Biochemistry and bioinformatics are just full of English terms. This branch of science is relatively new, and since that stuff was mostly published in English, other scientists just copied the English words and proceeded to write their articles in their own language.
That’s nothing new though. Throughout history there has been a lot of word borrowing and stealing going back and forth. If you invent a fancy new sword and you happen to be speaking Spanish, French, German or whatever, then the rest of the world will just have to deal with calling your sword by a name they can’t pronounce. Usually they’ll start using a distorted version, but the connection is still there. If you give it an easy name, then everyone might actually still use the original name. Espada ropera is too hard, so people will just call it a rapier instead. If it’s an easy word like pomel (Old French), it’s not going to change much (pommel). Taxi, and pizza are fairly easy to pronounce, so they haven’t change much while traveling around the world. OK is a different story, because writing it as okay is a very English think. Also the pronunciation has some variation, but nothing too big.
zakobjoa@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Nod for yes is not universal, in parts of Asia you’d wiggle your head side to side (not turn like shaking your head as a no, but actually sway your head side to side). You’d nod your head up to indicate No in Greece and Turkey among others. Bulgaria and Albania even completely swapped the yes-nod and no-shake.
But all of those places also consume North American/Western European media, so the concepts are mostly understood and even homogenising.