105 44. English-Malay Loanblends and the Indices of Adaptability Zubairu Malah Department of English Language, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. zubayrmalah@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to investigate and analyze the English-Malay Loanblends. The realm of Contact Linguistics is concerned with the consequences when languages come into contact (Blake, 2008). However, among the inevitable consequences is the emergence of pidginized forms, creoles, code-switching, code-mixing and also lexical borrowings (Hoffer, 2002; Christopher, 2005; Durkin, 2011). This study focuses on loanblends as discovered by Haugen (1950) as forms of hybridized borrowings consisting of both importation and substitution. These are borrowings whose mode of adaptability into the recipient language (Weinreich, 1953) employs both native and foreign elements. The researcher employed survey and observation of different instances of loanblends from the English-Malay borrowings in daily use among the Malay speakers in Serdang. The findings of the study demonstrate that the Malay speakers use some loanblends of English-Malay morphemic fusions. In these loanblends, the last morphemes are mostly substituted with native expressions but the meanings remain the same with the original words in the donor language. As a conclusion, the researcher is convinced that the English-Malay borrowing is a rich area of academic investigation and he finally recommends further researches on phonemic substitution in English-Malay loanwords. Keywords: English-Malay, Loan-blends, Indices, Adaptability. Introduction Lexical borrowing has been a recurring phenomenon anytime languages come into contact with other languages and cultures (Blake, 2008). That is why there have been prolific researches in this area among contact linguists, sociologists, cultural anthropologists e.t.c who focus attention on documenting the types, amounts, processes and even rates at which the borrowings occur (Hoffer, 2002). However, words and morphemes are borrowed from donor languages into recipient languages for some obvious motives. The motives for borrowing have been broadly classed into two: gap or need-filling motives and prestige motives (Shukla and Jeff, 2006). Need-feeling motives make it necessary for languages to borrow words from other languages especially words for new ideas and artefacts associated with the donor language and which do not exist in the recipient language. Examples of this are the English words: radio, train and coffee borrowed by the Hindi language; and the Hindi words: pundit, yoga and guru borrowed by the English language. On the other hand, words are borrowed for prestige motives when speakers of the donor language have certain prestigious activities, ideas or artefacts that the speakers of the recipient language do not have and they want to associate with them (Radford et al, 2009). For instance, the English language borrowed Latin words and phrases because Latin had been the language of Education for centuries in the West. Expressions like Ibid, e.tc. , and et al are all of Latin origin being used in English written materials (Hoffer, 2002). Adopting foreign words has been a feature of living languages and nearly every language borrows from another. The English language borrows from more than 50 languages but French is the major donor language to English vocabulary (Blake, 2008). From its history, it can be understood that although Latin had earlier contributed to the English vocabulary, the largest contribution came from French after the Norman Conquest of 1066. This is the Middle English period. The Normans conquered England and imposed French instead of the Old English. French was then used in courts and among the nobles. Only the commoners were using English (Christopher, 2005). The English language continues being recipient and donor language across the globe. It borrows words from languages in every continent and English words are also borrowed in every continent.