Trends of foreign-origin words in your mother tongue

Started by Martinus, February 22, 2013, 03:53:52 AM

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PDH

Quote from: Legbiter on February 22, 2013, 09:45:03 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 22, 2013, 09:34:38 AM
English borrows from other languages so often that it's often not not known that a new word is borrowed or from where.

English roughs up other languages to see if they have any spare words.

No.  English just waltzes in, puts its muddy feet up on the furniture, and says "I like that, that, that, and that.  I'll take them.  Oh by the way, I am staying."
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Legbiter

Quote from: PDH on February 22, 2013, 09:49:16 AM
Quote from: Legbiter on February 22, 2013, 09:45:03 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 22, 2013, 09:34:38 AM
English borrows from other languages so often that it's often not not known that a new word is borrowed or from where.

English roughs up other languages to see if they have any spare words.

No.  English just waltzes in, puts its muddy feet up on the furniture, and says "I like that, that, that, and that.  I'll take them.  Oh by the way, I am staying."

:lol:
Posted using 100% recycled electrons.

Viking

Quote from: Legbiter on February 22, 2013, 09:45:03 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 22, 2013, 09:34:38 AM
English borrows from other languages so often that it's often not not known that a new word is borrowed or from where.

English roughs up other languages to see if they have any spare words.

First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

mongers

Quote from: PDH on February 22, 2013, 09:49:16 AM
Quote from: Legbiter on February 22, 2013, 09:45:03 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on February 22, 2013, 09:34:38 AM
English borrows from other languages so often that it's often not not known that a new word is borrowed or from where.

English roughs up other languages to see if they have any spare words.

No.  English just waltzes in, puts its muddy feet up on the furniture, and says "I like that, that, that, and that.  I'll take them.  Oh by the way, I am staying."

:lol:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Iormlund

Much of Castillian comes of course from Latin.
Though the occupying Visigoths largely adopted local culture, there might be also some Germanic influence, at least when it comes to names (Rodríguez = son of Roderick).
There are many Arab words, introduced during the 800 years of the Muslim rule. You can identify a lot of those because they start with the 'al' ('the') prefix (aljibe, alcazar, algodón, alforja, almacén).
There's also Basque influence, since it was widely spoken in the places and time where Castillian was developed (Burgos, Alava, La Rioja).
There are some American words, mostly for produce that came from the continent during the conquest and then spread out to other languages (tomate, chocolate).
There are probably some French, Italian and German words somewhere but I'm too lazy to check it out.
And of course there's the usual late influx of English words.
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

Tonitrus

Quote from: Martinus on February 22, 2013, 08:36:08 AM
Quote from: DGuller on February 22, 2013, 08:30:32 AM
Tech word borrowing I can understand.  The technology originated in the English-speaking country after all.  Words like "boyfriend", on the other hand, have already existed in the Russian language, so in those cases it just looks like an inferior culture borrowing from a superior culture.

True. I heard words like "to kiss" have also been borrowed in Russian (e.g. "kissovat") which sounds very weird.

Could it be that Russia is so illiberal/obscurantist that young people develop their own slang, to be able to talk freely? Sorta like polari in anti-gay Britain.

I've never seen the verb for "to kiss" neglected like that, but "boyfriend" is quite a bit.  Though, DG, is there an actual word for boyfriend?  I usually would just see what is the literal translation of "my guy", or "my man". 

garbon

Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

DGuller

Quote from: Tonitrus on February 24, 2013, 09:38:28 AM
I've never seen the verb for "to kiss" neglected like that, but "boyfriend" is quite a bit.  Though, DG, is there an actual word for boyfriend?  I usually would just see what is the literal translation of "my guy", or "my man".
:hmm:  Good point.  I can't think of any now that I think about it.

Tonitrus

I think it's the same for girlfriends.  I remember causing confusion problems with my teachers when trying to refer to a platonic female friend as "подруга", as that seems to have the connotation of "girlfriend" (if you're a guy, anyway).  And still am not 100% sure whether to use that word, or just simply "друг" (which usually seems refers to a male). 

The Larch

Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 10:01:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.

It's not as if we really listen to it too much, anyway.

garbon

Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:28:22 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 10:01:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.

It's not as if we really listen to it too much, anyway.

And yet it exists.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Larch

Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 02:39:36 PM
Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:28:22 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 10:01:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.

It's not as if we really listen to it too much, anyway.

And yet it exists.

It's a place for crotchety old academics to try hard to keep up to date with the XXth century. It has little to no effect on the language spoken in real life.

Sheilbh

I love the Academie Francaise. Any organisation run by unanimously elected Immortals is admirable :lol:

And they recently got a British member:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/22/academie-francaise-elect-first-british-member
Let's bomb Russia!

garbon

Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:48:09 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 02:39:36 PM
Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:28:22 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 10:01:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.

It's not as if we really listen to it too much, anyway.

And yet it exists.

It's a place for crotchety old academics to try hard to keep up to date with the XXth century. It has little to no effect on the language spoken in real life.

Is Iorm crotchety?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

The Larch

Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 03:25:35 PM
Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:48:09 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 02:39:36 PM
Quote from: The Larch on February 24, 2013, 02:28:22 PM
Quote from: garbon on February 24, 2013, 10:01:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on February 22, 2013, 03:25:22 PM
Most disturbing though, the Royal Academy has lately embraced Latinamerican dialects, an act which everyone should obviously disregard as foolish and crazy.

More disturbing is having an insitition regulating language.

It's not as if we really listen to it too much, anyway.

And yet it exists.

It's a place for crotchety old academics to try hard to keep up to date with the XXth century. It has little to no effect on the language spoken in real life.

Is Iorm crotchety?

It's the academics the ones that are crotchety, not the people who listen to them.  :P