too much gas

[Tdol]

I heard that we got the word 'char' from a Portuguese Princess (Catherine I think) who introduced the afternoon tea habit to Britain.

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by tdol

I thought 'piano' meant 'quiet'. ;-(

Doesn't it also mean slow?

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by lucyarliwu

Hi,Tdol!

You have given me an implication that I should turn to learn French firstly if I want to study English well since most English is from French!
;) hehe....what do you think of this?

No, that's not true, I think. The only reason why English has so much French loans in it, is historical (cf. invasion of Willem of Normandy :? ). It's not related to French, because French is a Romance language and English is a Germanic language. Other languages that belong to the Germanic family are Dutch, German, Danish,...

Other Romance languages are Italian, Spanish, Romanian...

greetz

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by RonBee

More than half of English vocabulary (so I have heard) is from French. However, the most frequently used words are still from Anglo-Saxon or Norse.

Note the similarities between modern German and English in these words:

English---- German
father ------ vater
mother---- mutter
brother ---- bruder
sister ----- schwester

(Note: the German v is pronounced the same as the English f.)

8)

I don't know if that's so surprising, I mean they do belong to the same language family?

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by RonBee

From The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (by David Crystal): "When one language takes lexemes from another, the new items are usually called loan words or borrowings -- though neither term is really appropriate, as the receiving language does not give them back. English, perhaps more than any other language, is an insatiable borrower. Whereas the speakers of other languages take pains to exclude foreign words from their lexicons, English always seems to have welcomed them. Over 120 languages are on record as sources of its present-day vocabulary, and the locations of contact are found all over the world."

BTW, the word tea comes from China.

8)

... :? Do you really believe that? If you take a look all around the world, wouldn't you have to agree that in every language, English is infiltrating more and more...The only language I know to be very resistant to English borrowing is French, but doh...why am I not surprised... :wink:
But if you look at the Netherlands you will see them using a lot of English in their Dutch. And also Afrikaans takes a lot of English words.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Ibeke

... :? Do you really believe that? If you take a look all around the world, wouldn't you have to agree that in every language, English is infiltrating more and more...The only language I know to be very resistant to English borrowing is French, but doh...why am I not surprised... :wink:
But if you look at the Netherlands you will see them using a lot of English in their Dutch. And also Afrikaans takes a lot of English words.

Actually, :D , the point was this: English, perhaps more than any other language, is an insatiable borrower. :wink: That is, English borrows from many languages via contact: immigration; media; Business. :wink:

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

Actually, :D , the point was this: English, perhaps more than any other language, is an insatiable borrower. :wink: That is, English borrows from many languages via contact: immigration; media; Business. :wink:

Well, actually :wink: I don't agree that English could "perhaps" be a greater borrower than any other language. What I might agree with is that English borrows from various languages and that the variety in languages it borrows from is great.

Btw this sentence was really stated: " Whereas the speakers of other languages take pains to exclude foreign words from their lexicons"
...and that is still very untrue to me.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by Ibeke

What I might agree with is that English borrows from various languages and that the variety in languages it borrows from is great.

I agree. :D

Originally Posted by Ibeke

this sentence was really stated: " Whereas the speakers of other languages take pains to exclude foreign words from their lexicons" ...and that is still very untrue to me.

The only language I know to be very resistant to English borrowing is French", right?

So you're saying it's an overstatement, right? Hmm. But, then again, have you looked to see if there are other languages aside from French that do indeed 'take pains to exlude foreign words from their lexicons'? :wink:

[Tdol]

The Academie Francaise tries, but they are fighting a losing battle.

[Ibeke]

Originally Posted by Casiopea

I agree. :D

So you're saying it's an overstatement, right? Hmm. But, then again, have you looked to see if there are other languages aside from French that do indeed 'take pains to exlude foreign words from their lexicons'? :wink:

Well, I watch a lot of German television and it surprises me how they always manage to find their own words for modern technologies, for example "Fernsehe" for tv. I mean: in Belgium it's televisie and in the Netherlands as well, but in Germany it's Fernsehe. I'm saying this because Germany differs little- at least in my eyes- from Dutch and they could have easily made it: Televisione...I don't think that would have constituted a problem for pronunciation whatsoever. But ok, I'm certainly not encouraging extensive borrowing. In the Netherlands very often English words are inserted in speech as well as words from the former colony Surinam (or Dutch Guiana). In Afrikaans there has been plenty of borrowing from various sources: English, Dutch, Malay, Portuguese, Zulu, Xhosa, French, Arab,...Some languages have not been as influential as others. For example Arab and French. Most French loans in Afrikaans are restricted to names and most Arab loans have religious context: such as "een kaffer" from the Arab "kafir", a non-believer.

In Moroccan most of the borrowing is from French and also from Spanish. Riffiyan Berber (spoken in the north of Morocco) has borrowed so extensively from Spanish, that during my Spanish classes I knew practically all of the vocabulary already.

But I would say French together with Flemish (Belgium) and German are still somewhat resistant to borrowing. As Flemish and Netherland Dutch are practically the same (except for pronunciation) they can easily be compared to detect loan words and as you come to do this, you will come to the same conclusion as I did: Netherland Dutch is less hesitant in loaning words especially from English.

Greetz :wink:

PS:...and these are only the lexical loans we're talking about.