English is a smorgasbord!

It is currently a popular idea that national identity, Englishness for example, is a fixed and eternal quality. History teaches us otherwise, and in no area more so than in that of language. If you put an ‘Englishman’ from 1000 years ago in a room with another from 500 years ago and another from today they would not be able to understand each other, at least not through speech. A huge part of that linguistic evolution comes from the influence of other languages and peoples – see here for a quick summary – so we would like to celebrate the smorgasbord (Swedish buffet!) that the English language is today by looking at a few common words which are borrowed from other languages. Click on the picture to find out more!

Ed Taylor (Head of Studies at King’s Training)