The bastardization of languages

Question

I once had an English professor that put the fear of God in us about using trendy words in our papers that were not in the Miriam Webster dictionary. He lectured us for an hour once about how English is being watered down and polluted by street lingo and foreign words, and that this would lead to death, destruction, and World War. Whatever, today El País has an in depth look at how English has polluted el español. Here's a snippet for the curious from one of the more sanguine contributors:

“Algunas palabras no hay más remedio que usarlas, y no pasa nada por decir software o email”, dice el autor de La noche de los tiempos. “En el inglés se integran con mucha naturalidad palabras de otros idiomas, entre ellos el español. A un idioma sano no le perjudican nada las palabras aisladas que vienen de otros”.

I think this translates roughly to, "There is no choice but to use some (foreign) words, and nothing bad happens from saying software or email", said the author of The Night of the Times. "English integrates words from other languages, including Spanish, with great naturalness. A healthy language is not hurt by words from the others (languages.)"

Ironically he uses "email" as an example and forever I've been using correo electrónico, and never knew email was acceptable.

To read the rest this is a [link] (http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/06/30/actualidad/1341076170_935785.html)

Was he/she really a professor, or just a teacher? ;-) - afowen, Mar 30, 2013

Professor, white, male, mid-sixties, very brilliant, and very sure that he wanted to keep the language pure. - Pablo-Peligroso, Mar 30, 2013

Oh, and he was of British descent and smoked a pipe. Never argue with a pipe. Never try to sell them a car either. - Pablo-Peligroso, Mar 30, 2013

Answer 1

In Swedish, we take in many English words. Thus, we have the Scandinavian word for face: ansikte.

Somehow we have also imported the English ' the face' but we spell it in Swedish ' fejset' .

I only mention this as a pointof interest. All languages move on, it's the nature of language.

Answer 2

I would say email in an informal conversation but I would not write it in a formal paper. I'm Spanish and Catalan native speaker and while Spanish tends to use English words, Catalan adapts words like "software" and tries to use "programari". It is because Catalan has a big sense of identity and tries to keep it straight and genuine. But Spanish is way more lax ^_^

Interesting comment. - annierats, Mar 29, 2013

In my opinion, any professor that would frown on email as opposed to e-mail or electronic mail, really needs to pay attention to how the word is used in Rueters, NYTimes, etc. It's OK. - VeeDraws, Mar 30, 2013

Answer 3

This is very true. The English speaking world has such an influence on the rest of the world. It's definitely noticeable in Spanish. I was watching Univision the other day and every now and then I would hear English words that were implicated into their daily speech like it was nothing.

Answer 4

I love having foreign words that are integrated into English, such as ...

• French "Je ne sais quoi"

• Italian "Amore mio"

• Spanish "Hasta la vista (Baby)"

• Yiddish "Schmuck"

Answer 5

Oh please, tell the professor to get off his 'pure' high horse.

The bastardization of any language is inevitable due to social human contact. Period. This has been discussed, analyzed and addressed by linguist. The Japanese borrowed an entire writing system, including some words from China. English used in America uses many trendy popular words from Mexico (I dare call any Mexican an immigrant), Irish immigrants, Jewish immigrants, etc.

The word bling has not only been accepted by fashion cognoscenti on 7th Avenue, Madison Avenue, Wall Street and Miriam Webster dictionary. And there are many other words that have been adapted from other languages and changed over time.