This 6-year-old video has about 2.8K comments now, so maybe nobody’ll reply: the word “ancient” was said at least twice - which dialect led to its first syllable sounding like [ ˈæŋ- ] as opposed to the more mainstream [ ˈeɪn- ] ?
I am from Afghanistan and speak 7 languages, farsi, pashto danish english german urdu and arabic, I see a lot of similarities between languages. Etymology is very interesting and can bring us closer, we are all one people.
There's even a word in English which came all the way directly from Polish - spruce. This freaky tree was imported from the East Baltic region (known back then as Prussia), brought by Polish-speaking merchants who when asked "where's it from?" answered in Polish - "z Prus" (from Prussia). It sounded like SPRUCE.
Hah! I used to think this was just a story people told about "spruce" until I looked in up in an etymology dictionary and... "literally from Prussia!!!" How cool is that?! Thanks for watching and leaving an amusing comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel. Cheers!
I'm was born and spent my childhood in that area of Poland, but I never knew this! Really unexpected! English and Polish don't have many words in common, and some words sound very similar but have completely different meaning. I remember telling a girl at school that I was a lunatic (meaning that I sleep-walk). She was very odd with me after that and it took me some time to figure out why
SPRUCE transliterates from the Hebrew Baruch - blessed - hence blessed tree. POLand, or POLSKA, transliterates from the Hebrew as Land of fields. PRUSSIA, variation on Baruch, or Blessed Land. Baltic transliterates from the Hebrew as 'Raised up land' - probably mountainous, or perhaps 'higher' because its more to the north.
Some of these words are very uncommon unless you're in those fields of study. They also sound similar. It's no wonder people get confused. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Cheers!
Entomo means bug in Greek. Most of the scientific words in medicine, science etc are greek. Biology for example means "study of life", the way living organisms operate.
I'm a Bengali and I teach children English. It fascinates me that even though Bangla is technically the easternmost language by origin in the Proto Indo-European family while English is one of the westernmost, their grammar more often than not mirror each other. I know a good amount of Hindi-Urdu & a fair bit of German. And, I can assure you that in some ways German has features more in common with Hindi-Urdu than with English. And, even though Hindi-Urdu has a huge lexical similarity with Bangla, it's easier for a Bengali child to understand English and Bangla grammar side-by-side.
People fleeing the Hittite empire went East (sanscrit) and West (latin). People fleeing the Danes (Norse) went East (Kiev) and West (Greenland, Iceland, and the British Isles). In Europe, Norse and Latin are language sources. English is an uncompromised merger of two languages: moon/lunar hand/manual. German (language) is an integrated merger---2000 years of hybridization. The Duts were in between two languages and eventually become the Dutch and the Deutch. There are no "Germans" (people); it is a myth started by Julius Caesar himself.
+Athrong Thongrü Thank you!!! That's a great compliment. RUclips is a great platform, but it's not always easy to get noticed, especially when it comes to educational topics. With support from people like you, We'll keep working on it. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel. Thanks for watching! :D
I was so delighted and extremely excited to find your channel! My fourth grade teacher made learning etymology at a basic level (root words, suffixes, prefixes, origin of the words, original meaning, etc.) so fascinating that I began to read the dictionary out of curiosity and, frankly, just for fun. I still do. This love of words has continued over the years and has flowed over into my study of Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) too. I’m ready to learn more about one of my favorite subjects. Thanks for making this wonderful resource available to all of us who love words! I feel like I just hit the jackpot and discovered a treasure trove of new information.
Awesome. Any teacher who instills a love for learning is a Grade A teacher in my book! You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel as well. I often go into the etymology of words so, even if you already know the word, you might know its etymology. Thanks for watching and for leaving such an inspiring comment.
Wow!! Finally I've met someone with whom I might engage in an intelligent exchange regarding etymology and good grammar. I am a person of color living in America where good grammar, per se, is rare, especially in certain demographics. You have only to visit RUclips to see what I am referencing here.
There are many language varieties out there, and they’re all good. When it comes to “standard English,” yes, many Oriole have trouble with all the (convoluted) rules :) Thanks for watching and leaving a comment 😎👍
@@snaplanguage. Hey Language, when it comes to grammar and etymology, I can be very, shall I say, "fastidious," and prone to argue. I noticed in your comment you said, "There are many language varieties out there..." Wouldn't it be more convenient to simply say, "There are many languages out there.." By using the word "varieties" aren't you being superfluous? You also said, "..they're all good." Tell me, what language would NOT be good. Didn't quite understand what you meant with the word "Oriole". What has a bird to do with "all the (convoluted) rules," surrounding "standard English, as you put it?
