To borrow, or not to borrow?

Many languages, English for example, are like a big giant linguistic salad of just about every other language on the spectrum.

Others keep closer to their native roots and construct their own words instead of borrowing them from other languages. I heard that French is one of them.

To see borrowing vs using native words in action, see Polish "auto" vs "samochód". Auto obviously comes from automobile: "auto" Greek via French, and "mobile" Latin. On the other hand, samochód is pure Slavic/Polish—like the Greco-Roman hybrid, the two parts of the word literally mean "self-goer".

Both words are used interchangeably in Polish speech, though samochód is the dominant word.

Now, a great advantage of borrowing is it makes life a lot easier for those who see a lot of different languages at once. Because the Greek word "photograph" exists in English, I can recognize "Zdjęcie fotograficzne" in Polish even if I don't know the language.

WILL FINISH THIS POST LATER.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

If you got a perfectly fine word for some new concept, then I find it silly to make up a word of your own, unless it's near impossible to pronounce.

Agreed. I'd like to think "schadenfreude" has caught on in English even if it isn't always pronounced perfectly. Because what else would you use to describe, well, schadenfreude...

Recursive loanwords.

/watches as the thread just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Most loanwords are, in fact, only really used as a short-hand for more complicated concepts in foreign languages. The terms for the word already exist in the loaner-language, but they are not succinct and short.

For example, "angst". Words that have no simple English equivalent include "mu", in the negative sense (which, to my knowledge, basically means "rethink and reask your question").

edited 4th Apr '11 5:00:33 PM by AllanAssiduity

I am not against borrowing words, in principle; but that should not be done without necessity, nor without striving to maintain some linguistic consistency.

Sadly, that almost never happens. And this gives us such horrors as "itemizzare", or "performante", or -ugh- "briffare" (in the sense of "giving a briefing").

And do not get me started on false friends: whenever I hear someone use "accomodazione" in the sense of "lodging", or "civilizzazione" instead of "civiltà", or "patentemente" (from "patently")... well, nothing much happens, to be honest, but I get unhappy.

I like "blatante", though, that's a fun sound.

edited 5th Apr '11 10:12:46 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

^ Italiano, sí? Yo sé que no es español.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Correct.

Sadly, borrowing English words is perceived as "cool" in Italy nowadays, especially among certain segments of the population. I have nothing against the English language*

, but sometimes that gets just silly.

Although, to be fair, when people refuse to adapt some technical English neologism and insist to use their homebrewed version, the effect is just as bad - no, "logica del punto fisso minimo" is wordy, sounds goofy and making it into an acronym just makes things confusing when everyone else is using "LFP logic".

edited 5th Apr '11 10:34:06 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.