Re: Adding New Words

On 5/27/06, Michael Adams <abrigon@...> wrote:
> But the question is, how does one add to a language new terms?
> Adapt ones from the language that the term is from, such as
> Internet, Viruses, Worms and like, or create something from the
> rules of your conlang? Or something else? Like use your word for
> Worm for the concept of Worm and so on, or what?
The answer is "yes".

There are several ways to add new words, including borrowing the word
whole-sale (possibly mangling it to fit your language's phonology and
phonotactics), using a calque/loan translation, extending the meaning
of existing words, or making compounds from existing words but not (or
not explicitly) on the model of the source language.

I imagine that all languages use all of those to some extent, though
different languages will prefer different methods (for example,
English is often fairly free with borrowing words, whereas languages
such as Icelandic prefer to calque AIUI).

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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