Calque

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In linguistics, a calque (pronounced /kælk/) or loan translation is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation. For example, 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. "Loan translation" is itself a calque of German Lehnübersetzung.

The word is also used as a verb: to calque means to loan translate from another language to create a new lexeme in the target language. Calque itself is a loanword (French noun) and comes from the verb calquer (copier), "to copy."

Contents

English

Calques from Chinese

English look-see calques Chinese 看見 or 睇見 (via pidgin English)
English brainwashing calques 洗腦/洗脑 (via U.S. military during Korean War)

Calques from French

English bushmeat calques French viande de brousse
English Governor-General calques French Gouverneur Général
English free verse calques French vers libre
English old guard calques French Vieille Garde (the imperial guard of Napoleon I)
English flea market calques French marché aux puces
English marriage of convenience calques French mariage de convenance (19th century form for mariage d'intérêt)
English Freemasonry or french masonry calques French Franc-maçonnerie
English Grand Lodge calques French Grande Loge
English merciless calques French sans pitié
English in his/her prime (in the early days) calques French dans sa primeur
English by heart (or Off by heart) calques French par cœur
English sacred heart (Jesus' devotion) calques French sacré-cœur
English in the vanguard (pioneering or being first in line) calques French à l'avant-garde
English New Wave (artistic period) calques French Nouvelle Vague

Calques from German

English Overman or Superman calques German Übermensch
English standpoint calques German Standpunkt
English worldview calques German Weltanschauung
English antibody calques German Antikörper
English thought experiment calques German Gedankenexperiment
English beer garden calques German Biergarten
English yea-sayer calques German Jasager, and gave rise to "yes man".
English liver sausage calques German Leberwurst
English kindergarden calques German Kindergarten

Calques from Italian

English side-sword calques Italian spada da lato, referring to a versatile one-handed sword of 16th and 17th century Europe.

Calques from Latin

English commonplace calques Latin locus commūnis (referring to a generally applicable literary passage), which itself is a calque of Greek koinos topos
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
English dog days calques Latin diēs canīculāris
English wisdom tooth calques Latin dēns sapientiae
English vicious circle calques Latin circulus vitiōsus
English Milky Way calques Latin via lactea
English in a nutshell calques Latin in nuce
English foot in the sense of a unit of metrical verse (e.g. in the fourth foot of the verse...) calques Latin pes which is used in both senses; the transferred use in Latin is itself a calque on Greek pous.
English Adam's apple calques Latin pomum Adami

Calques from Greek

English gospel calques Greek euangelion (good news)

Calques from Spanish

English blue-blood calques Spanish sangre azul
English moment of truth calques Spanish el momento de la verdad. This originally referred to the time of the final sword-thrust in a bullfight.

Calques from Gaelic

English the Plough (Ursa Major) calques Irish An Crann
English High King calques Scottish and Irish Gaelic ''Ard Ri/Ard Righ

Latin

Latin compassio calques Greek sympathy (lat: suffering with, gre: suffering together)
Latin insectus calques Greek entomos

Romance Languages

Examples of Romance language expressions calqued from foreign languages include:

French lune de miel, Spanish luna de miel and Portuguese lua-de-mel calque English honeymoon
French gratte-ciel, Spanish rascacielos and Portuguese arranha-céus 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 German Kindergarten

French

French ordinateur personnel calques English personal computer (PC)
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 carnet de route calques English roadbook (unless it is the opposite)
French surhomme calques German Übermensch (Nietzsche's concept)

Spanish

Many calques found in Spanish, especially in Southwestern Spanish or Spanish of the United States, come from English:

Spanish escuela alta calques English high school (colegio or escuela secundaria in Standard Spanish)
Spanish grado (de escuela) calques English grade (school) (nivel in Standard Spanish)
Spanish colegio calques English college (universidad in Standard Spanish)
Spanish librería calques English library (biblioteca in Standard Spanish; librería in Standard Spanish means bookshop)

Afrikaans and Dutch

Afrikaans aartappel and Dutch aardappel calque French pomme de terre
Afrikaans hardeskyf and Dutch harde schijf calque English hard disk
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

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.
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.
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.

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. 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")

Russian

from French: влияние (French "influence")
from French: впечатление (impression)
from Latin: насекомое (insect, from Latin "insectum")
from German: полуостров (peninsula, from German "Halbinsel")
from French: трогать (verb "touch" as semantic calque in meaning of "touching the emotions")
from Latin: современный (contemporary, from Latin "contemporarius")

Ukrainian

from Russian: велике спасибі "velyke spasybi" (a big thank you, Russian большое спасибо "bol'shoe spasibo")
from Russian: необхідний "neobxidnyj" (necessary, Russian необходимый "neobxodimyj")

References

Novotnà, 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)
Novotnà, 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)
Novotnà, 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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