Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proudly and embarrassingly declared that he only "speaks American" while in a room filled with leaders from Latin America.
“[English doesn’t] just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” – James Nicoll
I’m sorry, but if you truly believe that, then you must have a very limited knowledge of the languages of the world. English is not very unusual in this regard.
My personal favourite, which goes much, much further in the duct taping department by taking essentially the entire grammar from one language and a majority of the vocabulary from another, together with uncountable other influences, would be Maltese.
But there are many others, not least all the world’s creole languages.
Ah, if you include creoles I can understand where you are coming from. Creoles aren’t even considered fully fledged languages, which is why there is a word for them as a concept, so including them would be wrong. Many of them are also just a mix of a local language and English. They might disappear, or evolve to full languages.
I don’t know the Maltese language, but that description is still more coherent than what has gone down with English whose grammar rules are all over the place. Some rules are from old norse, some are from French, and some are their own. Most if not all rules in English can be broken due to these grammatical influences. There is also the large amount of places English has vocabulary, idioms, metaphors, and other forms of sayings from
Creoles aren’t even considered fully fledged languages, which is why there is a word for them as a concept, so including them would be wrong. Many of them are also just a mix of a local language and English. They might disappear, or evolve to full languages.
You must have gravely misunderstood many things here, for you can’t possibly really believe that the language of Haiti (to take a very obvious and well-known example) isn’t a “fully fledged language” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) or that it has any risk of disappearing (greater than any other language).
I don’t know the Maltese language, but that description is still more coherent than what has gone down with English whose grammar rules are all over the place.
While it’s true that also English has borrowed some grammar from other languages (as most languages have, to varying degrees), that has, as far as I’m aware of, all been from related Indo-European languages, not even close to requiring the amount of duct taping of Maltese. Can you think of even a single example of an English grammar rule that doesn’t come from another Indo-European language?
Wait until he learns that English is a hybrid of Latin, French and German.
We’re gonna be here a while…
People forget he was a fox news host. Ain’t no learnin been done here
and Celtic, Greek, Dutch, Turkish, various Indian/South Asian languages and Arabic.
Not to mention the “French” and “German” you mention were actually Saxon and Norman which became those languages.
Out of curiosity what Turkish words and Indian words are common in english
aryan, bugger, coffee, doodle, horde, kiosk, lackey, mammoth, ottoman, pillar, quiver, sofa, turquoise, yogurt.
Bungalow, pyjamas, jungle, loot, shampoo
I was curious, as well, and discovered we weren’t the first.
Turkish origin words (baklava is common).
Here’s a list of lists for various Indian languages (guru is common).
English is the most duct-taped together language, so many languages who affected it deeply
“[English doesn’t] just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” – James Nicoll
Not only vocabulary, but grammar too.
I’m sorry, but if you truly believe that, then you must have a very limited knowledge of the languages of the world. English is not very unusual in this regard.
What language is even close to English in this regard?
My personal favourite, which goes much, much further in the duct taping department by taking essentially the entire grammar from one language and a majority of the vocabulary from another, together with uncountable other influences, would be Maltese.
But there are many others, not least all the world’s creole languages.
Ah, if you include creoles I can understand where you are coming from. Creoles aren’t even considered fully fledged languages, which is why there is a word for them as a concept, so including them would be wrong. Many of them are also just a mix of a local language and English. They might disappear, or evolve to full languages.
I don’t know the Maltese language, but that description is still more coherent than what has gone down with English whose grammar rules are all over the place. Some rules are from old norse, some are from French, and some are their own. Most if not all rules in English can be broken due to these grammatical influences. There is also the large amount of places English has vocabulary, idioms, metaphors, and other forms of sayings from
You must have gravely misunderstood many things here, for you can’t possibly really believe that the language of Haiti (to take a very obvious and well-known example) isn’t a “fully fledged language” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) or that it has any risk of disappearing (greater than any other language).
While it’s true that also English has borrowed some grammar from other languages (as most languages have, to varying degrees), that has, as far as I’m aware of, all been from related Indo-European languages, not even close to requiring the amount of duct taping of Maltese. Can you think of even a single example of an English grammar rule that doesn’t come from another Indo-European language?
No, I have not misunderstood and I do not agree with your argument.
OK, then you’re just wrong. Sorry.
And Viking/Danish. And Celtic.
Norse. And it’s more similar to modern Icelandic than anything else, perhaps most closely followed by (distant second place) Norwegian.
Or all of the “loaner” words
The term “America” was coined for south america.
The english then called the northern continent “North America” because they were lazy.