Throughout its history English has been in contact with numerous languages which influenced its development. This can be seen in several linguistic categories, but most prominently in the lexicon, where we encounter a large amount of loanwords of various origins, such as window, blitzkrieg and kangaroo. On the other hand, English itself has also left its mark on other languages, as can be seen, for example, in the many Anglicisms encountered in German, such as cool, chatten or handy, which is not even the general term used by native speakers, but rather an independent creation. This seminar examines the relationship between English and a selection of the world’s languages, as diverse as Latin, Spanish, Japanese and some pidgins and creoles.
