why does english contain so many non-english words?

Answer 1

The reason why English contains so many borrowed words is because of the history of England. During the early history of England/Europe, before the development of nations as we think of them today, there were many invasions of England that changed the language of the people and of the court. For instance, the Norman (French) invasions and conquest of England changed the English "court" language to French, and thus the language of the common people evolved with each new ruling body.

Example:
The English word cattle comes from the Middle English word catel, which comes from the Anglo-Norman (English-French) word of the same spelling. The French language was thought to be more superior or cleaner than English, thus the distinction between English words for animals and their byproduct foods:

Pig to Pork (from French porc, meaning "pig")
-Sounds Bad: "Let's have pig for dinner."
-Better: "Let's have pork for dinner."

Cow to Beef (from French bœuf, meaning "ox")
-Sounds Bad: "100% Ground Cow"
-Better: "100% Ground Beef"

In summary, the reason why many English words carry etymologies from languages other than the dead languages (Greek and Latin), is because of a long history of interaction between the different language groups on the European continent throughout the last two millennia, which has lead to many evolutions of language, especially occurring in English.

Hope that helps you!

Dave

Answer 2

Just like non-English languages contain many English words. As traveling has become easier and the internet more widespread, people around the world come in contact with each other more one way or another and this leads to exchanging words. After a while, foreign words are adopted and integrated into local languages.

Answer 3

Because it is such a wonderful bastard tongue.

In the middle ages, English adopted some Latin words (mostly through association with ecclesiastical usage) but the borrowing wasn't great enough to really alter the language. Then in 1066, William the Conqueror, a French speaking Norman, took over. The aristocracy traded English for French and for several hundred years the language of power, of the courts, and of law, and of academia, as well, was French. When the people returned to using English they discovered that the language lacked many words used in those fields previously dominated by French and so many of those terms entered our language along with many other, more general purpose words. This new latinate English came to be called Middle English.

Over time the language continued to evolve and to borrow from a wide variety of languages. In fact, the language's propensity for theft is one of its greatest assets. The language we speak today is greatly enhanced by its years of piracy among the world's languages, and the language some thousand years from now will be even more different as we continue to beg, borrow, and steal from our linguistic encounters.

Answer 4

Actually there arent as many english words in english as you think. If you look them up you find that most english words came from another language.

Answer 5

Because the English language is made from a combination of other languages

Answer 6

and why non-english languages contain so many english words?!

Answer 7

It is because it is a rather new language, a mixture of several languages. No one spoke English before 449 tells a trustworthy grammar. I read here that the Normans spok French, I doubt that - thought that they spok a Scandinavian language, didn't they or at least they were Scandinavians, Why the name Norman man from the north?

Answer 8

That's because the origin of some words is derived from a non-English one.

Answer 9

Because English doesn't have a language academy similar to France's Academie francaise, or Spain's Real Academia Española. So there's no one to tell us we're evil for using non-official words.

Answer 10

think of it like..
why is it easier to learn spanish (as they say) when you know french..
it's becuase they're similar..

and the reason why they're similar is basically the same reason for the english-other language thing. I mean it's the same reason in a very general way of speaking