Original question by @Justathroughdaway@lemmy.world

I like to lean about words from around the world and use them in my speech. I have a particular love for British words. I just love words like spiv, nod, wasteman, barmy, slapper, bruv, shafted, nonce, junkie, bint, smackhead, slag, breve, chav, squiffy, slaphead, dosh, shafted

  • MSids@lemmy.world
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I am from the US and have been referring to the dumb people around me as donuts recently. Still not exactly sure what this means to people in the UK, but it seems nicer than the words I was using previously.

  • kcweller@feddit.nl
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I’m Dutch, but often speak English as I’m fluent in it, so it sometimes mixes. Other words I often use are

    • some German, Spanish and French phrases (secondary languages),
    • various toasts, like lechajim, skål, depending on the people I’m with,
    • some Arabic like shukran, habibi,
    • Surinamese slang (kaolo is a fun one)
    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      1 tahun yang lalu

      Surinamese slang (kaolo is a fun one)

      I love people using it as a synonym for “very”, when in fact means “shit hole”.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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      1 tahun yang lalu

      lechajim

      I’ve never seen that spelling before. Usually I see ‘L’chiam’

      • kcweller@feddit.nl
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        1 tahun yang lalu

        Since it’s from modern “Hebrew” it doesn’t really matter how you spell it since Hebrew is an abjat script

        • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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          1 tahun yang lalu

          Along similar lines, I once saw a food review that talked about Peking duck and Beijing, China.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I speak English. And, as James Nicoll said,

    The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

    I speak some Spanish and some Dutch, but I don’t know if I borrow many words from them that aren’t “normal” borrow-words.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 tahun yang lalu

        That’s a weird take when it’s not a Celtic language. It’s Germanic (with heavy Romantic old French influence), so you should really be talking about runes or something.

        Latin letters are a terrible fit, though, you’re absolutely right about that. It gives you 4 vowels to work with and my spoken dialect has 17.

  • 𝙈𝙞𝙖@quokk.auEnglish
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I’ve picked up some words from colleagues, so I often say yalla yalla or acha.

    Sometimes American words can be fun like “yo man wassup”.

  • throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.worksdeleted by creatorEnglish
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I prefer the word biscuit, even as an American. I don’t like saying the word “cracker” because that sounds like its easily misunderstood as an insult to rural white people.

  • Libb@jlai.luEnglish
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    All the time.

    There is no such thing as a (modern) language that is not assembled from borrowing from other languages. So even speaking a single language, one may already be ‘borrowing’ from quite a few more. Add to that many of us will speak at least two languages (native + English), or more.

    So yeah, like many, I borrow words and expressions from any of the languages I speak, even more so with those words and expressions I have a sweet spot for ;)

  • hansolo@lemmy.today
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    Depends on the person. My spouse and I, along with 5 or 6 friends, use a variety of key words from a couple shared languages to talk about things when we don’t want other to understand. Mostly haggling or talking about sales stuff to discuss if we like something or think it’s too expensive when a human is hovering right there. So I can give body language of disappointment while saying “this is great.”

  • awaysaway@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    1 tahun yang lalu

    I say Ciao rather often while living in an english speaking country. Rethinking this after getting roasted for this in the new show Stick. Never thought of it as being anything other than natural, having also spent time living in a few spanish speaking countries. Don’t want to come across any type of way so thinking about rolling back my usage.