Last weekend I went with a friend to a café in a plaza, and we talked about a tsunami related drama. Did you know that the above sentence, while being English, used words from four different languages? That’s right. In that sentence there is French, Spanish, Japanese and Greek. Languages all over the world take words from other languages and make them their own. These are called loanwords. Sometimes the word’s spelling and/or pronunciation is slightly changed to fit the new language, but usually, it is very close to the original language. Food items and cultural practices are common loanwords such as the Japanese words sushi, tofu, judo and manga now being part of not only English, but many other languages as well. Over the years, many words from many of the world’s languages worked their way into English, but now, English is the world’s leading supplier of loanwords due to its global use. So, in the opening sentence which said that I went to a café in a plaza and talked about a tsunami related drama, do you know which words are the French, Spanish, Japanese, and Greek loanwords? They are café from French, plaza from Spanish, tsunami from Japanese and drama from Greek. Knowing this, it makes you wonder, how many languages are you speaking each time you say something?
Erik
