Less than four decades ago it was thought that there was no substratum influence on the English language spoken in America. It had been noted that the Indians gave a few words to English and that there were small "pocket" colonies formed by the Germans in south-eastern Pennsylvania, the French in south-eastern Louisiana, the Spaniards in the Southwest, and ethnic groups in the large cities. Only more recently have scholars begun to see the important role that the speakers of continental Germanic languages have had in forming the speech patterns of American English. More than fifteen million immigrants whose mother tongue was a Germanic language other than English have settled in what is now the North American Midland, Northern, and Canadian dialectal regions. These immigrants and their many offspring formed the major linguistic group for many towns and vast rural areas and were second to the English speaking group in most other cities and areas. Much research has already been done on the German linguistic influence in North America and the results are generally accepted by linguists today. This thesis will concentrate on the Scandinavian element which has been sorely neglected to this date. The methods used have been many. The first method was much of the nature of collecting curiosity items: during my two years as an English teacher and translator in Denmark, I collected those items which seemed common to Danish and North American. Later, sources concerning Germanic language influence in America were consulted. In addition, a study of the North American and British dialects was made. It should also be noted that continual contact with the Danish-Canadians in Vancouver was maintained. The mixing and interference of Danish and English here must be closely reminiscent of the language contact and interference in Minnesota one century ago. The problem involved was mainly that of separation of identity. An item might have found its source in German, Dutch, Yiddish, or an English dialect if not in a combination of any of the above. A further separation difficulty comes from the close historical affiliation of Danish and English and the previous mixing of Danish into English during the Viking era. There are minor influences from Danish in Northern American English phonology, morphology (mainly word-compounding), and syntax (with such cases as the attributive noun). The chief contributions can be found in idiomatic expressions formed from loan translations, loan shifts, and loan creations. Word frequency is also affected by the Scandinavian substratum as are personal names and place-names. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Our study deals mainly with two Quebec dictionaries: Dictionnaire nord-américain de la langue française which will be given the name the Bélisle (1979) and the Dictionnaire du français plus designated by the Plus (1988). We have concentrated on the words that the Bélisle (1979) accompanies with: 1- "X" designating the "anglicismes"; 2- "C" designating the "canadianismes"; 3- the "Fleur de Lys" designating the "mots folkloriques". Our goal is to see the changes that the Quebec dialect has undergone from the Bélisle (1979) to the Plus (1988) with regard to the three above categories: whether theses words still exist in the latter dictionary or not, and if so, under which of these categories, if any, they fall. In addition, we have consulted other Quebec dictionaries dating from 1880 to present. These consultations helped us determine, to a certain degree, the year an "anglicisme", a "canadianisme" or a "mot folklorique" was recorded in these dictionaries, signaling therefore their usage for the first time in the Quebec dialect. Our thesis is divided into three chapters: the first one deals with the "anglicismes", the second one with the "canadianismes" and the third one with the "mots folkloriques". Each chapter contains data of each three categories obtained from our consultations of the Bélisle (1979), the Plus (1988) and other Quebec dictionaries. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

The present study has been undertaken in order to create an informative presentation of the scope of French influence throughout the development of English. With this goal in mind a word list has been compiled and arranged by historical periods to show to what extent the language of each period has benefited from its borrowing.

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No description available.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

MER Mathivha Centre for African Languages, Arts and Culture / MA (Xitsonga)

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1954 W58 / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts