Asian Influence on The English Language

From 'brainwashing' to 'orangutan'. Quite a few English words and expressions originate from Chinese, Japanese and other East Asian languages. The total number is small but the stories behind them are fascinating.
00:00 Indo European Influence on English
02:47 Chinese 中文
08:04 Japanese 日本語
11:05 Bahasa Melayu
12:39 Korean 한국어
14:36 Thai ไทย
04:53 Philippines (Iloko)
15:55 Vietnamese - Tiếng Việt.
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[@Ankitasharma26]

Pundit, Guru, baba, jungle, loot, juggernaut are some words that have entered the English vocab but are derived from Hindi. Each word in English has its unique history. Informative and helpful video! 🙏😀

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I hope to do a video on the influence of Indian languages on English soon.

[@Ankitasharma26]

@@LetThemTalkTV waiting!!

[@jimgorycki4013]

and Guro in Tagalog means teacher.

[@thamama-rh5oe]

Actually Hindustani the mother of Hindi and Urdu

[@004spaw]

Bungalow, bazaar

[@trevormegson7583]

I love your enunciation. It is as important as the words, conveyed with gesture and articulation.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

You're very kind

[@paiwanhan]

Just in case someone claims you got the origin of tea wrong because it should be 茶 instead of 荼, I am going to preempt them by pointing out 荼 was the original character for both the tea and cha readings of the character 茶. The Dutch way of saying tea is spot on for the Hokkien tê, and both the 荼 and 茶 characters still sounded the same in Middle Chinese. The t > ts sound change that led to some later dialects to read 茶 as cha is pretty much just palatalization at work, similar to how we got the tʃ in statue from a word like status.

[@paiwanhan]

Also, despite the fact that the English did borrow the term to lose face, it totally invented the term to save face. Bravo English, that's a great innovation.

[@atinemassare]

😂I love how you hurry ahead to prevent some potential super ultra expert in Chinese languages from nitpicking on "Let them talk" 🎉

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Many thanks for the clarification. Apologies for any errors - I did my best.

[@ZhouJi]

​​@@atinemassareactually this mistake doesn't take an expert to point out. Every Chinese speaker knows it is wrong. What this comment says is like to stop people point out V and U are two different letters by saying historically they have the same origin

[@atinemassare]

@@ZhouJi I see. Maybe where you live there are a lot of Chinese speakers arround, while where I live it's quite rare so I thought less of a native speaker as of a university professor 😅

[@patriziapadovani428]

It is always an immense pleasure to listen to your precious words!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

It's an immense pleasure to read your comments.

[@HiKasandra]

Wow! I had no idea. Thank you for sharing! X

[@sergiosamanozamora9995]

Hello and best regards! I find your videos so interesting,thanks for the knowledge!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thanks and I love your comments.

[@ericcartier2233]

Bravo ! once again you are "demarking" yourself with the quality of your videos!!!

[@peterchan6082]

For your information, the two Chinese characters 茶 (cha, the word for tea) and 荼 (tu/to) look very similar, but are distinct words. Even we native Chinese users could get them wrong ourselves.

[@fulyatasan3675]

In Turkish, we use “çay" (pronounced like chai) for tea. Love your channel by the way🙏

[@melribbonboo3378]

I have to catch up watching more of your videos.

[@jpkosoltrakul]

Being Thai, I am surprised that you didn't mention one of the most widespread (yet kinda embarrassing) word: "bong" (บ้อง). lol

[@hallmonitor98]

The water bong originated from Thailand?

[@jpkosoltrakul]

@@hallmonitor98 Not really, the device has been existed for centuries in Asia and Africa, but the word "bong" definitely is an adaptation word from Thai.

[@ursulastaempfli759]

Very educational and entertaining as always.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Glad you liked it

[@nokaton]

The word "bong" for cannabis is also from Thai word บ้อง (bong) meaning a cylinder.

