Borrowings constitute an interesting and expanding part of the lexicon of informal American English. These foreign-origin expressions, comprising both slang and colloquialism, are firmly entrenched in the fabric of American vernacular, reflecting the immigrant character of the country and the prominent role of ethnic minorities, with increased use among larger segments of society. Surprisingly, despite the growing importance of this type of vocabulary, there has been a perceptible paucity of publications on the subject. While there are numerous excellent books on borrowings (see, for instance, Durkin Reference Durkin2014; Matras Reference Matras2009; or Winford Reference Winford2003) and a few on informal language (see Coleman Reference Coleman2012; Eble Reference Eble1996; or Green Reference Green2016), they mention informal borrowings merely in passing, if at all. As a result, there has been a growing need for an informative, scholarly book describing this subset of the English lexicon. Dr. Kowalczyk's pioneering monograph succeeds admirably in fulfilling this need: the book provides a comprehensive, multi-leveled description of informal borrowings, illustrated with a multitude of contextual usage examples; it can also serve as a practical reference thanks to its massive glossary. Combining scholarship with user-friendliness, it will be of interest to scholars and students of linguistics – especially sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, and contact linguistics – as well as to anyone interested in the lexicon of contemporary English.
Let us review the book's contents. Chapter One, Foundations, presents an overview of the literature and the research methodology involving the scope, collection, and description of data. Noteworthy is the strong reliance on authentic lexical material which serves as the basis for description. The data comes from diverse contemporary sources (most of them less than a decade old), such as the press, film, TV, conversation, and social media, an approach widely used in slang lexicography (see Chapman Reference Chapman1986; Lighter Reference Lighter1994; or Thorne Reference Thorne1990). Chapter Two, Terms, discusses linguistic nomenclature including the titular borrowings and informal language, as well as numerous terms related to or confused with them. The discussion on slang and colloquialism – two terms notoriously misunderstood – will be particularly valuable for educators and students, as will be precise and quotable definitions. Chapter Three, Donors, classifies informal borrowings according to their source languages. Predictably, the classification starts with Spanish and Yiddish, which have contributed the most expressions, followed by German, Italian, French and numerous lesser donors such as Arabic and Chinese; it also features several surprises including pseudo-borrowings. Chapter Four, Types, views the subject from diverse typological perspectives such as borrowed material, part of speech, assimilation, modification, frequency, and introduces novel categories such as register and impact. Chapter Five, Changes, analyzes modifications borrowings have undergone when adapted into the linguistic system of American English. These feature phonological, orthographical, morphological, semantic, grammatical and stylistic changes. Chapter Six, Functions, discusses the motives for using informal borrowings and presents their referential, social, psychological, rhetorical, and cultural functions, including appropriation and stylization. Chapter Seven, Themes, overviews the lexical fields of informal borrowings. The ‘core’ themes, making up the majority of expressions, include evaluative categorization, human body, sexuality, and intoxication, while culture-specific themes contain such themes as minority experiences and racial inequality. All in all, the overview features as many as 150 various themes; their diversity and size are quite telling in themselves and illustrate the vast thematic scope of informal borrowings.
An integral part of the book is the alphabetical Glossary, forming half of the contents. Aside from serving as a quick reference, its main purpose is to document and define the entire collection of informal borrowings, many of which have been featured as illustrations in the main text of this book. The glossary lists 1,200 entries; each contains grammatical identification, usage labels, a definition, an abbreviated bibliographical reference, two contextual examples with clearly identified sources and dates, as well as dating and etymological information. Because of its large size and in-depth description, the glossary can easily stand as a dictionary in its own right. To offer a glimpse into its contents, here is a selection of headwords (their source languages are given in parentheses): amigo (Spanish), bimbo (Italian), boondocks (Tagalog), bupkis (Yiddish), capeesh (Italian), chow (Chinese), cojones (Spanish), dope (Dutch), ese (Spanish), farkakte (Yiddish), finito (Italian), fink (German), gams (French), ganja (Hindi), get schlonged (Yiddish), gringo (Spanish), gung-ho (Chinese), halal (Arabic), hot chihuahua (Spanish), honcho (Japanese), huevos (Spanish), jive (Wolof), kahuna (Hawaiian), keister (German), klutz (Yiddish), kosher (Yiddish), lingo (Portuguese), liquidate (Russian), loco (Spanish), macho (Spanish), mack (French), maven (Yiddish), mierda (Spanish), migra (Spanish), moi (French), nookie (Dutch), nosh (Yiddish), pal (Romany), pendejo (Spanish), phony (Irish Gaelic), pinche (Spanish), plata (Spanish), plonk (French), puta (Spanish), quack (Dutch), sans (French), savvy (Spanish), schlep (Yiddish), schlocky (Yiddish), schmuck (Yiddish), shtick (Yiddish), skosh (Japanese), smithereens (Irish Gaelic), snoop (Dutch), spiel (Yiddish), turistas (Spanish), tush (Yiddish), ubersexy (German), vato (Spanish), verboten (German), yalla (Arabic), and zaftig (Yiddish).
The book is unique in several ways. It is probably the first scholarly monograph that brings together borrowings and informal language. It discusses borrowings from numerous languages and perspectives rather than focusing on a single language or a single viewpoint. It is based on a handpicked collection of citations from as many as 1,700 different sources. It features an engaging layout of presentation: throughout the text, all linguistic patterns are illustrated by clearly marked blocks of usage examples, with each example including a bracketed definition immediately following the borrowing, an ingenious system of describing informal vocabulary, especially useful for non-native speakers of English (see also Widawski Reference Widawski2015). Finally, while it is aimed primarily at linguists, the book is written in a manner that is also suited to the general readership. Its user-friendliness and practicality can be seen in the straightforward organization of its contents including chapter outlines and summaries, in its illustrative use of citational examples, in its comprehensive glossary, in the extensive index, and in the avoidance of jargon, and excessive linguistic nomenclature.
To sum it up, this is an informative and substantive book which will, no doubt, be useful to professionals and the general public alike. The former will value its solid foundations and comprehensive description; the latter will appreciate its practicality and readability. Granted, the book will likely disappoint language statisticians as it features few numerical data and lacks any graphs or tables; it would certainly benefit from adding more quantitative information to support the description. However, statistics can be tricky when it comes to informal language, much of which relies on figuration, something yet inadequately handled by computers (see Stefanowitch and Gries Reference Stefanowitch and Gries2007, 1–4). The book will also disappoint theoretical linguists as it does not propose any theory. But then, it is designedly non-theoretical, having a clearly descriptive and educational orientation instead. And in that respect, it delivers aplenty.
MACIEJ WIDAWSKI is Full Professor of English Linguistics at Merito University in Gdansk, Poland. He has studied informal language since the early 1990s, conducting research at such academic centers as the University of California Berkeley and the University of Tennessee. His numerous book publications include Yinglish (Gdansk University Press 2012), The Dictionary of Spanish Loanwords in American Slang (Gdansk University Press 2015) and African American Slang: A Linguistic Description (Cambridge University Press 2019). Email: [email protected]
