[PLUG-TALK] Speaking of languages ...

[Rich Shepard]

Continuing the discussion of languages I offer this from The Economist's
language blogger, Johnson:
<https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/09/05/languages-are-a-battleground-for-nationalists>.

The article discusses when language is the pursuit of politics by other
means. Almost all languages have borrowed (or stolen) words from other
languages yet nationalists abhor such practices. In Estonia the island town
of Kuressaare has a museum dedicated to Johannes Aavik (one room, the other
is about his musician brother Joosep.)

Johannes modified words from other languages and made up some of his own
("because they sound nice."). He's not the only one. Attaturk switched
Turkish from the Arabic to Roman alphabets and tried to replace Arabic and
Persian words with more appropriate Turkish words.

An interesting read (as his bi-weekly column always is) and I recommend it
to you.

Regards,

Rich