These are the questions that keep me up at night

[conuly]

I can't figure out if the word "wanderlust" is a loanword or a calque. I think it must be a calque if we say it like we'd say an English word spelled that way, and a loanword if we say it like we'd say a German word spelled that way (or like we think Germans would say it, anyway).

Poll #19414 Wanderlust

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 125

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How do you say the word "wanderlust"?

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With a w at the beginning
112 (89.6%)

With a v at the beginning
6 (4.8%)

I'm not sure. I've never actually said it or heard it said
7 (5.6%)

I'm not familiar with this word
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[fred_mouse]

I find your 'forehead' example to be interesting, because I use both interchangeably, although I suspect one would be disapproved of by my mother as being 'Catholic', by which she would have meant a pronunciation used in the Catholic schools, which is probably a remnant of anti-Irish prejudice. To test this, I've just asked the teens (13-19), and they are all of the fore-head rather than forrid pronunciation. So even without them having been explicitly exposed to the pressures, there is still that movement happening in the language.

The other one I remember hearing about was the change to include the 'l' in almond and salmon. Which I don't think anyone around here does (Australia, West Coast)

[conuly]

Learning that people used to say forrid suddenly made "There was a little girl/with a little curl" ever so much more poetic.

[jesse_the_k]

Ah!