hyperforeignism

English

Etymology

1982, hyperforeign +‎ -ism.

Noun

hyperforeignism (countable and uncountable, plural hyperforeignisms)

1. (linguistics, uncountable) The misapplication of foreign pronunciation or usage, particularly the use of a sound or form perceived as foreign where a native one is considered standard; an approximation that is misapprehensive or pedantic.
2. (linguistics, countable) An instance or example of such misapplication.
   • 1982, John C. Wells, Accents of English 1: An Introduction, page 108:

     Educated people are thus aware that words in or from foreign languages are subject to somewhat different reading rules from those applying to English. But they are often vague about them, and about the different rules applicable to different foreign languages. Many resulting pronunciations are absurd in that they reflect neither the reading rules of English nor those of the language from which the word in question comes. For example, there is an awareness based on French that /dʒ/ is an English-type consonant, for which /ʒ/ is the ‘foreign’ equivalent. But when this leads to raj, Taj Mahal, mah-jongg, or adagio with /ʒ/ instead of /dʒ/ (although the languages of origin have affricates in these words), we have what might well be called a hyperforeignism. [boldfaced in source]

See also

• foreignize
• hyperdialectalism
• hyperforeign, hyper-foreign, hyperforeignization, hyper-foreignization
• naturalize, naturalization