Pseudo-anglicism


A pseudo-anglicism is a word in another language that is formed from English elements and may appear to be English, but that does not exist as an English word.
For example, English speakers traveling in France may be struck by the number of words used in French that look similar to English, but which do not exist in English, such as baby-foot, or baby-parc.
This is different from false friends, which are words that do exist in English, but with a different main meaning between English and the other language.

Definition and terminology

There have been a few spellings, and many definitions proposed for pseudo-anglicism. Sometimes it is written as two words, sometimes as a hyphenated word, and sometimes as a single word without the hyphen. The 'A' is sometimes capitalized. Several other terms have been used, such as "secondary anglicism," "false anglicism," and "pseudo-English" is heard as well.
In discussing lexical borrowing, academic works will often refer to source language or donor language, and the receptor language or recipient language and may use SL and RL as abbreviations. In the case of anglicisms and loanwords from English, the source language is English, and the receptor language is the foreign language borrowing the English word or semantic elements. Some German works even refer to these concepts using the English terms, untranslated.
Numerous definitions have been proposed. Many researchers quote David Duckworth, who wrote that pseudo-anglicisms are "German neologisms derived from English language material." Furiassi's is broader and includes words that may exist in English, though only with a "conspicuously different meaning".

Typology and mechanism

Pseudo-anglicisms can be created in various ways, such as by archaism, i.e., words which once had that meaning in English but are since abandoned; semantic slide, where an English word is used incorrectly to mean something else; conversion of existing words from one part of speech to another; or recombinations by reshuffling English units.
Onysko speaks of two types: pseudo-anglicisms and hybrid anglicisms. The common factor is that each type represents a neologism in the receptor language resulting from a combination of borrowed lexical items from English. Using German as the receptor language, an example of the first type is Wellfit-Bar, a combination of two English lexical units to form a new term in German, which does not exist in English, and which carries the meaning, "a bar that caters to the needs of health-starved people." An example of the second type, is a hybrid based on a German compound word, :de:wikt:Weitsprung, plus the English 'coach', to create the new German word Weitsprung-Coach.
According to Filipović, pseudoanglicisms can be formed through composition, derivation, or ellipsis. Composition in Serbo-Croatian involves creating a new compound from an English word to which is added the word man, as in the example, "GOAL" + man, giving golman. In derivation, a suffix -er or -ist is added to an anglicism, to create a new word in Serbo-Croatian, such as teniser, or waterpolist. An ellipsis drops something, and starts from a compound and drops a component, or from a derivative and drops -ing, as in boks from "boxing", or "hepiend" from "happy ending".
Another process of word formation that can result in a pseudo-anglicism is a blend word, consisting of portions of two words, like brunch or smog. Rey-Debove & Gagnon attest tansad in French in 1919, from English tan + sad.

Scope

Pseudo-anglicisms can be found in many languages that have contact with English around the world, and are attested in nearly all European languages.

Examples

[CJK] languages

Japanese">Japanese language">Japanese

Romance">Romance languages">Romance

French">French language">French

Danish">Danish language">Danish

Many of the following examples may be found in several words, hyphenated, in one word or CamelCase.

Polish">Polish language">Polish

Tagalog">Tagalog language">Tagalog