eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 03:44am on 2004-12-19

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.)

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