Really interesting video! That g -> w shift happened a lot between English and French. For example, garderobe gave English wardrobe, This is similar to the k -> h shift you mention: the two sounds used to be closer. Sometimes both survive, as in guarantee and warranty.
Gu- words in many Latin languages is close to the English W. In Spanish, whiskey is guisqui. Guerra was like 'werra', which is similar to war. The English word 'ward' comes from 'guard'. It world have been more of a W or GW ("gward") sound back in the day, not the hard G it is now.
The latin and greek Gu could be related to the semitic Q but also the Dj or J. In the word Grammar from greek and latin orgin, we have the semitic Etyma JR which means "tie and tracted" : what is Grammar if not a principle to assemble words together and produce a speech following rules ? I study semitic etymology and now it's obvious the PIE is from semitic cradle. The etyma system is not enought known. An Etyma is an ancient root created with 2 letters, mostly 2 consonnants, it's not a syllabe.
It takes an enormous amount of editing time to get all that on the screen, but I think it's worth it. It's nice to hear someone appreciates it Thanks for watching and leaving such a kind comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
I had read before that they used salt as actual currency, but the sources I found for the video only mentioned salarium" as an amount of money to buy salt. It makes sense that salt (and other valuable goods) were used as currency, though... I find salt as currency a more interesting idea :) Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
@@snaplanguage I know that here in the past (I am writing from Rome) SOLDiers were payed with salt (in Italian SOLDI means money and of course it comes from Salt), which was precious, easy to transport and used all over the world. The farmers used to pay and be payed with sheeps and other animals, LAT Pecus, so another -less used- word for money is Pecunia, ENG Pecuniary.
I'm a native Greek speaker learning Dutch. It's amazing how many similarities I see in verbs that are made out of a main verb and a preposition (example1) . Υπό =onder =under Θετω=stellen And υποθέτω = onderstellen =suppose. Etc...
It's almost like they're calques... I wouldn't be surprised if "suppose" (sub-pose) was an calque of ypopheto (?), but I wonder if onderstellen (or German unterstellen with a vaguely similar meaning - to allege, or rather, to impute a motive to someone) is a calque. another example, the German "entscheiden", like the English "decide" (which it means) seems to be composed of two words that vaguely mean "apart" and "cut down" (caedere.) and there are lots of such examples. I wonder if these are all (or some of them) the result of conscious calquing, perhaps even in modern or early-modern times. An alternative would be everyone came up with the same mental imagery independently (unlikely). Another of course would be that these things go all the way back to PIE.
I am a native Persian speaker but I also speak English and French when I learned French and English I saw so many similarities between English French and Persian oh, there is hundreds if not thousands of similar words in these languages that were borrowed and have the same route
@@clairejonas6125 not all of those words are french though. Many were borrowed directly from latin, and in some cases is different from the French word
Selon une hypothèse admise de presque tous, le Proto-indo-européen lie le Celte au Sanskrit en passant par le farsi. Pourtant, l'origine du PIE est le berceau sémitique. J'étudie les langes sémitiques pour en trouver son origine. L'enquête m'a mené sur 2 pistes : l'existence certaine d'étymon, des racines très anciennes, plus vieille que la civilisation summérienne. Un étymon est composé de 2 consonnes uniquement. La deuxième révélation lors de l'enquête, c'est l'existence d'un sens archéologique contenu dans un phone isolé, par exemple le Alif signifiant "causalité" d'où le terme Ab-père, le B signifiant Accessibilité d'où le terme Bab-Porte, etc. L'étymologie est encore de nos jours très mal abordée scientifiquement.
I'd like to know why the number 8 and the word "night" sound so similar in various languages: Spanish: ocho - noche Portuguese: oito - noite Italian: otto - notte English: eight - night German: Acht - Nacht Rumanian: opt - noapte Catalan: vuit - nit etc.
I've seen hypothesis going around about that. The one I buy into most is that the PIE root words for "eight" and "night" were similar to each other, but they were different words. We may never really know for sure. Thanks for watching and leaving a question. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
@@snaplanguage Thank you so much for your answer. My own guess is that, in the days when there was no "official" summer and winter time, in most of the regions - for example - of the Rome Empire the night started at eight in the evening...so, who knows, maybe the ancient Romes decided to "baptize" that time of the day with a similar word (noctis - octo), but who knows 🤔 Greetings from Gran Canaria (Spain)...and, since the origin of words always fascinated me, you've got a new subscriber. Take care
As a Greek, I love the fact that we learn Ancient Greek at school too. I'm proud to say that the English language has borrowed 41 645 words from Greek!
