Original question by @[email protected]
I like to lean about words from around the world and use them in my speech. I have a particular love for British words. I just love words like spiv, nod, wasteman, barmy, slapper, bruv, shafted, nonce, junkie, bint, smackhead, slag, breve, chav, squiffy, slaphead, dosh, shafted
Gesundheit
Kindergarten
Peckish
I am from germany and not sure if it counts … But… Piwo - beer Lowine - money Motek - Hammer Koten - kids Bratan - brother (like bro) Fiets - bike
i used to import words from other countries before tariffs kicked in
I speak English. And, as James Nicoll said,
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
I speak some Spanish and some Dutch, but I don’t know if I borrow many words from them that aren’t “normal” borrow-words.
Dutch is also great at mugging others for words.
Pure English should not use Latin Alphabet.
It’s back to celtic writing.
That’s a weird take when it’s not a Celtic language. It’s Germanic (with heavy Romantic old French influence), so you should really be talking about runes or something.
Latin letters are a terrible fit, though, you’re absolutely right about that. It gives you 4 vowels to work with and my spoken dialect has 17.
We use “no bueno” quite a bit in our house. Not sure how it crept in but I like it.
Nein.
Moi?
Plenty of borrowed words from other languages that don’t have an equal word in English. Shadenfruede. Je ne sai quoi. Cologne. Et cetera (literally).
I tend to use kanpai as my toast and cheers in place of thanks as an American
From the States, I say Maccas instead of McDonald’s, and things like bellend and wanker occasionally. It’s fun picking up words and stuff from other cultures
I’m Dutch, but often speak English as I’m fluent in it, so it sometimes mixes. Other words I often use are
- some German, Spanish and French phrases (secondary languages),
- various toasts, like lechajim, skål, depending on the people I’m with,
- some Arabic like shukran, habibi,
- Surinamese slang (kaolo is a fun one)
We often toast in the language of the liquid we’re drinking
lechajim
I’ve never seen that spelling before. Usually I see ‘L’chiam’
Since it’s from modern “Hebrew” it doesn’t really matter how you spell it since Hebrew is an abjat script
Along similar lines, I once saw a food review that talked about Peking duck and Beijing, China.
Surinamese slang (kaolo is a fun one)
I love people using it as a synonym for “very”, when in fact means “shit hole”.
That’s the idea of slang
Bone apple tea.
All the time.
There is no such thing as a (modern) language that is not assembled from borrowing from other languages. So even speaking a single language, one may already be ‘borrowing’ from quite a few more. Add to that many of us will speak at least two languages (native + English), or more.
So yeah, like many, I borrow words and expressions from any of the languages I speak, even more so with those words and expressions I have a sweet spot for ;)
I prefer the word biscuit, even as an American. I don’t like saying the word “cracker” because that sounds like its easily misunderstood as an insult to rural white people.
Petrol > gas. Using the same word for gasoline and natural gas gets confusing as hell in any number of conversations.
