Alex Tabarrok over at Marginal Revolution has an interesting post about the use of ‘loan words’ – words borrowed from another language for a variety of reasons.
My closest brush with linguistics in college was the ‘historically speaking’ interludes told by my Russian professor about reforms and reductions in the alphabet. The Russian alphabet used to have even more letters than the 33 it currently has, and editing down that number is part of the reason why the words for peace and for world share the same word (MUP) – the vowel in one of them was done-away with (which, I can’t remember).
I pretty much suck at learning languages, but I’ve always been fascinated by the stories they tell about the people and cultures that use them. The adoption of certain words and phrases can signify a lack in the borrowing language, or even just trends in fashion. I think the Russian incorporation of French words is an example of both – the need for more modern words, and also a fascination with the French court during the 1800s.
Check out the post, and definitely read the comments. MR’s readers are pretty smart to begin with, and there are some great insights as well as funny stories to be read.
