John Borland

So — is it true there’s no word in German for “fairness?” Der Speigel writes about the debate over English infecting the German language, following a recent study looking at German words being adopted all over the world. Letting languages evolve is better than trying to keep out foreign linguistic influences (a la the French), the study concludes.

But in one of those eyebrow-raising asides:

While some English words used in German are superfluous, such as the “Service Point” signs put up at major train stations around Germany, others are useful because they have no adequate German equivalent, such as ‘fairness’, said Peter.

Not even really going to speculate on what that means.