BRIDGE-URI, ROUTER-E S,I SWITCH-URI. ON ROMANIAN COMPUTER LANGUAGE

The influence of English upon Romanian, which is not a new phenomenon, has become extensive in recent years. Words of English origin can be found, in greater or smaller numbers, in absolutely all Romanian newspapers and magazines, in advertisements, they can be heard on TV, can be seen as shop names or used in graffiti. The paper analyses terms that have been borrowed from English in the Romanian computer language. The data discussed have been collected from three issues, belonging to three different years, selected at random, of a Romanian computer magazine. One can easily notice that the rate of Anglicisms does not decrease with time, that some terms are totally unadapted and felt to be ’foreignisms’, while others display various degrees of morphological adaptation.


INTRODUCTION
The technological achievements in the field of computers or of the Internet have led to an extensive borrowing of English technical terms into Romanian.They are, in decreasing order of their frequency, nouns, adjectives and verbs.While the phenomenon is understandable, as the new words most often fill in lexical gaps, its results are sometimes difficult to digest; a sentence like V-ar pla ˘cea sa ˘drag'n'drop un print-job dintr-un spool în altul ("would you like to drag'n'drop a print-job from one spool to another"), found in a Romanian specialized computer magazine (Chip, Computer Magazin, 5/1999: 98), may baffle the layman.
The data discussed in the paper were collected from three issues, belonging to three different years, selected at random, of the above mentioned computer magazine (5/1999, 6/2000, 6/2002).When reading them, one can easily notice that the number of Anglicisms used does not decrease with time.It seems that some readers find this rather annoying: in one of the issues (2000: 108), someone requires the inclusion of a glossary of IT terms in the magazine, which would facilitate its reading.The editors comply: explanations are given for some of the borrowed words, for acronyms or for translation loans, but they sometimes contain further (unknown) borrowed words: e.g.domeniu de coliziune -parte a ret,elei LAN ma ˘rginita ˘de bridge-uri, router-e sau switch-uri.("domain of collision -a part of a LAN network bordered by bridges, routers or switches.").

UNMARKED WORDS
Many of the borrowed words are unmarked, their formal structure not undergoing any orthographical or morphological change, e.g.: Printre uneltele s,i opt,iunile noi se numa ˘ra ˘preemptive multitasking ("among the new tools and options one can find preemptive multitasking") (2002: 68); a fost folosit s,i fog enabled ("fog enabled was also used") (2000: 42).

DEGREES OF ADAPTATION
Quite a great number of borrowed words display various degrees of adaptation to the Romanian language, being marked, directly or indirectly, in some way.

NOUNS
Very often, while the borrowed word remains superficially unchanged, some of its grammatical categories are revealed by the word preceding and/or following it.There are also frequent cases when the English nouns are incorporated into a specific inflectional class, undergoing changes specific to that class.

