In message Pine.SOL.4.30.0111252326130.21847-100000@kruuna.Helsinki.FI, Kai V Karmanheimo karmanhe@cc.helsinki.fi writes
English-speaking peoples are now in a rather privileged position of living in a linguistically dominant cultures that are giving out the influences rather than digesting them.
Ahem. The latter part of that statement is a load of bollocks, or at least is accurate in the sense that I presume from context you did *not* mean. I reproduce for the amusement of the Lyst the following exchange from alt.fan.pratchett, sparked off by the French Academy and some of its more laughable attempts to preserve the purity of the French language by coming up with entire sentences to replace one borrowed English word:
*****
But, but, but... that's how languages work, nicking bits from
other
languages! Or at least it's how English works...
No, English follows them down a dark alley, coshes them over the head, rifles through their pockets, takes their keys and steals the contents of their house to boot.
To add insult to the injury, English also insists on distorting the loot in Ways it was Not Meant to be Dissed.
<rant> It is the rapacious genius of the English language that no word is wholly foreign to it. On the contrary, it appropriates words shamelessly from every language under the sun, then uses them so vilely and bends them so badly that nobody wants 'em back. English is robust. English can take care of itself. Let lesser breeds establish their querulous and fretful _Academies_; their _Offices_du_Langue_. English needs no eraser-headed gnomes to protect its linguistic purity.
<\rant>
****
and then there was this:
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James Nicoll, rasseff