Why do some people bemoan the usage of loan words in their language? You can find people in any language who generally oppose the usage of loan words and believe that neologisms should be constructed from suffixes and components that are already present in the language they want to “protect” from loan words.
Living in Quebec, you often hear of language purists who complain about the usage of anglicisms in the French language. The provincial government and the language body that oversees the usage of the French language have taken out ads that attempted to dissuade people from using anglicisms. Some of the French teachers I had would go on tangents about how anglicisms like “oppurtunité” are ruining the French language. One of my teachers hated the word “oppurtunité” so much that she would dock points from you every time you used the word. In Quebec, these types of complaints are often taken to unreasonable extremes. The word opportunity is actually a loan word from Middle French. Many of the words that Quebecois language purists inveigh against are words in English that were borrowed from French.
Why are some people against loan words on principle? Languages are not static and are constantly evolving. The lexicon of a language like French is enormous, so I don’t understand how some words borrowed from English will “ruin the language.” Loan words have always been a thing and when they are implemented in a language, they are altered so that the word fits in with the structure of the language. For most languages, loan words constitute a small percentage of the total lexicon of a language. I see loan words as a positive because they allow for cultural exchange, enrich the lexicon of a language and expand one’s expressivity. Why do some people see loan words as something nefarious?
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