Xavier Rull

Rull provides a thorough overview of loanwords and related linguistic issues, both on general level and as related to Catalan. His discussion of adaptation of loanwords to the host language on phonetic, graphic, syntactic and morphological level (chapters 9 through 13) and the challenges posed by adoption of loanwords is particularly well-researched with hosts of examples on the interaction between Catalan and major languages of the region (Spanish, French, Italian), but also Catalan and English.
The weakest parts of Rull's book are those dealing with the social aspect of loanword adoption and adaptation. In chapter 6, for example, Rull attempts to pin down the motivation for borrowing and defines six major types thereof: 6.1. necessity, 6.2. contact, 6.3. fashion or snobbery, 6.4. internationalization ('internacionalitat'), 6.5. multilingualism and globalization and 6.6. ignorance. And so while 6.2 makes an excellent point and even provides some fascinating details from the history of Catalan (such as the increased influence of English on the varieties of Menorca during the English posession of the island or the differences between Spanish and Andorran varieties of Catalan), it fails to clearly define the differences between loanwords acquired through contact and those acquired by necessity (6.1) while also failing to discuss calquing and various other ways languages deals with new concepts. The discussion of pseudo-anglicisms and the fortunes of the English suffix -ing in Catalan in 6.3 is fascinating, but appears to be cut short. This also applies to 6.4 and 6.5 which seem to make the same point and where a little more exposition would only server to strengthen the argument, but also 6.6 where the brevity is more of a blessing, because the section feels more like a treatment of issues of syntactic errors in phraseology rather than borrowing and it threatens to devolve into your standard peevology. And indeed, linguistic purism and protectionism seem to be no stranger to Rull, judging by his comments in the final chapter where he insists that "... the degree of loanword penetration can serve as an indicator of the health of the language" (p. 202).
The few shortcomings of conceptual nature as well as the occasional factual error (contrary to p. 75, the Romani people did not originate in Pakistan, but most likely in Central India) or spelling error (like the - in light of 6.3 - hilarious 'pidging' instead of 'pidgin') should not distract from the overall high quality of the work. Highly recommended, especially for those with interest in Catalan.… (more)