The Brexit song: borrowing words / La chanson du Brexit: emprunter des mots
This song has a several French words that are used in the English language. Can you identify them? How do you say them in your language?
We filled this table together:
Mot en français / anglais | Paraules catalanes | Mot en espagnol | Nederlandse woorden | Deutsche Wörter |
champagne | xampany | champán | champagne | champagner |
joie de vivre | l’alegria de viure | la alegría de vivir | levensvreugde | lebensfreude |
déjà-vu | déjà-vu | déjà-vu | déjà-vu | déjà-vu |
risqué | atrevit | picante | riskant | riskant |
toupé | tupè | tupé | haarstukje | toupet |
à la carte | a la carta | a la carta | aan de kaart | a la carte |
Roquefort | Rocafort | Roquefort | Roquefort | Roquefort |
Camembert | Camembert | Camembert | Camembert | Camembert |
eau de cologne | colònia | colonia | eau de cologne | Eau de cologne |
à la mode | a la moda | a la moda | modieus | modisch |
c’est le vie | és la vida | es lo que hay | dat is het leven | so ist das leben |
cul-de-sac | cul de sac | callejón sin salida | doodlopende weg | sackgasse |
chauffeur | conductor / xofer | conductor / chofer | bestuurder | treiber |
miserable | trist | triste | triestig/erbarmelijk | erbärmlich |
rendez-vous | cita | cita | afspraakje | geplanter termin |
entrée | entrant | entrante | voorgerecht | vorspeise |
fiancé | promès/a | prometid@ | verloofde | verlobter |
menu | menú | menú | menu | speisekarte |
lingerie | llenceria | lencería | lingerie/ondergoed | unterwäsche |
etiquette | etiqueta - protocol | etiqueta - protocolo | wellevendheid | etikett |
ambulance | ambulància | ambulancia | ziekenwagen | krankenwagen |
marriage | casament | boda | huwelijk | hochzeit |
soufflé | suflé | suflé | soufflé | soufflé |
belle esprit | bon esperit | buen espíritu / mente maravillosa | een goede sfeer | schöner esprit |
encore | bis | bis | nog | nochmal |
Comparison of the languages:
We could see that some French words were adapted to all the languages we compared.
In the other cases we could see that French, Spanish and Catalan had more similarities in words as they are romance languages.
Dutch and German had some similarities as they are Germanic languages.
It was interesting to see how languages borrow from each other.