The English Language – Hello 207

The English language, over the centuries, has borrowed words from almost every language on earth, which is why it now has the richest vocabulary of all languages.

English is spoken by over 750 million people worldwide, and has words and expressions that just don’t exist in other tongues.  Because of the wide-reaching tentacles of the British Empire, in its prime holding sway over a quarter of the world’s population, English became very well-known and well-used.  In areas where many different nationalities come together, it was useful to have a common language, especially used for trading and administration.

For example, in Singapore, English was the answer to the vexed question of which language should be spoken by Chinese, Indians, Malay, Koreans, Japanese and many others. It became the first language in the education system and is now the official language of business and one of the four official languages.  However, the lingua franca of the people is gradually becoming Singlish, a mixture of English and other native tongues.

In Malaysia there is a version called Manglish, or Mangled English, which is a mixture of English, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese mainly. Denglish is German/English and Spanglish is mainly Spanish with some English words thrown in and is also known as Tex-Mex, on the southern US border.

Chinglish is a mix of Chinese and English. In preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the city authorities clamped down on the usage of Chinglish and replaced it with standard English.

Franglais or Frenglish is a mixture of French and English, and is not welcomed by all French speakers due to the perception of the corruption of their national language. After the Second World War, many American products and English expressions became popular, despite government censorship of foreign comic strips etc. Words such as le weekend, shampoo and le drugstore are regularly used. Celebrities are known in French as people.

Well, it’s only fair – having stolen words from all around the world, we are now giving them back.
Happy Puzzling!