<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The mere appearance of a foreign word does not necessarily mark the birth of a loanword, which requires documented usage by the speech community. Relatively little research has been dedicated so far to the “prenatal” stage that would investigate the tentative infiltration of foreign-derived words. <italic>Nyet</italic>, a borrowing from Russian, is taken as a case in point. Although its first recorded instance in the <italic>Oxford English Dictionary</italic> (OED3) is dated to 1928, it had been increasingly recognized in English for several decades. This article focuses on textual attestations for <italic>nyet</italic> discovered in a range of digital resources, including British and American newspaper archives, and discusses their usefulness as potential antedatings for OED3’s entry.</p>
</abstract>

The mere appearance of a foreign word does not necessarily mark the birth of a loanword, which requires documented usage by the speech community. Relatively little research has been dedicated so far to the “prenatal” stage that would investigate the tentative infiltration of foreign-derived words. Nyet, a borrowing from Russian, is taken as a case in point. Although its first recorded instance in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED3) is dated to 1928, it had been increasingly recognized in English for several decades. This article focuses on textual attestations for nyet discovered in a range of digital resources, including British and American newspaper archives, and discusses their usefulness as potential antedatings for OED3’s entry.

Lexical Borrowing in the Light of Digital Resources: <italic>Nyet</italic> as a Case Study

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Lexical Borrowing in the Light of Digital Resources:  as a Case Study

The mere appearance of a foreign word does not necessarily mark the birth of a loanword, which requires documented usage by the speech community. Relatively...

Lexical Borrowing in the Light of Digital Resources: Nyet as a Case Study

Published Online: Feb 12, 2022

Page range: 121 - 147

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2021-0019

Keywords
OED3, loanword, Russian, citation, antedating, British English, American English, digital resources

© 2021 Mirosława Podhajecka, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Lexical Borrowing in the Light of Digital Resources: Nyet as a Case Study

Published Online: Feb 12, 2022

Page range: 121 - 147

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2021-0019

KeywordsOED3, loanword, Russian, citation, antedating, British English, American English, digital resources

© 2021 Mirosława Podhajecka, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
OED3, loanword, Russian, citation, antedating, British English, American English, digital resources