Indeed! There are many words of Greek origin in many languages, especially words in technical fields and in the sciences. They're usually "big words" that I'm sure Greek speakers have no trouble understanding LOL Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel!
Interesting. Your example with "guerre" becoming "werre" then "war": the shift from w to g seems to be quite frequent. So we have William, Wilhelm, Willem etc becoming the French Guillaume, the Italian Guillermo etc. And Wales becomes "pays de Galles" in French.
Etymology : My son (French) used to pronounce DRAPEAU "flag" as CRAPAUD "toad". This simple example shows how a word can evolve in meaning and spelling even in modern time. It's important to say that the invention of written language had a very important impact on the evolution of the spoken language : it can slow it down or on the contrary it can speed it up !!!
The word etymology derives from the Greek word ετυμολογία (etumología), itself from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning "true sense or sense of a truth", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study of". Thank you for this video ❤️
I think it's really cool how words "hide" a lot of information in them. That's a good reason to understand their ετυμολογία :) You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel. I often go into the etymology of a word so, even if you already know it, you may not have known its origins. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
This channel deserves million likes,because its very very interesting,to know the roots from the words.Its a channel,for few people.maybe,its nice to make one dedication for greek language.
Thanks for the kind words. :) I have a series of vocabulary videos where I often get into the word roots so, even if you already know the word, you may learn about its origin. There are plenty of Greek root words in that series, and I will keep making more of them for a long time. Again, thanks for supporting the channel and leaving a comment, Cheers!
I am Dutch, and I read in an etymological dictionary about the Dutch word "oorlog" (war). It was described as a very ancient word still in use with the original meaning being: "an unwanted confusing situation that is put upon you". If this happens to you, you are (in Dutch) "in de war" (very confused). Therein lies the link with the english word "war".
That's interesting. (ik spreek een beetje vlaams, dus dat interesseert me.) In Proto-Germanic, which is where "war" comes from ultimately, *werz-a* mea was the source for *vervirren* in German, meaning "confuse, perplex." I suppose even though oorlog is so different from English war or German Kriege, there is a connection there with confusion. Wel bedankt voor het wetenswaardige commentaar! Cheers!
@@snaplanguage , As a Finn I wonder about the link of war to the Finnish "sota" and the Swedish "krig". And indeed the topic of languages and how they are related is interesting. Nice also that the fact English is a Germanic language was mentioned and not a true unique world leading English innovation being copied all over the world.
I'm very lucky that my reading comprehension instructor showed us some of these videos. Both videos and comments are helpful for people who are interest in studying English. Great job thank you!
Very interesting. As a Spanish speaker my teachers always encouraged me to rather use the wordsderived from a Germanic root and to avoid those whitch have a Latin root. What I didn't expect was to find so many Latin roots in English. Thank you very much
In general, words of Germanic origin sound less formal or "learned" than those from Latin or Greek. For example, to "look up" (e.g., a word in the dictionary) sounds more informal than "search" or "investigate." Depending on the situation, I don't see why not use them too Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel :D
I love etymology, it can give so many clues regarding cultures and history. I speak 3 languages as my channel content shows and what I've noticed is that apart from similarities in vocabulary, it also changes the way one thinks, even though I consider the tongues I speak more like dialects than languages.
I'm Brazilian and I remember when I was studying French and I came across the word "celibetaire", which means "single" (a person who is not married) and is a very common word. But in Portuguese there is the word "celibatário" that, on the other hand, is not used anymore to define someone who is not married but to define the vow a priest must make to enter the priesthood, which means he is not either going to get married or make sex. If he does, he cant be a catholic priest anymore. interesting, isn't it?
That's really cool. Changes in meaning happen a lot in any language. When related languages split from their "parent language(s), the meanings can change in each language separately and you end up with cognates that actually mean different things. That's why "actual" in English and "atual" in Portuguese or have such different (but still related) meanings ("in reality" x "at present"). Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel
Love it! I'm a casual enthusiast of etymology and other historical linguistics. I drive my wife (a native Spanish speaker and actual linguist) nuts by asking questions about etymology, which she ironically doesn't care about.
LOL Linguists have a variety of interests. I myself don't like all aspects of linguistics; I find some quite boring actually. -- You may enjoy this video: ruclips.net/video/TktPNS1xxTc/видео.html -- your wife will thank me 😂 Thanks for watching and leaving a message. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.
