Graphic loans: East Asia and beyond

What is it about?

The paper deals with the type of loanword phenomenon known as the 'graphic loan', whereby a word is borrowed not through its pronunciation (a 'phonological/phonetic loan') but through the way that it is written. As a systematic phenomenon, the graphic loan is best known in the case of borrowing between East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese) through their shared use of Chinese characters. For example the native Japanese hiki-watashi 'extradition' is written in Chinese characters as 引渡, borrowed in its written form into Korean, Chinese and from Chinese into Vietnamese but 'read' in a completely different manner, realized respectively as indo, yindu and dẫn-độ. The East Asian phenomenon is discussed and illustrated, and then the concepts and processes defined in the paper are then applied to the borrowing between languages that use other forms of writing system such as English and the alphabet.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The paper does three things: (1.) It treats the phenomenon of graphic loans in a pan-East Asian perspective, considering the process between Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, rather than just the usual two-language perspective. (2.) It proposes and illustrates mechanisms to explain the graphic loan and phonological loan processes. (3.) It argues that most borrowing between modern literate societies, including in the English-speaking world, are in fact graphic not phonological loans.