Melting Pot

Hey guys!!

Sometimes, to understand a language, you have to know about its history and how it was created and developed throughout time and here we have a brief story about it. And off we go!!

More than 500 years ago, English wasn’t spoken in North America. American Indians had their own language, such as the Inuit (Eskimo), the Aleuts in Canada, and the Aborigines in Australia and the Maoris en New Zealand.

The English people arrived and established their settlement, right after that, other peoples came with their habits, their idioms and their different cultures.

The United States of America has the biggest mixture of cultures in the world, it’s called “Melting Pot”, a well-known American expression.

At the beginning of the colonization there were English, Irish, French, German and Scandinavian. Afterwards, Italian, Jew, Chinese, Japanese and Russian arrived.

The reasons which brought the newcomers to North America were: hard economic condition in their origin countries, the Gold Rush and later, Religious Persecution, what is the case of the Jew people who left Russia and other countries between 1880 and 1910.

And the most recent American citizens are from Spanish language, they come from México and other countries from Central and South America.

The Modern English language results from a great mixture of these peoples. Check out, for instance, where some words below come from:

Exit, Circus, Video - Latin

Psychology, Telephone, Cinema - Greek

Biscuit, Garage, Restaurant – French

Piano, Concerto, Spaghetti – Italian

Hamburger, Kindergarten - German

Guitar, Tango, Banana - Spanish

Tomato, Potato, Tabacco – American Native Language

Curry, Bungalow, Pyjamas - Indian

Interesting, isn't it?