In linguistics, a calque (pronounced /kælk/) or loan
translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another
language by literal, "word-for-word" (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") or root-for-root translation.
The common English phrase "flea market" is a
phrase calque that literally translates the French "marché aux puces" [2]
Going in the other direction, from English to French, provides an example of how a compound word may be calqued by first breaking it down into its component roots. The French "gratte-ciel" is a word-coinage inspired by the model of the English "skyscraper" — "gratter" literally translates "scrape", and "ciel" translates "sky".
Used as a verb, "to calque" means to loan-translate from
another language so as to create a new lexeme in the target
language.
"Calque" itself is a loanword from a French noun, and
derives from the verb "calquer" ("to copy"). [3] "Loan
translation" is itself a calque of the German "Lehnübersetzung". [4]
To prove that a word is a calque sometimes requires more documentation than an untranslated loanword, since in some cases it's
quite conceivable that a similar phrase could have arisen in both languages independently. This is less so when the grammar of
the proposed calque is quite different from that of the language proposed to be borrowing, or the calque contains less obvious
imagery.
English
From Chinese
[2][3][4]
From French
Teuto-Dutch
- English underwrite calques either Dutch onderschrift or German
unterschrift [16]
- English masterpiece calques either Dutch meesterstuk [17] or German
Meisterstück [18]
From Dutch
From German
From Latin
- English commonplace calques Latin locus commūnis (referring to a generally
applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos [49]
- English devil's advocate calques Latin advocātus diabolī, referring
to an official appointed to present arguments against a proposed canonization or beatification in the Catholic Church [50]
- English wisdom tooth calques Latin dēns sapientiae [51]
- English Milky Way calques Latin via lactea [52]
- English in a nutshell calques Latin in nuce [53]; see
Pliny
VII.21
- English Saturday partially calques Latin Diēs Saturnī day of Saturn [54][verification needed]
Note: the Latin planetary names, as found in the names of the weekdays, in turn calque the Greek names, which calque the
ancient Babylonian names (e.g. Friday, and the planet Venus, were named after Freia. See [55].)
From Spanish
- English blue-blood calques Spanish
sangre azul [56]
- English moment of truth calques Spanish el momento de la verdad which refers to the time
of the final sword thrust in a bullfight. [57]
From other languages
Latin
- Latin compassio calques Greek sympathia "sympathy" (Latin: "suffering with", Greek: "suffering together")
- Latin insectus calques Greek entomos
- Latin musculus "muscle" (= "common house mouse", literally "little mouse" from mus "mouse") calques Greek
mys "muscle" (= "mouse")
- Latin magnanimus calques Greek μεγαλοψυχος (megalopsuchos)
- Lat. root magnus = Gr. μεγαλος (megalos) = "great; large"
- Lat. root animus = Gr. ψυχη (psuchē) = "soul"[60]
Romance Languages
Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:
- French lune de miel, Catalan lluna de mel, Spanish luna de miel, Portuguese lua-de-mel, Italian
luna di miele abd Romanian luna de miere calque English honeymoon
- French gratte-ciel, Catalan gratacels, Spanish rascacielos, Portuguese arranha-céus and Italian
grattacielo calque English skyscraper
- French sabot de Denver calques English Denver boot
- French jardin d'enfants, Spanish jardín de infancia and Portuguese Jardim de infância calque Garden
of Infants/children, from German Kindergarten(children's garden)
French
- French courriel (contraction of courrier électronique) calques English email
(electronic mail)
- French disque dur calques English hard disk
- French en ligne calques English online
- French haute résolution calques English high resolution
- French disque compact calques English compact disc
- French haute fidélité calques English hi-fi (high fidelity)
- French large bande calques English broadband
- French modulation de fréquence calques English frequency
modulation (FM)
- French média de masse calques English mass media
- French surhomme calques German Übermensch (Nietzsche's concept)
- French OVNI (Objet Volant Non Identifié) calques English UFO (Unidentified Flying Object)
- In some dialects of French, the English term "weekend" becomes la fin de semaine
("the end of week"), a calque, but in some it is left untranslated as le week-end, a loanword.
Spanish
Many calques found in Southwestern US Spanish, come from English:
- Spanish escuela alta calques English high school (secundaria or
escuela secundaria in Standard Spanish)
- Spanish grado (de escuela) calques English grade (in
school) (nivel in Standard Spanish)
- Spanish colegio calques English college (universidad in Standard
Spanish; colegio, in standard Spanish, is synonymous with escuela and means school)
- Spanish librería calques English library (biblioteca in
Standard Spanish; librería in Standard Spanish means bookshop)
See also: Spanglish.
Also technological terms calqued from English are used throughout the Spanish-speaking world:
- Spanish tarjeta de crédito calques English credit card
- Spanish alta tecnología calques English high technology
- Spanish disco compacto calques English compact disc
- Spanish correo electrónico calques English electronic mail
- Spanish alta resolución calques English high resolution
- Spanish enlace calques English link (Internet)
- Spanish sitio web calques English web site
- Spanish página web calques English web page
- Spanish ratón calques English mouse (computer)
Germanic Languages
Afrikaans and Dutch
- Afrikaans aartappel and Dutch
aardappel calque French pomme de terre ("earth apple")
- Afrikaans besigheid calques English business
- Afrikaans e-pos calques English e-mail
- Afrikaans hardeskyf and Dutch harde schijf calque English hard disk
- Afrikaans klankbaan calques English sound track
- Afrikaans kleurskuifie calques English colour slide
- Afrikaans pynappel calques English pineapple calques French pomme de pin
- Afrikaans sleutelbord calques English keyboard
- Afrikaans tuisblad calques English homepage
- Afrikaans wolkekrabber and Dutch wolkenkrabber calque English skyscraper
German
- Fernsehen from "television"
- Fernsprecher from "telephone"
The latter, as well as the corresponding fernsprechen (verb: to [tele]phone [so.]), has been on the retreat in
recent years in favor of (orthographically normalized) Telefon.
