Assimilation of Spanish loanwords in the English language

The goal of this paper was to take a deeper look into the phenomenon of word borrowing in English, its possible reasons and consequences, as well as to conduct a more thorough analysis of Spanish borrowings in the English language, specifically those connected with food, animals and plants. The point of view for the analysis was the assimilation of the relevant twenty borrowings collected from three general and etymological dictionaries, i. e. the phonetic, morphological and lexical changes which occur when a word transitions from one language to another. There is a huge amount of borrowings in the English lexicon; in fact their number excels that of the native English words. Intense borrowing has been taking place since the 11th century and the attitude of English linguists towards it changed as centuries went by. Tendencies of linguistic purism gave way to a more liberal approach when it came to borrowings and vice versa. Currently, borrowings in the English language are mostly accepted as a natural linguistic phenomenon. The borrowing of words from other languages can occur because of the initial lack of lexical richness in the native language, common instances of bilingualism or a certain wish to demonstrate a level of prestige and fanciness by using some less common words. Usually while acclimating to another language, a word undergoes certain changes, it is adjusted to fit with the phonetic and grammatical system of the accepting language. In addition, the meaning of a word can be expanded or narrowed due to its connection with the cultural background of possibly both the native language of the relevant word and the one that is acquiring it. The tendency to simplify a language and make it more accessible can also be a reason for semantic changes. In the Spanish borrowings of the English language, the phonetic assimilation is the most noticeable mostly due to significant differences between the phonological systems of both languages. Morphological assimilation is less common mainly as a result of the flexibility of the English morphology and its capability to integrate foreign morphological structures. Lexical assimilation is observed with the meanings being both expanded and narrowed down. This can be attributed to cultural differences as well as to the ongoing tendency to simplify the English languag