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English language is enriched by borrowings from other languages. Scandinavian, French and Latin have left a mark on English deep enough to modify its character and change its structure. But words have come to English language from Italian (Gondola, lava), from Spanish (Matador, siesta); from Arabic (harem, mufti); from Mexican ( chocolate, tomato); from the Dutch (yacht,yowl); from India (sahib, begum, pundit, baboo). From African languages, there are words like - impi regiment, indaba conference. rom Chinese has come the word Kowtow.
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The English have taken Loanwords from all the languages of the world. This is called by Jesperson linguistic omnivorousness. It cannot be said that the English have a natural gift for learning languages. Secondly the best linguists are generally inclined to keep their language pure. It would be nearer the truth if it is said that the average Englishmen have linguistic incapacity. But it is also true that Englishmen have come into contact with various nations as travellers and colonisers and have seen numerous things and institutions unknown in England.
The foremost cause of these vast linguistic borrowings is the linguistic laziness of Englishmen. That the borrowing is not occasioned by an inherent deficiency, in the language itself is shown by the ease with which new terms actually are framed whenever the need of them is really felt. When Englishmen came to various parts of Australasia, they found a Flora and a Fauna waiting to be named in English. They adopted words from the aboriginal languages, e.g., Kangaroo, wombat. They also applied English words to objects denoted by them in England, e. g, magpie, Oak, beech. There are also new English formations. Thus there are numerous names of birds like friar-bird, frogs-mouth, honey-eater, ground-lark, of fishes-live long-fin, trumpeter, of plants like sugar-grass, ironheart, thousand-jacket. All these examples show the natural inventiveness of the English people. They testify to the Englishman's talent for inventing picturesque and telling designations.
Recent linguistic innovations are due to the Englishmen's quickness to utilise modern inventions for enriching the language. Cinematograph is shortened into cinema, automobile is simply car. For aeroplane, some people prefer the form airplane; it is also shortened into plane. The learned television has brought about the verb televise.
Tradespeople have coined many words to designate new articles of merchandise. Sometimes a mere arbitrary collection of sounds or letters is chosen, as for example, Kodak. Sometimes the inventor contents himself with some vague resemblances to some other word, which may assist the buyer to remember the name: Vapo-Cresolene cresolene vaporised), harlene (hair), wincarnis (a tonic, wine, Latin Caro), rinse (for cleaning, rinse). Sometimes ordinary words are disguised by fancy-spellings, cf, Uneeda cigar-you need a cigar. The Great War (1914-1918) left its mark on language as on everything. Camouflage, u-boat, umpteen, zepp (zepplin) have come into the language after the war.
Thus the loan-words as well as the innovations in language show the adaptibility as well as curiosity of the English people about the life of other nations and about the various things of the world. The English have hardly ever felt that there is anything unusual about borrowing a word from a foreign language, when there is need to enrich the language. In the early days English utilised its native resources to get new words but subject to a series of foreign influences and contacts, it found that readymade words from foreign languages were preferable to coinage from native resources. This testifies to linguistic catholicity of the English as contrasted with the linguistic conservatism of people like the Germans. It is a historical necessity.