Method
Anglicisation (linguistics)
Overview
In linguistics, anglicisation or anglicization is the practice of modifying foreign words, names, and phrases to make them easier to spell, pronounce, or understand in English. The term commonly refers to the respelling of foreign words or loan words in English, often to a more drastic degree than that implied in, for example, romanisation. One instance is the word "dandelion", modified from the French dent-de-lion ("lion's tooth", a reference to the plant's sharply indented leaves). The term can also refer to phonological adaptation without spelling change: for example, pasta (pronounced [ˈpasta] in Italian) is accepted in English with Italian spelling, but anglicised phonetically in being pronounced in American English and in British English. The anglicisation of non-English words for use in English is just one case of the more widespread domestication of foreign words that is a feature of many languages, sometimes involving shifts in meaning. The term does not cover the unmodified adoption of foreign words into English (e.g. kindergarten) or the unmodified adoption of English words into foreign languages (e.g. internet, computer, web).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
This process of composition is sometimes found in its incipient stage—a stage in which the component words are temporarily united to signify some unnamed object, and do not (from lack of frequent use) permanently cohere. But in the majority of inferior languages, the process of “agglutination,” as it is called, has gone far enough to produce considerable stability in the compound words: there is a manifest…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
States what Anglicisation is.
Secondly, this simplification of the principles of languages renders them less agreeable to the ear. The variety of termination in the Greek and Latin, occasioned by their declensions and conjugations, give a sweetness to their language altogether unknown to ours, and a variety unknown to any other modern language. In point of sweetness, the Italian, perhaps, may surpass the Latin, and almost equal the Greek; but in…
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
States what Anglicisation is.
This tendency is world-wide, but naturally it has advanced in America. In a more or less authoritative book published by the Children’s Foundation,[1] I find some remarks on the teaching of English which seem to exemplify the tendency I deplore. For example: “Twenty-five years ago pupils learnt from ten to fifteen thousand words, but as a result of investigations carried on during the past two decades, it has been…
Bertrand Russell, Education and the good life
States what Anglicisation is.
Related ideas
- Florence
- Japan
- American English
- Phonology
- Old French
- Nicolaus Copernicus
- Madrid
- British English
- Article (grammar)
- Amsterdam
- SUNY Press
Place in the tradition
Part of Śramaṇa.
Explore Anglicisation (linguistics) in the interactive graph →