I don't know if it is certain because I don't know all the english words but the second largest population has had extensive interaction with english considering it was a english colony and it "Seems" to have given few if any slang or other words to English... Hindus. For that matter China and Korea also seem to be on the short end of that stick.
Oh, China has contributed a fiar amount to English, particularly to the technical jargon of Paleontology...lots of stuff going on these days with Chinese feathered dinosaurs.
Korea, to a much lesser extent...Tae Kwon Do is actually Korean in origin.
There are plenty of Hindu religious terms that have made it into English -- "karma" is probably the most obvious. (At least, I *think* that comes from Hindi -- I don't know for sure.)
If there are languages that haven't contributed to English, I'd lay my money on Africa. The African languages are often much further away from English linguistically, I believe, and historically the US (where much of the recent evolution of English has happened) hasn't paid much attention to the whole continent...
Ah, a useful clue! Of course, we'd also have to steer away from the parts of the continent that the British paid attention to during the past couple of centuries. I'm guessing we skip the coastal areas?
And your suggestion has sparked another idea -- how about South America? Are there any populations there that have not had significant contact with English speakers? Or have the native languages there contributed to English indirectly by first giving words to Spanish and Portugese which in turn passed then along?
I got a group.. maybe
But I don't know if product names count.
Re: I got a group.. maybe
Korea, to a much lesser extent...Tae Kwon Do is actually Korean in origin.
Don't know about Hindi, however.
Re: I got a group.. maybe
If there are languages that haven't contributed to English, I'd lay my money on Africa. The African languages are often much further away from English linguistically, I believe, and historically the US (where much of the recent evolution of English has happened) hasn't paid much attention to the whole continent...
Re: I got a group.. maybe
And your suggestion has sparked another idea -- how about South America? Are there any populations there that have not had significant contact with English speakers? Or have the native languages there contributed to English indirectly by first giving words to Spanish and Portugese which in turn passed then along?
Re: I got a group.. maybe
Hindi: "Jungle"
Chinese: "Typhoon"
Re: I got a group.. maybe
One South American word (of uncertain origin) that's in English is "mate," a two syllable word (ma-teh) meaning a tealike drink...
A similar interesting question would be, "What living languages have not borrowed words from English?"