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"that strategy of borrowing a word but giving it a slightly narrower meaning" – I think this happens with most borrowing, into any language. E.g. "opsjon" in No
by kreyenborgi 2y ago
"that strategy of borrowing a word but giving it a slightly narrower meaning" – I think this happens with most borrowing, into any language. E.g. "opsjon" in Norwegian is from "option" but only means stock/legal options, never used in the common meaning of "choices". (And the video's own example with "les peoples".)
But my favorite example is when going into English from Norse, "fjord" has a quite narrow meaning in English, but must have been much broader in Norse when you look at Limfjorden in flat Denmark (more of a sound than a fjord) and Tunhovdfjorden (even Norwegians would think of this as a lake these days)
- agumonkey 2y agothis kind of crippled borrowing seems universal though, you only complement your own language where you have a hole
- readthenotes1 2y agoWell of course, fjords should have a narrow meaning. That's kind of what separates them from bays isn't it?
- vidarh 2y agoThe Norwegian words for bay - like vik, bukt, does not necessarily imply broad or open. The main distinction appear to be length. Bukt or gulf are the words mostly use for major bays, but bukt in particular can also be used for very short, narrow inlets, while fjords are used for some of our largest bays. The Oslo fjord for example, is quite broad and open for most of its length. Most of the smaller bays in the fjord are bukter, but the largest, longest of them are also named fjords.
- atombender 2y agoNot really. We have some really wide fjords in Norway; Sognefjorden is 4.5 km wide at its widest. A fjord is technically any body of water carved out by glaciers (inland lakes or coast inlets), but the word fjord is used pretty indiscriminately; lots of fjords are not glacial in origin.