English loan phrase or Indo-European idiom?

I was reading an interview in Spanish today with a Mexican film director, and he said, "Tienes que escojer tus batallas muy bien," which nearly word-for-word translates as "You have to pick your battles well." Does anyone know if phrases like this, which are perfect translations of English idioms, are loaned from English, or if they are just part of a group of basic Indo-European phrases which exist in numerous languages.

Specifically, regarding Spanish, is this use of word "tener que" a loan from English? Does it exist in Castilian as well, or only in Latin America?

I doubt any language uses phrases from indo european.

It's hard to say. Most varieties of Latin American Spanish have been influenced by English in one way or the other. The Andean dialects (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia) are considered the most conservative and least affected by English.

At the same time, there is also the Sprachbund theory which says that languages in certain geographical regions often have shared lexical, syntactic and grammatical features, even many of the same proverbs. Some linguists think that Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, English and the Celtic languages of Western Europe (Maybe even Basque) are all part of an "Atlantic Sprachbund." Other Sprachbunds, more determined, are the Nordic Sprachbund and the Balkan Sprachbund, also the Southeastern Sprachbund of American Indian languages (Cherokee, Creek, Chocktaw, Seminole etc.).

Very interesting!

But what makes you (or the theory) think that Dutch is in the same Sprachbund as Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and the Celtic languages?!

Brennes,

I've done some quick research (it appears that information about 'Sprachbundes' is pretty rare online), and it seems that a Sprachbund is;

''A Sprachbund (German for language union) (also known as linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area) is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity. They may be genetically unrelated or only distantly related, but where genetic affiliations are unclear the Sprachbund characteristics might give a false appearance of relatedness.''

I'm not sure, but this part ,''They may be genetically unrelated or only distantly related, but where genetic affiliations are unclear the Sprachbund characteristics might give a false appearance of relatedness''worries me a bit.

Because, I can see the conection between English and Spanish ,Portuguese ,French,The Celtic languages.But really I don't see where Dutch fitts in :-) I mean, it's only related to English with mostly superfacial similarities and the word order is totally different from English ,the Romance and Celtic languages.

Do you have more information on this?Very interesting!

How are the Celtic languages and Spanish any more related to each other than Dutch is to either?

American nic,

It's believed that the Latin and Celtic languages have had a common ancestor.Or were at least very closely related about 1500-2000 years ago, in the sense that a Roman could (with effort) understand a Gaul.

We must not forget that the Celtic languages were once spoken from France to Turkey and Belgium to Italy.

Erratum.

Make that 2000-and before years ago ;)

Trawick, I'm no expert in Spanish, but "tener que" is a basic construction in all forms of Spanish, as far as I know, and is not a loan from English.

Sanders and American Nic,

I hope I don't sound too pedantic but it might come out that way since in order to illustrate my previous point I pretty much have to stick to just the facts.

Languages in a Sprachbund often have shared lexical items. Any lexical items which Dutch shares with English, French, Spanish or Welsh and Gaelic but not with German certainly strengthens the "Atlantic" Sprachbund hypothesis. And they are fairly numerous.

For example, Dutch broek for "trousers". This word has various cognates in English breech; britches, Irish Gaelic briste "pants," Scotch Gaelic briogais / Scots English breeks "trousers," Breton bragou "pants," and Spanish braga "panties; knickers" but German has Hosen.

Dutch "Pijnboom" is lexically and/ or morphologically similar to English "Pine (Tree)," Welsh "Pinwydden", French "pin" and Spanish "pino" but German has Kiefer.

Also Dutch rivier (river); vallei (valley) bosch (forest Fr. bois; Sp. bosque)) but German Fluss, Tal, Wald ; Excuseert u mij (Excuse me Fr. Excusez moi) but German Entschuldigen Sie; mosterd (mustard Fr. moutarde, Sp. mostaza, Ptg. mostarda) but German Senf; treinstation (train station) but German Bahnhof; ambitie (ambition Fr.ambition, Sp.ambición, Ptg. ambição) but German Ehrgeiz; Dutch ambulance - German Krankenwagen; Dutch advocaat (lawyer) Sp. abogado, Ptg. advocado but German Rechtsanwalt.

You brought up a good point Sander that Latin and Celtic already descended from a common ancestor as seen in the words for "honey": Irish mil, Welsh mêl, Breton mél and Latin mellis hence French and Spanish miel. Furthermore, some of the same Vulgar Latin words that entered French, Spanish and Portuguese also found their way into the Latin of Britain. These words were subsequently borrowed into Irish and Welsh. Thus, we find Irish oibrí (worker) is similar to the Spanish and Portuguese words for worker: obrero and obreiro. Latin cuctillus later became the word for "knife" in both Spanish (el cuchillo) and Welsh (y gyllell < cyllel "knife"); Late Latin cattus "cat" would later be the source of both Spanish el gato and Welsh y gath (the cat) etc.

Let me conclude by saying that I am not a professional linguist, just a hobbyist in the field. However, from what I've picked up in my readings I think that the "Atlantic" Sprachbund theory is worthy of consideration by linguists even though it is still a gray area right now and more research certainly needs to be done.

=>Also Dutch rivier (river); vallei (valley) bosch (forest Fr. bois; Sp. bosque)) but German Fluss, Tal, Wald ; (Excuse me Fr. Excusez moi) but German Entschuldigen Sie; mosterd (mustard Fr. moutarde, Sp. mostaza, Ptg. mostarda) but German Senf; treinstation (train station) but German Bahnhof; ambitie (ambition Fr.ambition, Sp.ambición, Ptg. ambição) but German Ehrgeiz; Dutch ambulance - German Krankenwagen; Dutch advocaat (lawyer) Sp. abogado, Ptg. advocado but German Rechtsanwalt. ,<=

I have to say that this isn't really accurate,you see,

Dutch: 'Bos' (forest),but also 'woud'.
Dutch: Uses 'dal' much more often than 'vallei'.
Dutch: 'Excuseert u mij' ,but more often 'mijn verontschuldigingen'.
Dutch: Ambitie , but also 'eerzucht'.
Dutch: Ambulance, but more often 'Ziekenwagen'.
Dutch: Advocaat, but also 'aanklager'

I mean , I get the feeling that the people who are behind the Sprachbund, just 'searched' for the similarities.

We must not forget that German and Dutch eachothers closest relatives. ;)

"Tienes que escojer tus batallas muy bien " ????

It's escoGer, not " escojer "

Sorry for the confusion, I cut&pasted that, and ended up including the typo.

Sander,

How many of your alternatives are artificial creations by ultra-nationalists who want to purge the language of "foreign" elements. Almost every European country seems to have some of these people.

Brennus,

I know what you mean ;) , (those idiots who want a Dutch word for the 'internet' ...)

But none of these words were created by those people.