Linguistic history has described borrowing in the European languages as a process exclusive to one language at any given time. However, it is more likely that there is a core of common loan words, or internationalisms, in many European languages. These internationalisms have come from a variety of sources: the historic interrelatedness of Indo-European languages, mutual borrowing, borrowing from non-European languages, linguistic conventions in supra-national institutions such as the church, scientific and technological standardization, and international news exchange. Using German, French, and English as examples, identical vocabularies can be found in three areas: everyday interaction containing words for commonly used objects; utility words or the core vocabularies of conceptual and specialized areas; and languages for special purposes. Although European languages have moved continuously away from the common languages of their origin, the inventory of internationalisms reveals a tendency toward linguistic convergence. These identical or similar vocabularies can be exploited to facilitate everyday communication between language communities, enhance foreign language teaching and learning, help one learn more about historical and cultural contacts between European peoples, describe a pan-European culture, and add to the discussion of linguistic borrowing. (MSE)