English as a common Language
As organizations increasingly globalize, individuals are required to collaborate with coworkers across international borders. Many organizations are mandating English as the lingua franca, or common language, regardless of the location of their headquarters, to facilitate collaboration across national and linguistic boundaries. What is the emotional impact of lingua franca adoption on native and non-native speakers who work closely together and often across national boundaries? This study examines the communication experience for native and non-native English speakers in an organization that mandates English as the lingua franca for everyday use, and the impact of the lingua franca on collaboration among globally distributed coworkers. Emotions and actions are intertwined and evolved recursively as coworkers attempted to release themselves from unwanted negative emotions and inadvertently acte in ways that transferred negative experiences to their distant coworkers. Their findings have implications for managers who are charged with overseeing internationally distributed projects.
With the common language as English, I would like to draw your attention toward how vocabulary is changing and new words are created and some are imported. One of my friends said, “Look at the rich technical vocabulary of English. Isn’t it amazing that today we have so many new words created in English like Computer, Processor, Monitor, Internet, Hardware, Software etc that it is almost impossible to create words with similar meaning in other languages and so instead we will have to directly import these English words into our languages (other than English) to keep pace with the rapidly evolving new terms.” “Very True”. I said, “Any language during the time period of its peak usage as a spoken language will have its words imported into other languages that exist during that period. Just like the way Sanskrit words which got imported into Greek, Latin, Persian, etc during the peak usage of Sanskrit. These Sanskrit words have today silently formed a vast majority of the Original English Language”.
Sanskrit Language
The World’s Oldest Known Literary work (around 3700 BCE) - the Vedas – the root source of the Indian and Hindu Philosophy and Spirituality – are written in Sanskrit. The time difference between the world’s next oldest literary work (Ancient Sumerian Texts – around 2600 BCE) and the Vedas are about a millennium i.e.: a thousand years!
“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could not possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family”.
So said Sir William Jones – the English Philologist who for the first time in 1786 suggested in his book “The Sanscrit Language” that Greek and Latin were related to Sanskrit and perhaps even Gothic, Celtic and Persian languages were related to Sanskrit.
It was this work which later gave birth to the so called Proto-Indo-European theory which instead of looking into Sanskrit being the root language of all Indo-European languages, suggests that all Indo-European languages including Sanskrit came from another so far unheard of language called PIE or Proto-Indo-European language.
Well, the irony is that till today there is no literature in the world about the so called PIE. There is no inscription found anywhere in the world written in the so called PIE. Nobody knows how the PIE was. Max Muller used to guess a lot like this about the Vedas, which he then retreated later.
Be it Greek Latin English Hindi Lithuanian – Sanskrit is the mother of all Languages. Even Scholars like Voltaire, Immanuel Kant etc believed that Sanskrit was the root of all Indo-European languages.
About PIE – No idea, they are all linguistic experts who created this language, Oops, I mean its existence – for the language itself is not known yet. I am not an expert to speak on PIE, might be those who speak about it are experts in this language.
All I do is present below some of the common words (as I avoid table) from a list of English words which are derived from Latin/Greek/Persian which are in turn derived from Sanskrit. Indians will be quick enough to recognize these words in their own language since most Indian languages have also originated from Sanskrit and even the other languages have a great deal of Sanskrit influence on them.
And here goes the list of English words derived from Sanskrit.
NOTE: Just to make it clear the below list does not contain Sanskrit words that have been directly borrowed into English in recent times like Karma, Avatar, Mantra, Guru, Cheetah, Pundit, Juggernaut, Nirvana, etc but lists only those English words which were derived from Sanskrit as English evolved by borrowing words from Greek/Latin etc. For those recent times words, we will discuss after the list finished.