[@user-cc2ux9ew1r]

Fascinated lesson gaffer. Merry Christmas to you Gideon. Have a bubby dazzler one. Ciao for now. Greetings from Casablanca.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

cheers. I might do a video which includes some stuff about "ought to" in 2024. Stay tuned.

[@user-cc2ux9ew1r]

In 2024 😯 Are you having a Turkish? I may kick a bucket by then. Whatever float your boat old chum. Thanks all the same. innit? 😂

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

Oh very interresting Gideon!

[@craigmacmillan2528]

the video presentation was hunki dori - just perfect

[@afpseb4582]

Great job. Everything you do has been done before. Art, speak, science etc

[@EnglishShanghai]

好久不見，真好！！！

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thanks.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

you're welcome

[@ericscavetta2311]

Boondocks (meaning remote countryside) entered English from Philippines languages. The Tagalog ‘bundok’ means hill/mountain. Sentence: “I’m going to be late to your birthday dinner, because I am still out in the boondocks”. I’m not sure if this term is regional to the US or across the anglosphere.

[@stevedavenport1202]

Probably just the US

[@jarekzawadzki]

Actually, the English kowtow comes form 叩頭 (kautau in Cantonese pronunciation, i.e. same as English) not 磕頭 (which would be haptau in Cantonese, and ketou in Mandarin). Same meaning, though.

[@melribbonboo3378]

New viewer from Across the Pond. Had a peek at the Transatlantic accent video. Vincent Price was an Actor born close by to my locale. This video is also of interest having worked for a Chinese couple.

[@deanbianco4982]

@LetThemTalkTV: Gideon, Could you kindly explain why English is considered a Germanic language, when, according to the pie chart you provided, 56% is of Romance origin, and 5% is of "other" languages? It doesn't make sense to me.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Consider a language is like a body. English has a Germanic body, the grammar and structure, the 'skeleton' of the language is Germanic but what about the clothes? It's wearing a stripy t-shirt, a beret, riding a bicycle and carrying a baguette. The clothes represent the vocabulary (which is heavily influenced by French). I don't know where I'm going with this analogy buy hey..

[@bacca71]

@@LetThemTalkTV Never thought of it like that, but that's a great analogy. I've thought Scandinavian languages have lots of similarity to English When watching Swedish or Norwegian TV shows, every now and then a sentence of Swedish, and phrases, sometimes whole short sentences pop out that are in almost perfect English - but it's Swedish (words with Germanic roots).

[@deanbianco4982]

@@LetThemTalkTV Thanks, Gideon, for the explanation. x

[@ava4479]

Je suis française et j'aime beaucoup vos vidéos même si je ne parle pas vraiment bien l'anglais 🙂

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

I'm not sure of the expression save face and so one.. because, when you learn MTC it's never mention of that... but I'm may be wrong !

[@OceanChild75]

Oh Gideon, I do adore you but if you keep on glorifying Marmite, this could change!! 😂 Very interesting video (I feel like repeating myself on this one), I must confess there were loads of words I had never heard before and will try using in the future

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Of course Marmite paid me millions to 'spread' its propaganda and brainwash you all. I'm glad you learnt some new words at least.

[@yorgunsamuray]

-Names of martial arts are there: Kung Fu, Judo, Karate, Aikido, Taekwondo, Hapkido, Muay Thai, etc. :) -I always thought that chop-chop comes from helicopters (which are sometimes called "choppers" and move faster than humans) -Turkish has a word "yüzsüz" (faceless) which is in the lines of "s/he has the nerve to..." Losing and Saving the face metaphor is not confined to China I suppose.

[@harrietyounger6118]

Indian words - pyjamas, veranda but also where we got the term blighty which was a bastardise version of an Indian word for foreigner.

