Words of Foreign Origin in Different Languages

No language can escape the fate of foreign influence. Languages evolve over time; new words enter the dictionary and new expressions enter the everyday language, a lot of them coming from other languages. In addition, with the global dominance of English it is just impossible to avoid using English words in domains such as IT or marketing. Why bother to translate them into your own language when English is the “business language”?

However, English is not the only language to infiltrate others. The same phenomenon happens with German, French or Italian. For example, they do use “faux pas” and “angst” in English.

So, have you ever wondered how much a language is influenced by other ones, or which words they “borrowed” to make them their own? Luckily, our team of writers has compiled a few examples of words in their language that come from… elsewhere. The funny thing is, sometimes they may have borrowed words, but they also almost completely changed the way they are written to make them more “local.” It may be hard to guess, for example, that the Polish word “randka” comes from the French word “rendez-vous”…

So if you are feeling a bit curious about linguistics, take a look at the following articles – you may just learn a few things!

Hit-parade of foreign words in Italian

Are you sure you’re speaking English?

Weekend is weekend i basta!

Language bazarre

Fårejn Vords (for•eign words)

Japanese loan words – part 1

Japanese loan words – part 2

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