A.W.A.D. - Words Borrow From Other Languages

If you speak English, you know words from at least a hundred different languages. That's because English has borrowed words from languages everywhere, and continues to do so.

All living languages borrow, though not to the same degree. Each new word brings its own color to the mosaic of the language, just as each new person does to a population, making it richer and vibrant.

We see words derived from Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, etc. every day, but this week we'll look at a few words from languages that are not so well known -- Javanese, Coptic, Tamil, Shelta, and Hawaiian -- and also learn a little about those languages.

lahar
(LAH-har) noun
An avalanche-like mudflow composed of volcanic debris and water, originating on the slopes of a volcano.

[From Javanese lahar (lava). Javanese is a language spoken on the island of Java, Indonesia. It has about 80 million speakers.]

adobe
(uh-DO-bee) noun
1. An unburned, sun-dried brick made of clay and straw.
2. Silt or clay deposited by rivers, from which such bricks are made.
3. A building made of such material.

[Via Spanish and Arabic from Coptic tobe (brick). Coptic is the classical language of Egypt, a form of Egyptian with heavy influence from Greek.]

catamaran
(kat-uh-muh-RAN) noun
1. A boat with two parallel hulls, joined by a frame.
2. A quarrelsome person, especially a woman.

[From Tamil kattumaram, from kattu (to tie) + maram (tree, wood). Tamil is spoken in Tamilnadu, a state in southern India and in Sri Lanka. It has about 70 million speakers.]

moniker
(MON-i-kuhr) noun
A person's name or nickname.

[Probably from Shelta, a language used by itinerant people (known as Irish Travelers) in the British Isles. It has about 86,000 speakers.]

kahuna
(kuh-HOO-nuh) noun
1. A priest or a medicine man.
2. An important person (usually in the phrase: big kahuna).

[From Hawaiian kahuna. Hawaiian is a Polynesian language spoken in the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. The number of native speakers of the language has decreased to just a few hundreds.]

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