How to make a language with a profound foreign influence

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k1234567890y
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How to make a language with a profound foreign influence

Post by k1234567890y »

It is well known that there are natural languages that are not creoles or mixed languages with heavy foreign influences, like Japanes and English; however, these languages don't simply borrow words from other languages, even linguistic purism never gained popularity among speakers of a language, the speakers don't borrow words in an arbitrary manner.

Words related to concepts that are foreign to the native speakers are most likely to be borrowed,then words related to more complex ideas like academic and legal terms; on the contrary, grammatical affixes, functional words and words related to everyday life(like those listed on the Swadesh list or the Leipzig-Jakarta list) are very unlikely to be borrowed, even Japanese, a language that is notorious for its tendency to borrow English and Chinese words, don't borrow English and Chinese adpositions and particles.

Besides, if a category of vocabulary is full of loanwords, it is likely that loanwords belonging to the same category are from the same language, for example, many non-native academic terms in English are from Latin, many non-native medical terms in English are from Ancient Greek, many non-native musical terms in English are from Italian, etc.

There's another way to judge if a concept is likely to be expressed with loanwords: you can check the etymology of English words, and the pronunciation of Japanese words written Kanji, in Wiktionary. If the related English word is from Old English, or the pronunciation of the related Japanese word is kun'yomi, then speakers are less likely to use loanwords to express such a concept and are more likely to use native words; if the related English word is from Old English, AND the pronunciation of the related Japanese word is kun'yomi, then it is almost for certain that the speakers will use a native word for that concept.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Creyeditor
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Re: How to make a language with a profound foreign influence

Post by Creyeditor »

You might want to look at the WOLD (world loanword database)?
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k1234567890y
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Re: How to make a language with a profound foreign influence

Post by k1234567890y »

Creyeditor wrote:You might want to look at the WOLD (world loanword database)?
thank you for the database! (:
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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