@@snaplanguage I agree with you, but you can be sure that the majority of people enjoys your work and is very grateful to you. I'm into learning languages as well and invite you to visit my channel if you feel like.
@@snaplanguage I honestly think that your way of pronounciating (?) French words is perfectly correct. By the way, thanks a lot for your very clear and understandable explanations. A bientôt.
Another way you could've gone from "sal" leads to "salad" in English, via "ensalada" in Spanish, "salted". At one time the concept simply referred to cold preserved foods, and salting being the common way to preserve them...salad. Quite opposite to the current construction of salads from very fresh foods, but as before, they are mostly not cooked.
Yes, I find it fascinating how words can change their meanings when they're borrowed (and even within the same language). After a few generations, you're left wondering how we got from A to B. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel. Cheers!
Great video, Marc. Thank you! I'm bilingual (Spanish-English) and, knowing both languages in depth, I clearly grasp their similarities. Thank you too, serendipity factor lurking about in RUclips!
Yay, serendipity! I'm glad you found the channel. Each time I learn about a word's etymology, it means more and makes more sense. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel. You may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often go into the etymology of a word so, even if you already knew the word, you may not have known about its origin. Thank you!
At the moment when war was borrowed, it was "werre" that had been borrowed from Frankish. So, it is originally a Germanic word that was borrowed to Romance languages, and accidentally to English via old North-French.
Thanks. I had already added a note in the descriptions about that. Of course, I can't expect people to read it. I apologize for misspeaking in the video.
Actually, it is a little more complex than that. William spoke a variety of French, which was called Norman French (from Normandy). In this dialect, the Germanic "w" had been kept intact. In Norman French people used words such as: werre/guerre, warde/garde, wette/guetter(wait), warrant/garant, ware/gare. In Parisian French on the other hand, the germanic "w" evolved in "gu" and eventually since this variety of French became dominant, the old pronunciations faded and disappeared in continal French, while they survived in English.
Interesting, since Dutch stems from Frankish (and French from popular Latin, to confuse our minds :-) ). And in Dutch war is called "oorlog" nowadays, which means war fleet in DK, NO and SE.
Regard Latin „bellum gerrere“. As we know Frankish was a Germanic language borrowing heavily from Latin during a centuries long cultural and linguistic assimilation process. BTW I‘m from Franconia in Germany and my home dialect is „Frankish“ - closer to German than to French but softer than the surrounding German dialects.
"Gay" used to mean "happy" and then in the 1960's, the word "gay" was appropriated by homosexuals to refer to homosexuals. My teenage son and his friends use "gay" to refer to anything effeminate, fastidious, unnecessarily fussy or complicated, like wearing a shawl or fine shoes or having overly styled hair. So in the new meaning, not every homosexual is gay and not everyone gay is homosexual.
Snap Language - Cheers! And thanks for the lesson. I have learned 11 languages - English is my third - and etymology and the evolution of pronunciation and meaning of words is endlessly fascinating. "Slim" in Dutch means "smart", in German means "bad" and in English means "thin". I can clearly remember conversations I had in languages that I spoke fluently at one time but have now pretty well completely forgotten through decades of non-use but could now not repeat the remembered conversation in that language but can in a language I still master, so the meaning is remembered in some abstract form that is not language. Cheers!
I like how your pronunciation of Portuguese is better than your French! That's rare for English speakers. Thanks for giving some highlight to our language! Also amazing video, I love how you teach!
Thanks for the very nice compliments! I speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Dutch (so those words not a problem)... French, not so much... It was a fun video to shoot; a few minutes into taping, I didn't know what language I spoke anymore LOL Merci d'avoir regardé la vidéo! I hope que esteja gostando do resto do canal! Bis bald :D
This is the channel I was looking for :) I try to better understand the English language and your video was very interesting, thank you. I'm Hungarian - as I know and observed, our ancestral words don't resemble the words of any other language. (Language historians consider it similar to the Finnish language, but to be honest, Hungarian experts -and laymen like myself- strongly doubt the kinship between the two languages, as one can only create very forced examples to support the similarity of the two languages.) Compared to this, I find it interesting how similar the logic of the evolution of expressions is in the Hungarian language and in the Germanic language families. For example: "(just) for the record" = "megjegyzem", while this word is related to "remember" = "megjegyez" and "write down" = "jegyez"/"feljegyez". It's really exciting :)
Thank you so much for your support! I'm glad you found the channel. I'd love to make more videos about etymology. They are extremely time-consuming, but it's such a fascinating topic. Cheers!
