker
  62. ^ Ordnett.no - Ordbok
  63. ^ Ordnett.no - Ordbok
  64. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker
  65. ^ Søk i elektroniske ordbøker

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque"
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