Linguistic Borrowing as a Source of Language Enrichment in a GlobalisedWorld: 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.