english is a dirty theif

Ode to Words
A Spanish mosquito
landed
on an Italian artichoke
wishing
that it were a German pretzel.
The Slavic intelligentsia
swallowed
some Dutch sloop
longing
for some Hindi punch
(to wash it
down).

and we wonder
why
the immigrant
could not learn
english.

So English is totally an unoriginal language. We just steal words from other cultures. Here are some interesting, random observations from my linguistics textbook:

-The counterparts of the english words cow, calf, sheep, have the french origins of beef, veal, mutton, and pork. (still...i think braised sheep and cow stew sound enticing).
-Words stolen (the book says "borrowed") from Scandinavian: anger, cake, call, ege, fellow, gear, get, hit, husband, low, lump, raise, root, score, seat, skill, skin, take, their, they, thrust, ugly, window, wing
-Words stolen from Italians: motto, artichoke, balcony, casino, mafia, malaria
-Words stolen from German: poodle, kindergarten, seminar, nooodle, pretzel
-Words stolen from Dutch: sloop, cole slaw, smuggle, gin, cookie, boom
-Words stolen from Slavic languages: czar, tundra, polka, intelligentsia, robot
-Words stolen from Hindi: thug, punch, shampoo, chintz.

Fascinating, eh?