Lainakäännös

Lainakäännös, a Finnish term, translates directly to "loan translation" or "calque" in English. It refers to a word or phrase that has been borrowed from another language by literal translation of its component parts. Instead of adopting the foreign word wholesale, a speaker translates each morpheme or component of the original word or phrase into their own language.

This linguistic phenomenon is a common way for languages to incorporate new concepts or expressions without resorting to direct borrowing of foreign vocabulary. For example, if a language has a word like "supermarket" in English, a lainakäännös might involve translating "super" as "ylä" and "market" as "tori" to create a new compound word like "ylätori" (though this is a hypothetical example and may not be an actual Finnish word).

Lainakäännökset can sometimes sound awkward or literal to native speakers if the translated components don't naturally fit the grammatical or semantic structures of the target language. However, they are a significant aspect of language evolution and cross-linguistic influence, contributing to the richness and expressiveness of a language by allowing it to adapt and incorporate ideas from other cultures and linguistic traditions. The process highlights the creative ways in which languages can interact and influence each other.