Slovene-English Language Contact in the Toronto Slovenian Community: the Presentation of a Collection of Adapted English Loanwords from Hendi angleško-slovenskega slovarčka za priseljence in viziterje iz olt katri (Handy English-Slovenian Dictionary for Immigrants and Visitors from Old Country)

Abstract

Members of the first generation of the Slovenian community in Toronto, despite their deep integration into broader Canadian culture, maintained a strong sense of Slovenian identity. The contact between Slovenian, their mother tongue, and English, the language of their new environment, influenced their use of Slovenian, which in this context served as a community language that fostered cultural continuity and the revival of traditions from their homeland. English loanwords emerged, often morphologically adapted to Slovenian grammar, emerged in their spoken discourse. Some of these words became so common among members of the Church of the Immaculate Conception with the Miraculous Medal that, in the 1970s, a collection of English-Slovenian words was compiled. The aim of this article is to describe the circumstances surrounding the emergence of loanwords and to present a set of words that were used within the community.