Context and grammatical gender, number, and case
The English nouns may be determined by Romanian demonstrative adjectives, ordinal numerals with an adjectival value, indefinite articles, or they may be modified by adjectives, which are all suggestive of the gender of the borrowed item, because in Romanian their form varies according to gender, and, except for the ordinal numeral, also according to number and case.Sometimes a borrowed noun takes both a determiner (usually an article) and a modifier that indicate its gender and number.
These determiners and (pre-)modifiers often seem to agree in form with the borrowed noun that they accompany by taking into account its ending.In Romanian, most masculine and neutre nouns end in a consonant (which is sometimes palatalized); most inanimate nouns belong to the neutre gender, while most animate nouns are masculine.Since, in my corpus, many of the borrowed nouns end in a consonant or consonant letter and are inanimate, they are treated as belonging to the neutre gender; only when they denote human beings are they interpreted as masculine.
In the examples above, simplu is the masculine/neutre, nominative/accusative form of the adjective, singurul has the masculine/neutre definite article, întregului is the masculine/neutre articulated form in the genitive case.In the other three examples, the borrowed noun has both a determiner (an indefinite article) and a modifier (an adjective ending in a consonant).It is assumed that the form of the adjectives points to the appurtenance of the nouns they modify to the neutre gender; as already stated, this assumption is also supported by the fact that these nouns are inanimate.
In my corpus there are two instances when the gender of the borrowed noun is suggested by the gender of some other noun in the context: Un chirurg, care arata ˘mai mult a gamer ("a surgeon, who looks more like a gamer") (2000: 32); Fabricantul (sa ˘-i zic vendor...) ("the producer, I should call him a vendor") (2002: 4); both chirurg and fabricant are masculine, animate nouns, therefore gamer and vendor are regarded as masculine nouns as well.
3.1.2.3.An interesting group of words is represented by some deverbal nouns, assimilated to the feminine gender; they are substantivized long infinitives, obtained by adding the suffix -re to an infinitive belonging to the first conjugation of the verbs, ending in -a, derived from an English verb.This is how the words boot-are, scalare, scanare, mapare, rutare, setare have been created from to boot, to scale, to scan, to map, to root, to set.In the plural, the final consonant of these nouns is palatalized and a phonetic alternation takes place: the stressed [a] becomes a stressed schwa: boota ˘ri, scala ˘ri, scana ˘ri, etc. (cf.Romanian urareura ˘ri, lucrare -lucra ˘ri): e.g., imediat dupa ˘boot-are ("right after booting") (2002: 109); are o scalare buna ˘("it has good scaling") (2000: 66); posibilita ˘t,i de scanare ("possibilities for scanning") (2000: 12); una din cele 3 mapa ˘ri de tastatura ˘("one of the three keyboard mappings") (2000: 82); câteva seta ˘ri personalizate ("some personalized settings") (2002: 93).Zafiu (2007aZafiu ( : 14, 2007b: 14): 14), who studies peculiarities of Internet language, comments at large on the family of the word blog in Romanian; she has found that the derived noun blogare (< to blog + a + re) is used in parallel with bloguire, also feminine, obtained by adding the suffix -re to a verb belonging to the fourth conjugation, ending in -i (a blogui < to blog + u + i).Similarly, she signals the appearance of the noun hackuire (Zafiu, 2001: 7), derived in a similar way from the verb a hackui (< to hack + u + i); in my corpus, the word used is hacking, with the definite article typical of inanimate, neuter nouns: e.g., Ar fi deci trei metode de a obt,ine card-uri: backdoor-urile, schimburile s,i hacking-ul.("I guess there are three methods of obtaining cards: backdoors, changes, and hacking") (2000: 88).