Icelandic
- Icelandic rafmagn, "electricity," is a half-calqued coinage that literally means "amber power."
- raf translates the Greek root ηλεκτρον (elektron), which means "amber"
- magn, "power," is descriptive of electricity's nature but not a direct calque from the source word "electricity"
Slavic languages
Russian
The poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799 - 1837) was perhaps the most influential among the
Russian literary figures who would transform the modern Russian language and vastly expand its ability to handle abstract and
scientific concepts by importing the sophisticated vocabulary of Western intellectuals.
Although some Western vocabulary entered the language as loanwords -- e.g., Italian salvietta, "napkin," was simply
Russified in sound and spelling to салфетка (salfetka) -- Pushkin and those he influenced most often preferred to
render foreign borrowings into Russian by calquing. Compound words were broken down to their component roots, which were then
translated piece-by-piece to their Slavic equivalents. But not all of the coinages caught on and became permanent additions to
the lexicon; for example, любомудрие (ljubomudrie) was promoted by 19th-century Russian intellectuals as a calque
of "philosophy," but the word eventually fell out of fashion, and modern Russian instead uses the loanword философия
(filosofija).
- Russian любомудрие (ljubomudrie) calqued Greek-derived "philosophy":
- Russ. root любить (ljubit' ) = Gr. φιλειν (filein) = "to love";
- Russ. root мудрость (mudrost' ) = Gr. σοφία (sofia) = "wisdom"
- Russian зависимость (zavisimost' ) calques Latin-derived "dependence":
- Russ. root за (za) = Lat. de = "down from"
- Russ. root висеть (viset' ) = Lat. pendere = "to hang; to dangle"
- Russian полуостров (poluostrov) calques German Halbinsel, both meaning "peninsula":
- Russ. root полу- (polu-) = Ger. halb = "half; semi-"
- Russ. root остров (ostrov) = Ger. Insel = "island"
- Russian детский сад (detskij sad) calques German Kindergarten, both literally suggesting "children's
garden"
Ukrainian
- велике спасибі (velyke spasybi) calques Russian большое спасибо (bol'shoe spasibo), both
literally "a big thank-you"
- необхідний (neobkhidnyj) calques Russian необходимый (neobkhodimyj), both meaning
"necessary"
Finnish
- Germanic passive agent marker — There is no passive voice in Finnish, but an
impersonal, where the agent is never mentioned. Due to the influence of Germanic
languages, the word toimesta "from the action" has been constructed in order to mention the agent, i.e. to function
like the word "by". (It is impossible to translate the word "by" itself, because there is no direct equivalent.) For example,
"Lentokonetta lennetään ohjaajan toimesta", approximately "The plane is being flown, from the action of the pilot." This is
grammatically incorrect, but used abundantly in legal documents and sloppy translations.[citation needed]
- Swedish future marker kommer att or German werden calqued as tulla
+ (verb in third infinitive illative) — There is no future tense in Finnish, and the calque is produced by translation from Swedish and German. Note that the
verb tulla takes up the inflection, and is to be placed into the appropriate tense and person. The calque corresponds to
English "is going". For example, tullaan muuttamaan "is going to be changed". This is considered incorrect grammar, but
perfectly understandable and found in translations, political speech and even in legal documents..[citation needed]
- English you-impersonal calqued; e.g. sä et elä jos sä et syö is word-for-word "you don't live if you don't
eat", unlike the native Syömättä ei elä. Note that this phenomenon is not always traceable to English. Here contraction
sä of spoken language is used instead of the sinä of written language..[citation needed]
Since Finnish, a Finno-Ugric language, differs radically in pronunciation and
orthography from Indo-European languages, most loans adopted in Finnish either are calques or soon become such.[citation needed] Examples include:
- from Greek: sarvikuono (rhinoceros, from Greek "rinokeros"),
- from Latin: viisaudenhammas (wisdom tooth, from Latin "dens sapientiae"),
- from English: kovalevy (English "hard disk"),
- from French: kirpputori (flea market, French "marché aux puces"),
- from German: lastentarha (German "Kindergarten"),
- from German: panssarivaunu (German "Panzerwagen"),
- from Swedish: moottoritie (highway, from Swedish "motorväg"),
- from Chinese: aivopesu (brainwash, from Chinese "xi nao"),
- from Spanish: siniverinen (blue-blooded, from Spanish "de sangre azul")
Hebrew
When Jews make an aliyah to Israel, they sometimes change their name to a Hebrew calque. For instance, Imi Lichtenfield,
founder of the martial art Krav Maga, became Imi Sde-Or. Both last names mean "light
field".
- tappuach adamah (potato) from French pomme-de-terre
- gan yeladim from German Kindergarten
- chashmal for "electricity" from Greek ēlektron (amber)
See also
References
- ^ However, Online Etymology
Dictionary says that the phrase is "imitative of Amer[ican] Indian
speech" and dates to 1900. [1]
- ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and
Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.35 (1967), pp.613-648. (In English; examples of loan
words and calques in Chinese)
- ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and
Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.36 (1968), pp.295-325. (In English; examples of loan
words and calques in Chinese)
- ^ Novotná, Z., "Contributions to the Study of Loan-Words and
Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese", Archiv Orientalni, (Prague), No.37 (1969), pp.48-75. (In English; examples of loan words
and calques in Chinese)
External links
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