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A multitude of “lishes”: The nomenclature of hybridity
Citation
Lambert, J. (2018). A multitude of “lishes”: The nomenclature of hybridity. English World-Wide, 39(1), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00001.lam
Author
Lambert, James
Abstract
The present paper deals with portmanteau terms based on the word English, the bulk of which form a varied and extensive nomenclature used to describe hybrids of the English language with other languages. A citation database of over 3000 entries was created containing 481 separate terms dating from the early twentieth century to present. These figures indicate a widespread interest in the ways in which English hybridises with other languages and becomes localised in various parts of the globe. The results also show a trend of continuing increase in the coining of such terms to be expected in an increasingly globalised world. However, to date there has been no exhaustive examination of names for English-language hybrids. The present paper examines these portmanteau terms with regards to semantics, etymology, history, frequency, and pronunciation, and presents an alphabetical table of the complete set of terms discovered by the research as an appendix.
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal
English World-Wide
DOI
10.1075/eww.00001.lam
Description
This is the final draft, after peer-review, of a manuscript published in English World-Wide. The published version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00001.lam