Nouns used with the definite article
The borrowed nouns are often used with the singular or plural definite article, which in Romanian is enclitic, forming one unit with the noun, and which has the categories of gender, number and case.Thus, most frequently, the singular, nominative and accusative cases have the forms -l, -le for the masculine and the neutre genders (e.g., muncitorul -"the worker", fratele -the brother, scaunul -"the chair", numele "the name"), and -a for the feminine gender (femeia -"the woman", casa -"the house", gra ˘dina -"the garden"); the genitive and dative case forms are -lui for the masculine and the neutre (e.g., muncitorului -"the worker's/to the worker", fratelui -"the brother's/to the brother", scaunului -"of/to the chair", numelui -"of/to the name"), and -(e)i for the feminine (femeii -"the woman's/to the woman", casei -"of/to the house", gra ˘dinii -"of/to the garden").The plural nominative and accusative forms are -i for the masculine, (muncitorii -"the workers", frat,ii -"the brothers"), and -le for the feminine and the neutre (femeile -"the women", casele -"the houses", gra ˘dinile -"the gardens", scaunele -"the chairs", numele -"the names"); the genitive and dative case form is -lor, for all the genders (muncitorilor, frat,ilor, femeilor, gra ˘dinilor, scaunelor, numelor).A marker of the genitive case is also the possessive article, which is considered a type of definite article (Avram 2001: 99), and which precedes the noun to which the definite article typical of the genitive case was attached.Its forms are: al (masculine, neutre, singular), a (feminine, singular), ai (masculine, plural), and ale (feminine, neutre, plural) and they agree in gender and number with the head noun of the genitive (e.g., un prieten/un ra ˘spuns al fratelui meu; o carte a fratelui meu: prieten is masculine, and ra ˘spuns is neutre, therefore the possessive article used is al; carte is feminine, therefore the possessive article used is a).
3.2.2.Several of the borrowed adjectives are used with endings typical of Romanian, in order to agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
The following examples illustrate instances when the adjectives are derived from a Romanian participle.The Romanian language has one participle only, usually built with the suffix -t, which always has a past time value, and whose forms vary according to gender, number and case: e.g.versiunea downclockata ("the downclocked version") (2002: 58); nu au texturi mapate pe ele ("they do not have mapped textures on them") (2000: 66); îl ga ˘ses,ti acolo gata hack-uit ("you find it there all hacked") (2000: 57).Downclockata ˘(which would presuppose the existence of the verb a downclocka) is singular, feminine, because versiune is a singular, feminine noun; mapate (derived from a mapa) is plural, neutre, because texturi has a plural, neutre inflection; hack-uit (< a hackui) is singular, neuter or masculine, because it refers back to the unstressed, masculine/neuter personal pronoun in the accusative, îl.
One also comes across adjectives borrowed from English, whose affixes are translated into Romanian.Thus the suffix -ble becomes -bil in Romanian (a suffix that is frequent in borrowings and combines with verbal roots), while the negative prefix unbecomes the Romanian ne-.For example, Va ˘vin în ajutor CD-urile boot-abile ("Bootable CDs come to your rescue") (1999: 96); playback scalabil ("scalable playback") (2000: 20); camera devine brusc inhabitabila ˘("the camera suddenly becomes inhabitable") (1999: 45); cela ˘lalt tip de volum este nebootabil ("the other type of volume is unbootable") (1999: 96).Notice the various endings of the adjectives, dictated by the gender and number of the noun they modify (boot-abile -plural, neutre; scalabil, nebootabil -singular, neutre; inhabitabila ˘singular, feminine).In one case, the adjective is a compound one, built with what might be regarded as a prefixoid, auto-, a word forming element that exists in Romanian as well: e.g., aplicat,ie DOS autoboot-abila ˘("autobootable DOS application") (2000: 10); however, since I am not sure what the source language term is, this could equally well be a translation of the prefix self-(self-bootable).
The adjectives are sometimes quantified with the help of Romanian adverbs or of syntactic structures that are the equivalent of an absolute superlative: e.g., o distribut,ie cât se poate de SOHO friendly ("a most SOHO friendly distribution") (1999: 38); camera ofera ˘un suport extrem de flash ("the camera offers a very/an extremely flash support") (1999: 17).
3.3.VERBS 3.3.1.The number of borrowed verbs is higher than in other fields of discourse.Most of them (a accesa, a boot-a, a download-a, a flood-a, a log-a, a map-a, a porta, a randa, a reboot-a, a restarta, a ruta, a scala, a scana, a seta) are integrated in the first conjugation, ending in -a, the most productive in Romanian, and get all the inflections that mark the tenses and moods of this conjugation; they occur not only in the active voice, but also in the passive or the reflexive or impersonal reflexive.For example: -infinitive: capacitatea de a ruta ("the capacity to root") (1999: 17); s,ansa de a seta alte adaptoare ("the chance to set other adaptors") (2000: 76); -present tense, indicative: a ˘la ît,i log-eaza ˘tot ("that one will log everything for you") (2000: 88); cine reboot-eaza ˘dupa ˘fiecare joc" ("who reboots after each game?") (2000: 72); un ISP din România ruteaza ˘convorbirile de pe Internet ("A Romanian ISP roots Internet talks") (2000: 110); acestea scaleaza ˘ca s,i pâna ˘acum ("they scale as before") (2000: 68).In all these examples, -eaza ˘is the third person, singular and plural, inflection.
One interesting case is that of a rather frequent verb, a hackeri, belonging to the fourth conjugation, in -i, formed in Romanian from the noun hacker: e.g.caut exploit-uri sa ˘-l "hacker-esc" ("I look for exploits to hack it") (2000: 88); a variant is a hack-ui, formed from to hack, with the suffix -ui: e.g.îl ga ˘ses,ti acolo gata hack-uit ("you find it there all hacked") (2000: 90).In Internet messages, Zafiu has also found the verbs a knocka ˘i (< knock), a bipa ˘i (< bip), a clica ˘i (< click) (2001: 7) and a guga ˘li (< google) (2004: 14).Such verbs, particularly the last one, are felt to be jocular.

