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Loanword integration : A case study of Kisbajom Romani

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2014

Abstract

The paper discusses a contact-induced change in the original pattern of loanword integration as well as in the original system of inflection of xenoclitic nouns in the Vend Romani dialect subgroup of the South Central dialect group. This innovative noun integration pattern is applied to recently borrowed Hungarian nouns.

The paper shows that certain inflectional forms of these loanwords, namely the accusative forms, deviate both from the original xenoclitic inflectional forms and from the corresponding inflectional forms in Hungarian. Thus, these loanwords are neither integrated into the original xenoclitic classes, nor do they involve borrowing the respective Hungarian nouns together with their inflectional suffixes.

In addition, the paper demonstrates that these nouns lack any adaptation whatsoever, whereby a new, Hungarian, stress pattern and phonetic realisation of certain phonemes is introduced into Vend Romani.