The Pekakucha project

For our presentation we have come up with the following idea. We will include a person from an English speaking country and an Italian into the dialogue. These two will meet randomly and start a debate about language. More precisely, they will point out which words, expressions and phrases their languages have adopted from each other. The idea behind this concept is to give the people following our presentation an insight into the interesting topic of ‘neologism’. This term drives from ancient Greek and literally denotes ‘new word’. Neologism is a global phenomenon, as it can be found in almost every language. Undoubtedly, English, be it British or American is one of the greatest sources of neologisms for other languages and therefore will provide us with sufficient examples for our project. How neologisms actually come into being can be explained easily. A word is taken from another language and by transforming it slightly, usually by giving it characteristics such as suffixes and prefixes from the target language a new word is introduced to the language. Acquiring new vocabulary by this method is a positive development, as in my opinion it adds shades of meanings and significations to a language and therefore enables more precise descriptions of an object. These descriptions do often get way better than any other words of the original language ever could, as there are strong connotations to them when they keep their foreign sound and refer to a foreign object. I Speaking for our Pekakucha, the focus will be on the reciprocity of the English and the Italian language. So if you are interested which words apart from umbrella, scenario and villa are originally Italian and how creative Italians can get when it comes to pronunciation and creation of English words in their language then you must not miss our presentation.