Is there a saying or famous quote that means "languages that borrow words from other languages never die"?

Question

or anything similar to it

Answer 1

I think your referring to "living languages." They are called this because they are always in a state of flux. Meaning that new words are coming in and out of existance, old words have new meanings added to them and old meanings are dropped in favor of new ones. English is one of these. Hebrew is another. This is because they are open ended and easily changeable.

English is actually a conglomeration of Latin, German, French, and many other languages. Words such as Jurispurdence, habeas corpis, deja vu, vis a vis, tête - à - tête, weinerschnitzel, etc., we use these as IF they were english which in fact they are not. We simply borrow them and incorporate them into our day to day lives. Its things like this that will keep our language going.

There are languages such as French (and please, I'm not trying to upset anyone) that proudly TRY to keep their languages PURE. To keep OUT the influences of other languages. Its these things that will one day do away with them in my humble opinion, as beautiful (and it IS beautiful) as it is.

Answer 2

Not that I know of, but we could make one up, how about:

"Foreignisms make languages inmortal"
(I know foreignisms is not a word, but I didn't know how to translate "extranjerismos" into English, which is the Spanish word for borrowed word. I though if I was making up the saying, I could make up the word too.

"Extranjerismos hacen a los idiomas inmortales" (Spanish)

Answer 3

What about "loanwords are the gift of life"?