In 1964 I wrote in Pageant that English (more than half of which is composed of foreign words) has reached the point where other languages are beginning to borrow rather extensively from us . Since then, I have watched with interest as our mongrel tongue has not only continued to borrow from others as usual -- we have recently acquired discotheque from the French, just as we long ago got woodchuck from the Indians -- but has increasingly received from foreign-language speakers around the globe the compliment of imitation, sometimes without acknowledgement
