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Germanic Interrelations: Studies in memory of Hans Frede Nielsen
Edited by Stephen Laker, Carla Falluomini, Steffen Krogh, Robert Nedoma and Michael Schulte
[NOWELE Supplement Series 34] 2025
► pp. 354–363

Garden, town, villa and torg

Four emblematic words that influenced the vocabulary and semantics of European languages

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Loanwords in a language often reflect the political and cultural situation at a certain time. In this process, the influence from prestigious languages on lesser prestigious languages often makes itself felt, be it through the replacement of older words or through the introduction of new concepts. Consequently, words such as garden, town, villa and torg/trg turn up in very different languages and are often subject to semantic changes. The first two come from Germanic, villa is Latin and torg/trg is of Slavic origin. In this article, these four lexemes and their semantic pathways of change in a range of European languages are analyzed and discussed.
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