English Loanwords as Lexical Enrichment to the Erei Language
Keywords:
English loanwords, lexical enrichment, noun class, linguistic borrowing, Erei languageAbstract
Erei is a generic name for the language and people. It belongs to the Niger-Congo phylum of languages, and it is spoken predominantly by the Erei people in Biase Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The paper examines English loanwords, particularly English nouns, as lexical enrichment to Erei. The study adopts Einar Haugen’s (1950) Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing Model as the appropriate theoretical framework. This model is considered because it considers borrowings which are analyzable into word classes as a universal characteristic of languages. Data for the study were obtained using participant (speech) observation, direct interaction with Erei native speakers in their naturally occurring speech events, and other secondary sources. The findings reveal that Erei borrows massively from English lexicons, especially of the noun class (proper, countable, uncountable and collective nouns) which are influenced by the Christian religion, sociolinguistic and cultural, technological and phonological factors believed to facilitate the adoption, adaptation, modification and integration of the loans into the Erei vocabulary. There is the need, therefore, for the gradual development and review of Erei corpus to accommodate new developments.
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