Mexican words in the Nordic languages.

Abstract

This article deals with loanwords in the Nordic languages which appear to be of Mexican origin – Nahuatl and Maya – and borrowed via Spanish into other European languages. The history of the words is traced, their journey from the New World to the Old one is examined and their adoption and adaptation to the recipient language – Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish – is discussed. The first written sources of these Indo-American words in the Nordic languages are old texts, translations and chronicles dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and onwards. These words are today a part of the daily vocabulary of the recipient languages. The most common ones are avocado, cacao, chilli, chocolate and tomato.

Keywords: lexicology, lexicography, loanwords, Nahuatl, Maya, Nordic languages.