Lifashian: Difference between revisions

Moreover, loanwords are not evenly distributed in terms of frequency; all function words are native, inherited from Proto-Indo-European, as are many of the most commonly used words, so that the most basic forms of the language contain mostly native roots. However, very basic words are not always native, sometimes due to semantic drift that has caused loanwords to fit into the other meaning. Almost as a counterpoint to basic words being mostly inherited roots, nearly all Lifashians carry given names that are borrowed: most of them from Middle Persian, while Western names are typically borrowed through Medieval Greek or through Ligurian; Islamic theophoric names are borrowed from Arabic.

The most recent substantial layer of loanwords is from Russian, which includes most words that have entered the language in the 20th century. They are mostly modern concepts, such as ''haladilnik'' "fridge", ''milíciyá'' (Militia, police (until 2005)), ''poyist'' "train" (but ''kárbáné'', itself ultimately a loanword from Middle Persian, has been the preferred term since the 1960s, and virtually the only term after independence), ''tilivizar'' "TV set" (but note the calque ''lúrgiltá'', used for "television" as a medium or technology). However, a very large number of 20th century neologisms, and especially since Lifashian independence in 1991 (which has markedly influenced the language in the following decades due to the increasing Lifashian patriotism, as for the first time the Lifashian state is an independent country not ruled by any foreign power), has been composed of calques, often from Russian, Greek, or internationalisms. Some calques from Greek or internationalisms were already coined during the 19th century, as e.g. ''lámadánesy'' "ecology". Calques or semantic calques include ''syaselman'' (council, committee; coined in the 19th century as a calque of Greek ''συνέδριον''; later acquired the sense of “Soviet” as a semantic calque of Russian ''совет''); ''halhámor'' (update, calqued from French ''ajourner''), ''jámehtuwá'' (socialism); calques or partial calques from English are particularly common in words about computers and IT, such as ''píttorm'' “computer”, ''embentél'' “drive”, ''páwehiksy'' “firewall”, ''rakomíyás'' “digital”; sometimes, the new meanings have been added to preexisting words, as in the case of ''gort'' “file”, previously just “document” (itself one of the dubious Akkadian loans) or ''hesyow'' “account”, previously just “register”. In fact, it is extremely rare for new words to be borrowed, and not calqued or somehow adapted, into Lifashian.<br/>Some words introduced in recent years are actually loanwords: for example, the new Lifashian currency introduced in 2002 is the ''zenuíng'', named after the Genovino (Lig. ''zenoín''), an old Genoese coin, and its subdivision is the ''sódi'' (ultimately cognate with Italian ''soldo''); similarly, the Lifashian police reformed in 2005 is named ''dárigán'' after one of the court guard formations of the Sasanian Empire (despite modern Dár Lífasyám itself only being briefly – and negligibly - part of the Sasanian Empire).