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New concepts are constantly being borrowed across languages. The influence of one language on another can occur on all linguistic levels, with lexis being the most sensitive. Croatian has become most receptive to borrowing from English, and the influence of English on Croatian has been documented in different functional styles. The prestigious status of English, which reduces the likelihood that a borrowed element will adapt to the rules of the recipient language, is one of the reasons why English has become an inexhaustible source of new words for Croatian learners. The aim of the present study is to investigate the use of adapted forms of English loanwords in Croatian, with particular attention to the type and degree of their adaptation. Due to the differences between the phonemic systems of the two languages, it was expected that the Croatian learners would show diversity in their responses regarding loanword adaptation. A translation task with the 392 most frequently used unadapted English loanwords in Croatian was given to 116 undergraduate students at the Faculty of Maritime Studies. The data showed that the participants preferred the unadapted forms to the adapted forms of English. They were also more inclined to orthographically adapt a loanword, than to adapt it both orthographically and morphologically. The differences observed in orthographic adaptation reflect the underlying differences in the phonemic systems of the two languages. Overall, the results suggest that the unadapted forms of English words have become established in Croatian and are a preferred lexical choice among younger L1 speakers of Croatian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the beginnings of exonym standardization and some characteristics of the oldest exonyms in two similar Slavic languages, Croatian and Slovenian. It uses the comparative and exemplar methods. It is found that these processes were influenced by the sociopolitical environment of the time, especially language policies. It is shown that the nineteenth century was favorably inclined toward exonyms. They were often written inconsistently and unsystematically because there were no spelling norms for their writing and use. For some, the influences of foreign languages (German, Italian, etc.) are obvious. Numerous transitional forms also appeared, which did not become established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]