LA CIVETTA February 2016 | Page 30

LINGUA

As language students, we spend a fair bit of time studying, reading, listening to and trying to understand all kinds of different words. Whether we are reading them to translate them from one language to another, or listening to them to answer a question, it is fair to say that they are rather important!

For the most part, we think we have a handle on what words belong in which vocabulary; we are unlikely to mistake a “ciao” for a hello, for instance. But what happens when languages seem to blend into one another, and words from one language do appear in another? What do we do then?

Read on into our wonderful Lingua section to see what our writers have to say on the subject as they consider this linguistic limbo of vernacular variation.