Linguistic Borrowing as a Source of Language Enrichment in a Globalised World: A Case of Etuno Language

Abstract

Globalisation represents greater interconnectedness among global populations. It is the process by which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of massively increased trade and cultural exchange. It is a social, cultural, political and legal phenomenon. Culturally, globalisation represents the exchange of ideas and values among cultures. Cultural contact is one major phenomenon of globalisation, and language, being an integral part of culture is not left out. When two cultures come in contact, the commonest occurrence is exchange of ideas and items, as well as the language with which to express them. Globalisation has paved way for exposure and innovation to developing nations; hence, it has had positive effects in the people’s culture, language and standard of living. This paper is a study of linguistic borrowing as a phenomenon of all languages and as a source of enrichment to the borrower language. The researcher uses her mother tongue, the Etuno Language, as a case study to do a documentation of English words which have been assimilated into the language. The data for discussion is information elicited from wordlists retrieved from speakers of the Etuno Language. The analysis is based on the morpho-phonemic and ethnolinguistic approaches. The findings show that the Etuno Language is a large linguistic borrower. The study reveals that there are many English words that have been adopted into the Etuno Language and that in the course of nativising these loan words, they experience adjustments in line with the morpho-phonemic rules of the Etuno Language. The study establishes that these loan words have enriched the vocabulary of the Etuno Language.