[@PhilIpp88]

And Japanese Ramen comes from Chinese LaMian 😁 It’s funny how words travel around

[@orangeyo5863]

Pls make a video of English words from India !! 😊

[@languagesolehsoleh]

I've never heard of Llocano, isn't it ilokano or ilocano? Is it because in this typeface the capital i looks like a lowercase l

[@LetThemTalkTV]

My mistake, sorry.

[@harrietyounger6118]

We say quick quick. Very similar to chop chop.

[@marjonakhalimjonova8062]

I'm not sure whether the word "Bazar" is derived from the Turkish or Uzbek language, however it is clear that it is also often used in the English language

[@LetThemTalkTV]

The internet says Persian. Is it possible?

[@lynnodonnell4764]

Bazzar= market place w stalls, tables. A bazaar can be held indoors or outdoors Bizarre = weird, strange, outlandish BIZARRE is the probably the word your thinking of that English speakers use frequently. Alot of countries find Americans to be rather on the bizarre side-lol (We are..)

[@jimgorycki4013]

Bazaar is Persian for marketplace. It is also used in Turkish. In Arabic, it is called souk, souq, or suq

[@lynnodonnell4764]

@@jimgorycki4013 hey thanks for knowing what language the word 'bazzar' originates from

[@mxd2454]

Just a kind reminder. The use of the character '荼' might be controversial. The more common one is '茶'. '荼' and '茶' might have the same origin and similar meanings in ancient Chinese languages, but in modern Chinese we only use '茶' to describe the tea we drink. Nowadays pronunciations and meanings of these two characters differ a lot from each other. At 3:26 the computer pronunciation 'tu' which is the Mandarin pronunciation for '荼' also doesn't make sense. The correct pronunciation of '茶' in Min Chinese is like 'te'/'de'.

[@lynnodonnell4764]

English word : Pajamas/pj's comes from the Indian word 'pujabis' (sp?) meaning 'loose pants' . Anyone can correct me if I'm mistaken.

[@manjirabanerjee7169]

As an Indian I would love to validate this trivia..😊

[@lynnodonnell4764]

@@manjirabanerjee7169 So the info I read somewhere was correct? If so, "thank-you!"

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I need to do a video on words from Indian languages.

[@manjirabanerjee7169]

@@LetThemTalkTV Great Sir G.👍

[@manjirabanerjee7169]

@@lynnodonnell4764 Yeah... Indian men wear pajama(the lower portion) and punjabi (the upper portion) as a traditional attire .Similarly we , the ladies put on salwar (lower) and kamiz /kurta (upper) .🙂

[@user-xb5eo2bm1n]

One correction - Hindu is the term for the followers of Hinduism. Hindi is a name of the language. The two overlap more often than not but there are Hindus who don't speak Hindi and there are Hindi speakers who are not Hindu. I understand that its a common confusion but I just thought I should make it clear. Of course both words have the same etymology (and so does India for that matter).

[@charlotterogerz]

The translation of "lâu quá không gặp" from Vietnamese to English is "long time no see". I was sure from watching the intro that that was going to be attributed as a Vietnamese influence. It must be a phrase taken from Chinese.

[@dougsinthailand7176]

“Look see.” I’ve heard “give a look-see”, which probably combines expressions from two different languages.

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

In MTC we have another flavour, I think it's hot in English (piquant in french!)

[@jimgorycki4013]

Boondocks comes from the Tagalog word bundok meaning mountain. American soldiers stationed in the Philippine in the early 1900s picked up this word.

[@user-ne4tl6wk2f]

Hey sir. I'm from iraq studying in English department but until this moment I can't speak fluently I'm really dismayed😢

[@DavidGS66]

India & Pakistan are the main base of English in Asia; however, Persian used to serve as their lingua franca during Mughal Empire, so don't make mistake of crediting British with giving them English. Persian, an conqueror language also, would be as big a regional language as Arab without English.

