The foreign words that seem like English, but aren't

The language nazis are complaining we already have the word Elektrik for that because in German that apparently includes what is colloquially called Elektronik.

It's mostly an argument based on word origins (i.e. they say Elektronik would have to be similar to Mechatronik in that it would specifically refer to electronic motors and such rather than typical consumer electronics).

Of course Elektronik does have a distinct meaning separate from Elektrik and the entire argument is based on a simplistic understanding of how human language works.

But like many of the more outlandish arguments this boils down to "foreign words are corrupting our Germanic language and ultimately destroying our culture" -- which of course is insane.

The entire "Germanize the German language" idea was pretty popular in the Nazi era, btw, giving rise to many failed word creations as well as a few that stuck around (I think "Bürgersteig" successfully replaced the French loan word "Trottoir").

I guess "xenophobic asshole" is a more accurate term but I thought "nazi" conveys enough meaning without resorting on language Americans might find offensive.

That said, "Analysis" is a distinct term in mathematics (I think the meaning is the same in English in that context). Outside of mathematics it is actually "Analyse" (such as when analysing a substance in chemistry or inspecting something in close detail in general). I don't think "Zerlegung" is particularly widely used in any context but it might be.

I was a bit confused when I began studying computer science in university because all my prior exposure to programming had been colloquial or in English. But German academia had actually created its own vocabulary for things like stacks ("Stapel") and arrays ("Felder"), which are mostly just exact translations. This seems particularly awkward when nearly all actual programming is done in English and the academic and practical vocabulary clashes so hard.

Well, they both refer to hands, I guess. The Chinese word is 手机 shouji "hand machine". "Phone" is 电话 dianhua "electric speech". Those two words aren't related.

What's interesting is that in Europe, DECT was designed to work the same way, but it never caught on as anything aside from a home cordless phone standard. Wikipedia says there was even a public DECT network in Italy until 2001.

On a related note, I have yet to encounter a French speaker saying in English "Sorry to derange you", but I am hopeful it will one day happen.

Clubs that only enforce Dress Code will prohibit you from entering only if your clothes don't match the requirements.

Those clubs with Face Control will prohibit your entrance for whatever reason they want. Usually it's just an extortion (левак) and you have to bribe your way in (дать на лапу). Although sometimes, it's about the gender ratio or your sexual preferences. Clubs have to make sure that the party doesn't turn into a sausage party and keep away people who can cause problems.

Левак = money made on the left (on the side). Most likely illegal or against company's policy

Дать на лапу = to give (money) to someone's paw (hand)

I think Russian makes heavy use of diminutives, doesn't it? I worked somewhere where two women were called Natalia and Natasha and I am still confused what their actual name were, because Natasha seems to be the diminutive form of Natalia and sometimes Natasha called Natalia "Natasha".

I do not think that there are any German names which are the diminutive of other names.

So basically, Russians like to talk like Flanders? :P

I'm not sure how this distinction is made. As far as I can tell "Business" and "Software" aren't quite there yet ("Softwareentwickler" is something I see relatively frequently but as far as I know it's still considered non-standard).

"There is no double entendres in France" literally means that "double entendres" are nowhere to be found in France, which in itself makes no sense.

The sentence "there is no double entendres in French" would actually make sense but bears the meaning with which I credited it initially.

If the journalist meant "The expression double entendres is borrowed from French but not used in France where it has no meanings" he/she did a poor job phrasing it.

When the French lost to the british in 177x-ish, people of Quebec were left to fend for themselves. They fought tooth and nail to preserve their culture and language and I think to this day there's still this inertia going on in the way modern French Canadians think.

Moreover, there has been a study/survey showing that isolated culturally homogeneous communities tend to heavy-handedly police (the US style) the use of their native languages. I wish I could find a link to that study :-(

As a native russian speaker living in the US i can actually confirm that the study seems to ring true; i dislike (very much so) when russian speakers start mixing in english words.

Language continues to evolve and grow everywhere. What's going on isn't some impossible impulse in the Quebecois to conserve their language; they are trying to differentiate themselves from English-speaking Canada. The French in France don't need to worry about getting culturally absorbed in the way the Quebecois do.

It's not just language. I assume that it's because while the native population marches on naturally, the emigrants are trying to preserve the culture and language they brought with them, with no influence from their original home country. Being surrounded by a foreign language/culture probably also leads to emphasising the distinctions (e.g. to avoid loan words out of fear of watering down your identity).

My understanding, from spending a few days in Quebec, interacting with people from there, and listening to lots of shows about the french language, there are two school of thoughts in Quebec:

- one that french as to be pure, where pure means not a single word with roots that can be traced back to english.

- one that borrows a lot of words from modern english, which are pronounced with an english accent (as opposed to english word adopted in France, which are pronounced with a french accent).

I don't know where the line is drawn, if they are the same people in different context, or a social class, or just a conscious decision to adopt one vs the other, but all the jazz about language laws there seem to be coming from the first group.

Also note there isn't a single version of the french language in Canada, but several across the country which is based on where the original people came from in France, and what influence that language has had over the past 400 years.

Do you speak Spanish or Catalan with your friends and family when discussing things like Facebook?

The only thing I could see would be the use of the pseudo-anglicism instead of the English phrase, but that just seems to be specifying the specific word that amused them, not exaggerating the English phrase we would associate with it for effect.

i.e. that's an authentic transcription of a (borrowed) Japanese word, not a rude impression of a Japanese person mangling English.

But given that the distinct japanese style of animation and storytelling (what the west knows as "anime") has spawned a whole industry and subculture and has become part of japan's image in the world, it would seem to me to be too important to not give it a distinct name. So I wonder, is there a different term in japanese for it?