In the 21st century, English is everywhere. How do different languages respond to the pressures exerted by a dominant language such as English, above all in terms of vocabulary? We will combine our experience of studying and working with languages – including a number of indigenous and endangered ones from Europe, North America and Oceania – with an analysis of translations into 150 languages from the uTalk app corpus to consider which languages are most vulnerable and most resistant to English loan words. We will also compare and contrast the areas of a language that easily lend themselves to borrowings. However, there are also languages which buck the trend and we’ll look at the creative new lexicons of these languages and discuss the reasons behind their self-preservation, whether social, syntactic or grammatical. Finally, we’ll also look at what smaller languages are doing to resist the influence of English and other dominant languages and how successful this is. Get ready for discussions on everything from numbering systems to computers, aeroplanes and jellyfish!

Brian Loo Soon Hua is a life-long language learner who speaks eight languages fluently and is currently working on improving his competence in a few more, including a couple of highly endangered ones. He is a translator and social media manager by day and a writer of science fiction and fantasy by night. He might even be developing a conlang or two.

Nat Dinham is Languages Director at uTalk and has worked with over 600 language specialists to build courses in 140+ languages from all around the world. As well as working with many mainstream languages, she’s been privileged to liaise with a number of minority and endangered language groups, including Southern Sami, Greenlandic and Irish.

This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava 2019 (https://www.polyglotbratislava.com/).