Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Spent Saturday as a day of rest, though pretty much just by coincidence. Did do some reading; still behind on email and paperwork and Christmas prep and phone calls and reading LiveJournal, but did get around to cooking a proper meal (spur of the moment experimentation with the potatoes came out well, and I got a capsaicin fix). Mostly trying to reset to feeling rested even though I know my body isn't going to be consistent enough sleep-wise for that to last -- I just want to feel like it's some sort of new start after getting past the fallout of the valerian experiment. I am sleeping again, but it seems to mostly be in 3-hour chunks.

But that's not what I sat down to write. This is: How many natural languages have not yet contributed words to English? (Okay, have words shamelessly snarfed from them by English...) Are there any languages with a population of native speakers who have interacted with English-speaking adventurers, tourists, tourist-service personnel, diplomats, academics, or businessmen, which have not had some useful word or phrase swiped? Are there any living languages whose population of native speakers have not had significant interaction with English-speakers?

The flip side is also somewhat interesting, but (for now, to me) less so: are there any languages English has not donated words or idioms to? (I'm guessing that there are more "uncorrupted by English" than "not stolen from" languages, but considering how many English words have found their way into French slang, and the English influence by way of technical jargon, I can see how my guess is far from certain.)

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2004-07-01:

"If you can conceptualize the world's 4 billion poor as a market, rather than as a burden, they must be considered the biggest source of growth left in the world," -- C.K. Prahalad, a leading management theorist who studies developing markets.

(Submitted to the mailing list by Sid Sidner)

Whoops. It's snowing. Softly, slowly. But being the first real snow (i.e. not just a flurry) of the season, it doesn't have to be at all impressive to make the roads tricky. The television folks just predicted an inch, which ought not be a challenge once people remember what snow is. (Well, as much as they ever do remember how to drive in it here, anyhow.[*]) My problem? I've got plenty of milk, toilet paper, and eggs, but I'm down to my last two slices of bread. And regardless of not wanting to take a shower in a cold house just to go deal with slippery roads and scared drivers, I don't want to go near a grocery store during the season's first snowfall ... not in Maryland, where the word triggers a Pavlovian response of "buy milk and toilet paper right now", at any point in the season. I'll wait until tomorrow, when (I think) it'll all be on the ground -- the phenomenon seems to be limited to when snow is either falling or predicted, not when it's sitting there.

But hey, it's pretty.

[*] Contrary to stereotypes envisioned by people in other places, it's not that nobody in Balto-Wash can drive in snow; it's just that enough people here can't -- and some just can't drive worth a damn in any weather -- that their presence on the road makes things that much more challenging for the significant number of people who can drive in snow. That, and the fact that we get truly clobbered by snow so seldom that it's not cost effective for local governments to keep the really serious snow removal equipment on hand. So every few years, when we do get hit with the kind of snowfall that someplace like Buffalo deals with routinely, the cities that deal with it month after month, winter after winter, mock us for not being able to keep up.