Dutch has borrowed all kinds of words from other languages, but the other way around, Dutch has also borrowed words. The Loan Word Bank contains more than 18,000 'loan words'. With this new application, you as a visitor can map out words and word fields yourself, giving you a quick insight into the language contact history of Dutch.
The Lending Word Bank, which has been online since December 2015, is based on a book by Nicoline van der Sijs from 2010. But the database has great added value, says Van der Sijs:“There are even more words in it. By first making an overview of the existing words, we could see where there were still gaps. If a word appeared in Swedish and Danish but not in Norwegian, we checked whether it might have been the case. As a result, we now have an even more complete overview. And an entire application has been built around it, so that you have all kinds of search options and can visualize the results in different ways.”
This application was developed by Sara Budts, who studied linguistics at the University of Leuven, followed by a specialization in Artificial Intelligence. She is currently doing PhD research at the University of Antwerp. Although Budts had never been involved with loanwords before, she quickly became fascinated by the subject:“People are usually aware that Dutch has borrowed words from other languages. But it is much less known that Dutch has also lent words. Those words provide a lot of insight into the cultural-historical relationships between areas.”
Mill, mula and mölla
The website serves both scientists and interested parties. For the latter group, Budts designed a simple search menu. Here you can enter a Dutch word, for example molen, and then you will see that this has been lent to Swedish, among others, as mölla. Indonesian has molen and Virgin Islands Creole English mula .
Not only direct, but also indirect borrowings are included. These are words that have ended up in a third language through a second language. Those words are indicated in the cards with arrows. Budts:“The Dutch word stabbing is in French etiquette become and in English ticket. Then you see languages like German that both label if ticket have derived, both come from the same Dutch word.”
Indonesian and Surinamese
In addition to individual words, some languages have adopted multiple words from a very specific part of the vocabulary. In the lending dictionary they are referred to as 'word fields'. Russian is a well-known example, with many Dutch words from shipping. “And Japanese has again taken over many scientific words from us,” explains Van der Sijs.
But Dutch has lent most of the words to Indonesian, because that language has words from different domains:both from the home-garden-and-kitchen sphere and all kinds of scientific terms. “Some of those words, in turn, Dutch first borrowed from another language. Like the word 'shop window':we got it from French, and Indonesian got it from us again." And quite a few words have also ended up in our neighboring languages, Van der Sijs knows:“The exchange mainly took place in the border area. That is why they are often dialect words.”
Incidentally, the number of loan words per language is not always complete. After all, which words are included depends on the state of research in that language, adds Van der Sijs. “I personally find the area of South and Central America very interesting:Suriname, the Antilles. The Dutch have lived in this area for a long time, and everyone here has always been multilingual, which has resulted in all kinds of contact languages. But many of those languages are very poorly described. For example, I do have a very small travel guide, but that's it. Hopefully there will be more research into these languages.”
Oldest loanwords
What are the oldest loanwords we know? Van der Sijs:“The oldest French text containing recognizable Dutch loanwords is the Vie de Saint Alexis from 1050, which describes in verse the life of Saint Alexius, who lived in the fifth century. This includes, for example:inn (héberge ), eunuch (chambellan ) and rich (riche ).”
“Another ancient and important source dates back to 1080:it is the famous epic Chanson de Roland. It tells of the defeat Charlemagne suffered in 778 at Roncevaux in Navarre in his battle against the Basques, and how Roland, Margrave of Brittany and nephew of Charlemagne, died in a rearguard action. It contains many more Dutch loanwords, such as:helmet 'headgear' (heaume ); to sneer 'taunt' (honnir ), spy 'watch out' (épier ), folding chair 'folding chair' (armchair ) and hall (salle ).”
Towards each other
Van der Sijs has been dealing with loanwords for a long time. Her first publication, from 1996, was a thick book about loanwords in Dutch. What makes loanwords so interesting to her anyway? “Loanwords are a result of social interaction between people. The way words circulate says a lot about our relationships. What I also find interesting is that there are large layers of loanwords in Europe, which means that a lot of vocabulary corresponds to each other. Just listen to an Albanian TV show. You don't understand it until they suddenly democratia and politia call. The languages are growing closer to each other, as it were.”