[@frankleespeaking9519]

This guy is cool

[@wingedhussar1117]

It's very interesting that native speakers sometimes adopt incorrect language structures from non-native speakers like "long time no see" because some mistakes sound so catchy that native speakers can't help but to incorporate the wrong expression into their own language. In my native language German, there is another example. In the 90s, Gioviani Trappatoni held an infamous speech at a press conference in which he threw a tantrum and ranted about his players. During his speech, he made some comical errors, since his native language is Italian and not German. In the end of his speech, he said "Ich habe fertig" (I am done./ I have finished.) and left the conference. However, in his statement he made a grammar mistake, because the correct verb would be "bin" (to be) and not "habe" (to have). Anyways, German people found the wrong* expression "Ich habe fertig." so funny that it has become a new slang expression in the German language, but with a slightly different conotation (it is debatable whether "Ich habe fertig" is still incorrect today because so many people use it regularly, but it was a clear grammar mistake in the 90s) 1. Ich bin fertig. = I am ready. OR I have finished. 2. Ich habe fertig. = I am done. (Not in the meaning of "I have finished", but rather in the sense of "I am screwed/ fxxxed"). I wonder if something likve this happens more often than I thought in other languages as well.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

It's an interesting story, thanks

[@iainmc9859]

Wittiest play on words I ever made whilst driving in to Newcastle after a long absence; 'Long Tyne, No Sea'. Never going to come up with anything that beats that. @@LetThemTalkTV

[@chankinlok64]

Why do you think that “long time no see” came from Mandarin and not from Cantonese (hou loih mouh gin)?..

[@Slavianophile]

What about Tibetan? Yak, lama and Sherpa are of Tibetan origin.

[@ponnamy]

Shampoo from Hindi. Catamaran from Tamil.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, indeed

[@ericcartier2233]

sorry but "time" doesn't come from frenc but from latin..and only 33% comes from french.

[@nHans]

1:35 A small correction: *"Hindu"* is a *religion; "Hindi"* is the *language.* Sure, they have the same origin, and are cognate with Sindhu, Indus, India, Hind, Hindustan etc. But many Hindus don't speak Hindi; hence the need to distinguish between the religion and the language.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. I realized my mistake soon after it was published. Apologies. I hope that you enjoyed the video despite this error.

[@nHans]

​@@LetThemTalkTV Oh, I absolutely love your videos-which is why I watch them 😁, often comment on them, and-on the very rare occasions that warrant it-offer corrections! I'm looking forward to your promised video on Indian-origin words in English. The viewer comments on that will be a riot, given that a lot of Persian and Arabic words made it into English via Hindi/Urdu. Tracing the path of such words into English will be quite contentious, IMO.

[@harrietyounger6118]

I thought yoyos were originally a weapon.

[@ericcartier2233]

i meant you stepped outside the rest of youtubers... by your brillance

[@bacca71]

Really enjoyed this episode. You certainly put a lot into it. I'd like to suggest a few additions. Thai: "nit noy" - small, inconsequential (That's a 'nit-noy' problem). Thai: Sarong (as you say Indonesian) (Bangkok Thai pronounced 'salong.') Thai: like Chinese, repeating a verb emphasizes it, as in putting 'very' in front of it. A device used extensively. Like the Chinese 'chop-chop,' 'raew' means fast, 'raew-raew' means very fast, 'quickly now!' (that word not used in English). Japanese: Sayonara (common English usage is 'see you later'). Korean: Kimchee ( frequently in English as "you're in deep kimchee" ) meaning you're up to your neck in 'stinky muck.' (being polite). Look forward to your take on Indian languages, and also Finnish, which has east asian roots, possibly related to some southeast asian somehow.

[@JBG1968]

Sayonara means more good bye than see you later

[@rickebuschcatherine2729]

In french, Yoyoter...

[@imrancheema1]

There r Not Single Urdu word.. Its Arabic, Farsi, Sanskrit or Turkish

[@user-ql4te9qh4i]

I am sorry, tell me please! Is this british highly educated man origionally of India or Pakistan or other asian country? I can hear that British English is his native tongue, but by his apperance he does not look like english, scotish, irish or welsh!

