Lifashian: Difference between revisions

The share of loanwords is not uniform in the Lifashian vocabulary. First of all, the vast majority of borrowed words in any stage of the language are nouns, and the number of borrowed adjectives with no corresponding noun, while not small on its own, is far smaller. Borrowed verbs are a very small number, and nearly all of them are formed through the suffix ''-íy-'' that also served to form verbs from other parts of speech. Note that in more recent times (from the 18th century onwards), nearly all new verbs that have entered Lifashian are compound verbs, and new compound verbs have also displaced full verbs; the verbal part of compound verbs, which contributes little meaning of its own, is nearly always a native Lifashian (PIE-inherited) root. The only very common Lifashian verbs which are loanwords and do not have the ''-íy-'' suffix are ''gurémi'' (I write) and ''sirémi'' (I like), both loanwords from Armenian.

Dating back to the first millennium CE are also likely most Armenian loans, which also cover many semantic fields, but more everyday words than Persian loans; they include the previously mentioned ''gurémi'' "to write" and ''sirémi'' "to like", but also e.g. ''órén'' "rule; law", ''tatum'' "pumpkin", ''tulay'' "boy", ''yo'' "yes", ''hamár'' "number". Also from the early first millennium (around the time of the earliest attestations of Lifashian) are the Aramaic loans, introduced alongside Syriac Christianity and generally limited to that semantic field, such as ''hettá'' "Church; a church", ''násrey'' "Christian", ''mahmolítá'' "baptism", ''sów'' "priest", ''Esyuh Misyihów'' "Jesus Christ"; there are also a few Aramaic loans not strictly related to Christianity, such as ''lap'' "paper".

Greek loanwords belong to two layers: a smaller, earlier one with more varied semantic fields (''kawnás'' "blue", ''ninfá'' "woman", ''falem'' "room", ''istíryás'' "rigid") and a later one, generally used in scientific terms.<br/>During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era, during Genoese rule, various Ligurian terms entered the Lifashian language: many of these relate to administration or commerce (''paláng'' "money", ''dyugangá'' "customs", ''bitégá'' "shop", ''pázyi'' "government palace"), nautical terms (''rutá'' "route", ''lengtarná'' "lighthouse", ''istíwá'' "hold"), but also a few general words (''jastémá'' "blasphemy", ''lélwá'' "ivy", ''dupostás'' "indigenous", ''mangdili'' "handkerchief") as well as certain foodstuffs, although these were probably introduced later, from the Ligurians settled on the Lifashian coast (''tuki'' "sauce", ''sézyá'' "cherry", ''fyugasá'' "(Genoese) focaccia").

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 ''halajilnik'' "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), ''ciliwizar'' "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/>The post-independence preference for calques has also influenced older loanwords, leading to the coining of alternatives to many Greek, Arabic and Russian loanwords, as e.g. ''farbolnam'' for "protest" instead of the Arabic loan ''ehterázi'' or ''jiyálan'' for "fridge" instead of the previously mentioned ''halajilnik''.<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).