Calque facts for kids

A calque (pronounced "kalk") is a fascinating way languages borrow ideas from each other. Imagine you want to describe something new, but your language doesn't have a word for it yet. Sometimes, people look at how another language describes it and then translate that description word-for-word into their own language. This is what a calque is! It's like a "loan translation."

For example, think about a very tall building, a skyscraper. The English word "skyscraper" combines "sky" and "scrape." Many other languages have copied this idea by translating "sky" and "scrape" into their own words. In German, it's Wolkenkratzer (which means "cloud-scraper"). In Spanish, it's rascacielos (meaning "sky-scraper"). This shows how a single idea can travel across many languages through calques.

Calques are very useful. They help languages grow and adapt when new inventions, technologies, or ideas appear. Instead of creating a brand-new word from scratch, languages can "borrow" the concept by translating its parts. This process is common because people around the world often think about things like time, space, and quantity in similar ways.

It's important to remember that a calque is different from just borrowing a word that sounds similar. With a calque, the meaning of each part of the word or phrase is translated.

Discovering Calques: Words Borrowed by Translation

Calques help us understand how languages influence each other. They show how ideas and concepts spread across different cultures. When you see a calque, you're seeing a direct translation of an idea from one language into another.

How Calques Work: Translating Ideas

Calques are like linguistic blueprints. A language takes the "plan" for a word or phrase from another language. Then it uses its own "materials" (its own words) to build that same word or phrase. This creates a new word that fits naturally into the borrowing language.

Different Kinds of Calques You'll Find

Linguists, who are scientists who study language, have identified different types of calques. Here are some common ones:

• Phrase Calques: These are when an entire saying or idiom is translated word-for-word. For instance, the English phrase "it goes without saying" is a direct translation of the French ça va sans dire. Both mean something is so obvious it doesn't need to be said.

• Word-Part Calques: Sometimes, words are translated part-by-part, or morpheme-by-morpheme. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. The "skyscraper" example is a great fit here. Each part ("sky" and "scrape") is translated.

• Semantic Calques: This happens when an existing word in a language gets a new meaning because of a foreign word. The best example is the "computer mouse". In English, it was named after the animal because of its shape. Many other languages then started using their own word for the animal "mouse" to also mean the computer device. For example, in Spanish, ratón means both the animal and the computer mouse.

• Partial Calques: These are interesting because only part of a word or phrase is translated. The other part is kept from the original language. For example, "apple strudel" comes from German Apfelstrudel. "Apfel" means "apple," which is translated. But "strudel" is kept as is. Another example is "liverwurst" from German Leberwurst. "Leber" (liver) is translated, but "wurst" (sausage) is kept.

• Sound-Alike Calques: In some cases, a word's sound is imitated, but the new word also has a meaning that fits. For example, the English word "radar" became the Chinese word 雷达 (pinyin: léidá). This Chinese word literally means "to arrive (as fast) as thunder," which sounds similar to "radar."

Real-World Calque Examples

Calques are all around us, even if we don't always notice them!

• Flea Market: The common English phrase "flea market" is a direct translation from the French marché aux puces. This means "market with fleas." Many other languages have also adopted this phrase by translating it.

• Loanword: Even the word "loanword" itself is a calque! It comes from the German noun Lehnwort, which also means "loan word."

• Weekday Names: Have you ever wondered why our weekdays have their names? Many of them are calques! Ancient Germanic speakers translated the Latin names for weekdays, which were named after Roman gods, into names based on their own gods. For instance, the Latin "Day of Mercury" became the "Day of Wōđanaz" (a Germanic god). This eventually led to "Wednesday" in English.

The Story of the Word "Calque"

The word "calque" itself is a borrowed word, but it's a direct loanword, not a calque! It comes from the French noun calque, which means "tracing" or "imitation." Linguists started using the term "calque" in French around 1894. It then appeared in English linguistic writings by 1926. This shows how even the words we use to describe language can have their own interesting histories!

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