Glottophagy

 

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The view expressed in the image you see above is a very common belief. I have found that it is the most commonly held belief about the purported dangers of English readily seen online, though linguists state that this claim may not be entirely justified. They say that the language may be getting a bad rap because and that black-and-white thinking is an inaccurate approach to understanding how languages work. English is not simply killing other languages and leaving no trace of their having existed.

Concepts unique to a culture and represented by a word or phrase in that culture’s tongue have a good chance of survival. You are no doubt familiar with boondocks, kawaii, and déjà vu–all of which were appreciated so much by English speakers of the past that they have now come into common usage. A great many words and phrases survive in this way.

The image below illustrates that the body of words comprising the English vocabulary. It can be called ‘English’, but it is amassed from many more languages than just English. Some of these may be words which were picked up by English speakers and remain in use unaltered from their original form. Some entries may be in use as partial words or as complete phrases. Having joined the family of some half-million English dictionary entries, expressions from other tongues which come into use by users of English are exported along with the many others to new learners throughout the world.

 

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This image shows what English is composed of today. It is a combination of linguistic influences that will be different in time because some cultures are developing their own versions of English.

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