Continuous increase of loanwords in the Catalan press: a consequence of globalization?

Abstract

In thirty years of detection of new words in the press, the Observatori de Neologia has observed a continuous increase of the presence of loanwords from other languages. From 17.66% in 1989, it has now reached a historic high of 32.49%. In three decades, the space of native word-formation has decreased significantly at an average of a half point per year. In this article we describe this continuous increase of loanwords in the large-readership Catalan press. We analyse the role played by different languages: firstly English, because it has a larger presence in the Catalan language; secondly Spanish, which has grown less common in recent times; and, lastly, other languages: French, Italian, German, Basque, Russian, Japanese, Arabic and so on. We propose that thought should be given to the reasons that prompt this evolution. Considering that globalisation plays a fundamental role, we seek to determine how it is materialised and how important other factors are, such as the low permeability of loanwords in Catalan dictionaries, the increased presence of different languages in the general communication scenario, the scant implementation of standardisation proposals aimed to avoid loanwords, and the diversification of Catalan press sources.

Keywords: loanwords, Catalan, neologisms, globalisation, media.