• hakase@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours ago

    All languages borrow, including German. English is not at all weird in this way.

    • Tonava@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      Borrowing itself is normal, yeah, but english tends to go to the extremes with that. Even yoinking words like smörgåsbord as they are

      • hakase@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        English does have an above-average percentage of loanwords, but not the highest. Armenian and Romani are over 90% borrowings, for example.

        Also, note that “smorgasbord” has undergone significant phonological adaptation in its borrowing to fit English’s phonotactics - it’s definitely not borrowed as-is.