SEMANTIC LOANS
A number of words in my corpus are semantic loans, i.e. an existing Romanian item, usually of Romance origin, French or Latin, takes over a meaning of the English equivalent.These will most probably stay in the language, because the words are already part of the vocabulary and require no adaptation.Thus, atas,ament (< Fr. attachement, "strong affection for somebody; friendship, love") has acquired one of the meanings of the English attachment, whose origin is identical with that of the Romanian word: "a computer file that is sent with an e-mail" (e.g., afis,area atas,amentelor ("the display of attachments"), (2002: 94)); banc (< Fr. banc, "a large mass of sand, gravel or mud on ocean or river beds, which sometimes surfaces; a large group of shells or fish; table or platform used in manual work") has acquired one of the meanings of the English bank: "a large collection, especially of information or ideas" (e.g., patru bancuri de memorie "four memory banks" (2000: 48); ba ˘nci de sample-uri "banks of samples" (2000: 100)); convent,ie (< Fr. convention, "agreement between two or more states, institutions or persons; contract") has come to also mean "a meeting of an organization" (e.g, Vineri 26 martie a avut loc Sales Convention organizata ˘de Xerox România.Aceasta ˘convent,ie a fost organizata ˘pentru partenerii Xerox ("The Sales Convention organized by Xerox Romania took place on Friday, 25 March.This convention was organized for the Xerox partners") (1999: 23)); port (< Fr. port, It. porto, "an area of water where ships stop"; also back-formation from a purta, "to carry", "to wear") has now added the meaning "a part of a computer a cable can be fit into so that connection to another place of equipment can be obtained" (e.g., doua ˘porturi USB, un port serial ("two USB ports, a serial port") (2000: 46)); under English influence, portal (< Germ.Portal, It. portale, "a monumental, richly decorated main entrance to a building") now also denotes an Internet site that has links to other places (e.g., portalul Microsoft (1999: 22)); Romanian post, of Slavic origin, if it means "fast, a period of time when one does not eat" and of French origin, if it means "job, function", has a new etymology when it means, in computer language, "posting, a message sent over the Internet to a newsgroup".Romanian has the noun acces, borrowed from French/Latin, so it could easily derive from it the verb a accesa, taking over the meaning of the English verb to access, (e.g., vor accesa anumite servicii ("they will access certain services") (2002: 100)); a licent,ia (< Fr. licencier), meaning "to fire somebody", is used, under English influence, with the meaning of "to authorize the use of" (e.g., va trebui sa ˘pla ˘tit,i pentru a licent,ia acest produs ("you will have to pay in order to have this product licensed") (1999: 74)).Similarly, to forward is more and more frequently replaced by the Romanian a redirect,iona ("to redirect"), a verb derived from the noun direct,ie (< Fr. direction, Lat.directio), and to download by a desca ˘rca ("to unload") (< Lat.discarricare).One can notice, therefore, that Anglicisms increase the cases of homonymy and polysemy in the Romanian language.

CONCLUSION
The number of technical terms borrowed from English into Romanian in the field of computers is extremely high.Their necessity can't be contested, since their use is justified referentially; as a consequence, many of them are present not only in the jargon of computer specialists, but also in the everyday language of any person that makes use of a computer.Their number may even know further increase with the constant development of technology.However, many of these borrowings will not stay in the language, and those that will will take some time before they "settle in", i.e. before they get fully integrated into the Romanian language.