Language!

English Blog Questions:

What time period are many of these words from? Why do you think so many words come from this time?

From the time where the Ottoman Empire was around, this is when a lot of cultural diffusion was happening, which lead to the spreading of words through trade and means of colonisation.

What kinds of words has Arabic contributed to English?

Look at things like star names and medicine.

Many scientific words are part of the list of words that Arabic has contributed to English, and this is related to the Golden Ages, where the Arabs were able to discover and invent various items that acted as basics for other scientists to build upon.

How is a language a reflection of the history and culture of a civilisation?

The words used within a language are directly related to what the people speaking that language needed to express themselves, which essentially is their culture and history.

English Blog Other Questions:

What kinds of words is your generation adding to the dictionary?

Words that are commonly used in every-day conversation are therefore short words that have been derived from old words and created by the current generation. They therefore might not sometimes make sense to members of the previous generations.

Should these words be in the dictionary? Does it make a difference whether they are or not?

The way in which a dictionary is looked upon nowadays is that it is present to differentiate between what is proper English and what is slang. If however these new words become part of the dictionary, then they will be considered formal English, which is not what billions of people around the world are used to. It will make a difference when it comes to formal writing and communication, but will not have an effect on casual day-to-day conversation, since those types of conversations do not concern themselves with dictionaries and the words in them.

Are there contemporary words you use, that are not reflected here?

They’re all mainly present on the website, but some of the common abbreviations are not. In addition, there are a number of emoticons which could count as words that have not been posted onto the website either.