[@harrietyounger6118]

All the tea in the China. I think tea is definitely associated with both India and China.

[@germelinalacorte3849]

I used to think that the expression "run amok" had a root among Filipinos. We even had a short story written by our National Artist for Literature Alejandro Roces entitled, "We, Filipinos are Mild Drinkers," that recounted how someone, a drunkard from a village, had run amok. Of course, I checked and just realized that its root is ,indeed, Malay.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I hope they caught the drunkard

[@rogerhardy6306]

I think Orangutan actually means 'old man'...that's what I was taught as a kid in Singapore

[@AslamJais79]

Nah. The word for the old man is Orang Tua. Not Orangutan.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Interesting

[@revolution1237]

I think that was just a joke that they said to you while teaching you, and you actually still believe it even years later. If that were me, I would've just laughed it off because I knew that was not true. It's something that my parents would say.

[@edhodapp6465]

Soldiers? You mean Marines.

[@bacca71]

👍😁👍

[@isabelatence7035]

You just make incredible videos, Asia influences my sister's business, beautiful Japanese stylized kimonos, my nephew is a Manga teacher, another nephew has mixed-race Japanese children, they are beautiful, rich video that I will watch many times, I loved everything, very informative, congratulations Gideon, you are a Giant🙌

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thank you so much, that's very kind. Your nephew is a manga teacher? Sounds fascinating, is it on the school curriculum in Brazil?

[@isabelatence7035]

@@LetThemTalkTV It's not a school curriculum. Since he was a child, he had a natural gift and specialized. He wrote a magazine, took it to Japan. The technical course is held in a government agency, a closed group of teenagers mainly

[@runnynose8341]

boon docks, comes from Philippines, the Tagalog word for mountain is Bundok, the American soldiers would say in the boon docks

[@botheredbewildered5646]

You mean Hindi

[@MoholtSb]

Singaporeans are so hard to understand sometimes..

[@Kitsambler]

Also from Japanese: okey-dokey and hunkey-dory (latter from a street name in Yokohama, Honkee-Dori).

[@runnynose8341]

Bong comes from the thai word, buang

[@bagoesogom]

I think You forget to mention "Tatoo" n 'Ketchup"

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Ketchup is disputed. It could be Chinese or Malay or French! (from escaveche)

[@johnnotgiven9219]

It's a shame you didn't do the translation for 'umami' Literally 'delicious flavor' or 'savory flavor' if you will. /umai/ is the adjectival form of 'delicious(ness)' and /mi/ is a suffix sort of thing (element) meaning 'flavor.' Thus you can have the flavor of most anything with adding this little word.

[@lohphat]

Is it just me but a lot of the stock footage used is really cringeworthy. Most of the performances seem forced and unnatural.

[@GizmoFromPizmo]

In the US, the word "skosh" (I think) is of Korean origin. It means, "a little". "Move your car a skosh so I can park behind you."

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I think it's Japanese from 'skoshi' I read that some people us it in the US though I haven't come across it in British English.

[@GizmoFromPizmo]

@@LetThemTalkTV - Oh, okay. That makes sense. I think there's more cultural exchange between the US and Japan since the War than there would naturally be between Britain and Japan.

[@bacca71]

@@LetThemTalkTV Used a lot in American English. Probably some others, too.

[@robertewalt7789]

Yes, skoshi is from Japanese.

[@danyelnicholas]

Wrong, Escoffier had a word for every flavour and Haute Cuisine did not depend on some Japanese professor to describe their savours. It is a ridiculous idea to have one word covering a plethora of savoury aromatic nuances.

[@user-xe7oh6fu1s]

Whilst you mentioned "tycoon", you missed its synonym "mogul" which originated from Mongolian "Moṅgol", a Mongol.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

next time