01.14.06
Pretty soon, we’re all going to be speaking English
There are around twelve dialects of Italian, each different enough from the others that people who only speak dialect will have trouble understanding someone with another dialect. But one weird language quirk that I have noticed is how many English words are creeping in to everyday use.
One of the strangest English words in use is the word “over.” For example, a ticket for senior citizens is available to the “over 65.” It’s strange to me because there is an Italian word for “over.” But for some reason the English word is being used.
I glanced through the paper today and made a list of all the English words I found in the headlines. Here’s the list:
- Best Movie (A magazine)
- leader
- bank
- stop
- star
- killer virus (referring to Asian bird flu)
- raid
- management
- look
- deficit
- master
- task force
- gay
- big
- indoor
- weekend
And I skipped all the “tech” words like internet, blog, website, etc. All of these words above have an Italian equivalent. But for some reason those words have been replaced by an English word. Weird, huh?