Orð og tunga - 01.06.2005, Side 82

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Orð og tunga
textafræði, bls. 132-144. Reykjavík: Stofnun Sigurðar Nordals.
___. 1999. Ske. íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði 19-20:181-207.
Summary
This article discusses some indoamerican loanwords of prehispanic origin (Nahuatl,
Quechua, Taino, Caribe, Maya and Aymara) in Icelandic and some European lan-
guages which have been borrowed via Spanish, as well as their history, their joumey
from one language to another, their adoption and assimilation to the system of the
recipient language. The first written sources of the indoamerican borrowings are old
Spanish texts, mainly navigation books and chronicles, from the 15th and 16th cen-
tury. The indoamerican loanwords were incorporated into French, German and Eng-
lish in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, and came via these languages to the Nordic
languages in the 18th and 19th century. In most cases, Icelandic borrowed the words
via Danish in the 18th, 19th and 20th century. The concepts subject to borrowing were
mainly connected with fauna, flora, products, navigation etc. Finally the words canoe,
hurricane, tomato and guano are studied and discussed as examples of words of in-
doamerican origin in Icelandic and some other European languages.
Keywords:
loanwords, Indoamerican languages, Latin America, lexicography.
Erla Erlendsdóttir
Hugvísindadeild Háskóla íslands
IS-101 Reykjavík
erlaerl@hi.is