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I woke up this morning wondering about words...specifically those non-English words that make their way into common English usage. Touche, for example. Gesundheit is another, as is kitsch. To a lesser extent, bon appetit and fiesta, though those tend to trigger mental translation. The sort of word I'm talking about, if it can be translated into English, it's not. Not even mentally when you say it. As a negative example, I've lately (for whatever reason) been thanking people with "Merci". That's a conscious use of a foreign language, and when I use it I'm mentally noting that I mean "thanks", as are the people I say it to...other than my French Canadian friends, who just think "Why is this Anglo jackass trying to speak French?" OK, if they're my friends then they're not calling me a jackass...anyhow. So that's not what I'm talking about. Nor am I talking about nouns that have no English equivalent, like spaghetti or mu shu gai pan. Those words (usually for food, which is telling) are not really borrowed into English, as they only indicate something from another culture, no matter how many burritos or kielbasas you can buy in London. What I'm talking (writing) about are words that have so integrated into English use that we don't really think of them as non-English...but not words so ingrained that they actually are English. Does that make sense? Words at the threshold, maybe. Not like lieutenant, which is a French word that has been fully integrated, to the point that English claims it. Touche is also French, also commonly used by English speakers, but somehow remains just outside English. That's the kind of word I mean. Gesundheit is a perfect example. One could just as easily say "bless you", but when you say Gesundheit you're not mentally replacing it with "bless you" (or even the actually translation, "good health"). These words aren't quite loanwords because, again, they're not fully integrated. You think and say Gesundheit, but nobody would call that English. I suppose the line between "this is integrated" and "this isn't" is very fine. Does this even make sense? Anyone have any other examples? |
