Otto Jespersen

GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

31. Loan-words have been called the milestones of philology, because in a great many instances they permit us to fix approximately the dates of linguistic changes. But they might with just as much right be termed some of the milestones of general history, because they show us the course of civilization and the wanderings of inventions and institutions, and in many cases give us valuable informa­tion as to the inner life of nations. [...] When in two languages we find no trace of the exchange of loan-words one way or the other, we are safe to infer that the two nations have had nothing to do with each other. But if they have been in contact, the number of the loan-words and still more the quality of the loan-words, if rightly in­terpreted, will inform us of their reciprocal relations, they will show us which of them has been the more fertile in ideas and on what domains of human activity each has been superior to the other. If all other sources of informa­tion were closed to us except such loan-words in our modern North-European languages as piano, soprano, opera, libretto, tempo, adagio, etc., we should still have no hesitation in drawing the conclusion that Italian music has played a great role all over Europe. Similar instances might easily be multiplied, and in many ways the study of language brings home to us the fact that when a nation produces something that its neighbours think worthy of imitation these will take over not only the thing but also the name. This will be the general rule, though exceptions may occur, especially when a language possesses a native word that will lend itself without any special effort to the new thing imported from abroad. But if a native word is not ready to hand it is easier to adopt the ready-made word used in the other country; nay, this foreign word is very often imported even in cases where it would seem to offer no great difficulty to coin an adequate expression by means of native word-material. As, on the other hand, there is generally nothing to induce one to use words from foreign languages for things one has just as well at home, loan-words are nearly always technical words belonging to one special branch of knowledge or industry, and may be grouped so as to show what each nation has learnt from each of the others. [...]

150....the classical words adopted since the Renaissance have enriched the English language very greatly and have especially increased its number of synonyms. But it is not every ‘enrichment’ that is an advantage, and this one comprises much that is really superfluous, or worse than superfluous, and has, moreover, stunted the growth of native formations. The international currency of many words is not a full compensation for their want of harmony with the core of the language and for the undemocratic character they give to the vocabulary. While the composite character of the language gives vari­ety and to some extent precision to the style of the greatest masters, on the other hand, it encourages an inflated turgidity of style. Without siding completely with Milton’s teacher Alexander Gill, who says that classical studies have done the English language more harm than ever the cruel­ties of the Danes or the devastations of the Normans, we shall probably be near the truth if we recognize in the latest influence from the classical languages ‘something between a hindrance and a help’.