Accents in Linguistic Borrowing of English Personal Names in Izá»n

Abstract

With the influence of globalization, linguistic borrowing is inevitable. Language contact which is the bedrock of linguistic borrowing stands like a colossus. The phenomenon of borrowing personal names has had a long tradition in the Izá»n culture. Many names of foreign origin have been present in the area for a long time. Some of these names have been adapted and nativized for a period of time. In recent borrowings, the foreign forms undergo some adaptation but show the tendency to resist complete adaptation, particularly in terms of spelling and pronunciation. Such pragmatically borrowed items carry significant sociolinguistic signal about the borrowers’ attitude. This paper seeks to investigate the extent of borrowed English personal names in Izá»n and the accent with which they are pronounced. It also seeks to find out if the accent of the borrower reflects class or not. The research instrument adopted in this paper is interview. The study is rooted in Thomason & Kaufman’s integrated theory of language contact. The findings reveal that English names are enjoying a certain popularity, with increasing tendency amongst the Izons in UAT and that the influence of the Izon language seems to contribute to the observed accents. The study concludes that accents are endemic as evident from the data.