4 ms·

There are people in the USA who push for English as a national language, not the removal of loan words.

tibbon 16y ago
Correct, even as a national language, the first amendment would clearly disallow a ban on usage of other languages by private citizens and media.
hugh3 16y ago
Given that English in its earliest intelligible form is a merger between Old English and Norman French, I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like. Probably like Beowulf, and I'm sure I couldn't understand it. English is a great language (though a very hard one to learn) precisely because it's cobbled together from bits of other languages. If another language has a word for a concept we're missing then we just acquire the word. So if your friend gets drunk on tequila and vodka and eats too much foie gras and winds up with a tattoo of a voodoo shaman holding a katana in a sauna dancing the hula with a walrus then by all means you can feel schadenfreude about it.
- cabalamat 16y ago
  > I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like Perhaps like this: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/69250bac6c7cbaff?pli=1 http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/6... (An essay by Poul Anderson explaining nuclear physics using only Germanic words)
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  Which is all very well until you're playing Scrabble and your letters spell all sorts of pronouncable wordshaped sequences which you are sure must mean something to someone... but then they aren't allowed. :-/
- gwern 16y ago
  > > I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like My friend, run, do not walk, to http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside (Example article: http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Banded_Folkdoms_of_Americksland http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Banded_Folkdoms_of_Americkslan... )

Correct, even as a national language, the first amendment would clearly disallow a ban on usage of other languages by private citizens and media.

hugh3 16y ago

Given that English in its earliest intelligible form is a merger between Old English and Norman French, I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like. Probably like Beowulf, and I'm sure I couldn't understand it. English is a great language (though a very hard one to learn) precisely because it's cobbled together from bits of other languages. If another language has a word for a concept we're missing then we just acquire the word. So if your friend gets drunk on tequila and vodka and eats too much foie gras and winds up with a tattoo of a voodoo shaman holding a katana in a sauna dancing the hula with a walrus then by all means you can feel schadenfreude about it.

cabalamat 16y ago
> I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like Perhaps like this: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/69250bac6c7cbaff?pli=1 http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/6... (An essay by Poul Anderson explaining nuclear physics using only Germanic words)
jodrellblank 16y ago
Which is all very well until you're playing Scrabble and your letters spell all sorts of pronouncable wordshaped sequences which you are sure must mean something to someone... but then they aren't allowed. :-/
gwern 16y ago
> > I'm not really sure what English with loan words removed would sound like My friend, run, do not walk, to http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Headside (Example article: http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Banded_Folkdoms_of_Americksland http://anglish.wikia.com/wiki/Banded_Folkdoms_of_Americkslan... )