Cow - Gau, Mother - Matr, Gene - Jan, Navigation - Navagatha, Nose - Naas, Anonymous - Anamika, Name - Naama, Man/Men/Human - Manu (means first Human), Eight - Ashta, Domicile - Dhama (meaning House), Dental - Danta (meaning Teeth), Door - Dwar, Medium - Maddhyam, Calender - Kaal (meaning time), Create - Kari (meaning TO DO), Mix - Mishra, Me - Ma (meaning Me/My), Father - Pithr, Brother - Bhrathr, Locale - Loka, Mosquito - Mishawka (meaning Bee), Murder - Marta (meaning Dead), No - Na, Ped as in pedestrian, Pedal etc - Paad (meaning Foot), Five - Pancha (Panta), Far - Parah (meaning remote), Path - Patha (meaning Path), Royal - Raja/Raya (meaning King), Similar - Sama, Seven - Sapta, Sugar / Sucrose - Sharkara, Smile - Smi, Stay - SthaH (meaning Situated) Latin Word - Stare (meaning To Stand), Sweet - Svaad (meaning tasty), That - Tha, Voice - Vachas (meaning Speech), Vehicle - Vahaani meaning Carry), Vest - Vastr (meaning Cloth), Pepper - Pippali, New - Nava, Three - Thri, Mouse - Mush.
Now we will discuss some of other common words:
Avatar; Avatar is a Sanskrit/Indian holy word means Angel, Representatives of god, who are sent for to the earth from time to time to guide and teach mankind for different purposes at different times.
Guru word is in common use. Guru is also a Sanskrit/Indian holy word; means Teacher.
Karma word is also a Sanskrit (holy word) used by religious people. Means deed. Your deeds; what you do today will haunt you in the future. If you do good today, good results will come your way, if you do bad, bad things will happen to you in future.
Pundit; in Hindu religion pundit is a person who performs religious activities for the community like marriages, funerals and other religious tasks. It is a cast in India as well. In Sanskrit by means of grammar wise, it means wise man.
Mantra: Mantras are chanted to achieve a certain purpose through spiritual means. Most of Hindu religious rituals are chanted in Mantras. There are different Mantras for different religious functionalities.
Gourmet word is mostly used in Indian local languages means mutton with gravy and spice rich. A popular and favorable dish in Indian Sub-Continent Countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan etc.
Shorbat word is common in both Persian/Farsi and Urdu languages, means syrup. Two teaspoon mixed in a glass of water makes sweet tasty drink. If you go to any Indian or Asian grocery store, you will find bottles of different flavor of Sherbets in North America.
Bazaar means street in Persian and Urdu languages. This word is common in Indian sub-continent countries including Pakistan as well as common in Iran and Afghanistan.
Thug, this word is used in this writing. It is a common word in Hindi and Urdu etc which mean a cunning violent man. In English dictionaries it is described as violent man especially criminal.
Look how some words have changed in recent time like:
Prisoner – we call Detainee. We tortured them worse than prisoners were, and we call them Detainees. Prison; we call prison “Lockup”. That may be reasonable. The prisons here in North America and Western World are different than previous prisons; having some basic facilities for detainees.
Poor countries; Un-developed countries or we call under-development countries. What kind of Under-development that is not turned in to developed for long 60-70 years? For last 60 years, we hear the same word ‘Under-developed countries”. People are still bare-footed, torn clothes, hungry, living in tents or in mud houses and still under-development countries, never developed.
Poor; we call under-privilege, less-fortunate. We express that its no body’s fault, his/her destiny or god made him/her like that. We do not want to upset the person or you can say we do not want to insult the person. Because we want to exploit his/her situation even more further.
We use more and more often the words: Excuse me, Sorry and I don’t care.
These words are overly used and misused. More people in our society take shelter under the umbrella of these words.
Some words reverse composition:
Humility vs. Gravity
Dust vs. Stone
Air puff vs. Rain
Proud vs. Human with humility
Self centered gravivitiant vs. Selfless levit
Gravity vs. Humility
Art vs. future of it (maybe)
Prophet vs. Service
Waste vs. Recycle
Accumulate vs. disperse
Stagnate vs. Fluent
Shut vs. Open
Opaque vs. Transparent
Rest vs. Move
Sleep vs.Wake
Moan vs. Sing
Content vs. Not
Regret vs. Move on
Drown vs. Swim
Hate vs. Love
Give vs. Take
Hold vs. Let go
Live vs. Die
