Do you know where all the words in the English language come from? They come from all over the world. Some words have been around for so long that they have fully integrated into the language and the culture so that you no longer even notice that they once came from another language. But how does this process begin? When someone returns from their international travels they bring back souvenirs, experiences and, yes, also words from the places they visited. Sometimes these words just seem cool or particularly useful. Their meanings get "borrowed" and inserted into the already established language. Hence, they are called loan words.

Words like guru or yoga pretty obviously come from India. Since we also think of Indian culture with curry and mandala it is easy for us to tell they come from there. But there are several Indian words that I was surprised to learn come from India, for example bungalow, cheetah, pyjama, shampoo and khaki. Some of these are by now so natural that, at least for me, I never even questioned whether they were foreign. According to this article “The Oxford English Dictionary currently has 700 words of Indian origin”. It goes on to explain that most of such words “were assimilated during the period of 16th to 20th century, when the British were following an aggressive imperial policy abroad, especially the Indian subcontinent.”

What about Jewish culture? The Jews were spread across vast continents. Along the way they mixed their native Hebrew with local words, for example in Germany and Russia. That is why today’s Yiddish vocabulary contains words that still sound very German, Russian, etc. When Jews settled in England and the USA Yiddish words rubbed off on English, too. Judge for yourself which of the following you already expected Yiddish, and which surprise you. I was confident that klutz, hallelujah, kibbutz, messiah and shalom were connected to Jews. But I was quite surprised to learn that bagle, glitch and shpiel also come from Yiddish.

Another example is the influence that China has had on the English-speaking world. Obviously words like kung fu, mahjong, rickshaw and wok are from there. But did you know that ketchup originated from a Chinese word sounding something like catsup? Initially it was a sauce made from pickled fish, spices and tomatoes. It was also not obvious to me that chin chin, lychee and tycoon have Chinese origins. Since England colonised Shanghai and Hong Kong such words ended up in our home language. Further influences from the orient also came by way of maritime trade and missionaries, e.g. from Portugal and Spain.