In French, the equivalent of meat (viande) was also used to signify food in general. It's also the equivalent of the word flesh (chair) that actually meant what we refer to today by the word meat. The history of this word is thus exactly the same between English & French. No idea how though.
Originally in English the word meat referred to all kinds of foods even sweets -this usage continues in the word "sweetmeats" -the word for meat in the modern restrictive sense would have been "flesh."Same with word "corn" -originally it referred to all types of grains but in America it came to refer to only the maize plant.
How surprising is the evolution of words through time and space! In Spanish, the word "vianda" (obviously related to French "viande") according to a Spanish dictionary, it also means food in general. Well perhaps that is the meaning in Spain or in some Latin-American countries. However in Puerto Rico its meaning is not the same. It is a very commonly word used here to refer specifically to locally cultivated tubers in general which usually are prepared and served together such as sweet potato, manioc, and many others. As you see totally unrelated to meat!
Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel. Be sure to click the bell button so you're notified when new videos come out. Cheers! :D
Awesome! I wouldn't call myself a total etymology geek, but it's pretty fascinating, isn't it? Thank you for watching and for leaving such a supportive comment. I hope you're enjoying the channel. You may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often get into the etymology of a word so, even if you already know the word, you may not have known its origins. Cheers!
I learned SO MUCH from this video ... thank you very much. I will post and share this terrific educational work. Bravo and keep up your splendid explanations of the wonders of language.
Awesome, thank you very much for your support. I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel. If you're interested in etymology, you may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often get into the etymology of a word so, even if you know the word, you may not have know its origins. Thanks again! 👍
As a native English speaker that learned Spanish and German, there are amazing similarities and wild differences that have developed between them. I also speak a little Italian, French, and Portuguese, but only a little. I'm still shocked how much I can understand listening to people speaking these languages, because of similar word usage and structure.
Definitely, once you learn a couple of European languages, the next gets even easier. The only problem is dealing with those pesky false cognates or words with identical roots but different meanings LOL Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel
The names of some organs it's used as the suffix for nouns, “Ak”= ~each one of both (Yan= side) (Gül= rose) (Şek=facet) (Dal=subsection, branch) (Taş=stone) Yan-ak= each of both sides of the face >Yanak=the cheek Kül-ak = each of both roses >Kulak= the ear Şek-ak = each of both sides of the forehead >Şakak= temple Dal-ak=dalak=the spleen Böbür-ak=böbrek=the kidney Bağaç-ak>(Paça-ak)>bacak= the leg (the ankle) Bathuw-ak>(Pathy-ak)=(phatyak>hadyak>adyak)=Ayak= the foot > each of the feet (pati = paw) Taş-ak=testicle Her iki-ciğer.=Akciğer=the lung Tül-karn-ak =that obscures/ shadowing each of both dark/ covert periods= Karanlık (batıni) çağların her birini örten tül Zhu'l-karn-eyn=the (shader) owner of each of both times Dhu'al-chorn-ein=double-horned-one=(the horned hunter)Herne the hunter> Cernunnos> Karneios it's used as the suffix for verbs, “Ak /ek“=a-qa ~which thing to / what’s to… Er-mek = to get / to reach Bar-mak (Varmak)= to arrive / to achieve Er-en-mek > erinmek / Bar-an-mak > barınmak Erin-ek / barın-ak = what’s there to arrive at oneself Ernek / Barnak > Parmak = Finger Tut-mak = to hold / to keep Tut-ak=Dudak=(what’s to hold)> the lip Tara-mak = to comb/ to rake Tara-ak > Tarak =(what’s there to comb)> the comb Tara-en-mak > taranmak = to comb oneself Taran-ak > Tırnak =(what’s there to comb oneself)> fingernail
I've just come up with an etymological theory a few moments ago. The modern word sinister, meaning sneaky or conniving, or generally bad, comes from the Latin sinister, left handed, or left. But that word itself is of no known origin, with one somewhat unconvincing suggestion that it is related to an older Sanskrit word. However, the Latin for a fold, or pocket, or a curve, or bay, is sinus. The Romans commonly wore their toga with their right hand free for gesturing, and their left hand wound up in the folds of their toga. Is it possible that the word sinister comes from sinus, as it was the left hand that was enclosed in the sinus? Are there any etymological experts here who can shine any light on this possibility?
- I'm sure someone has studied this. It is often the case, too, that a word's true origin gets lost in time, and there is no way to know for sure until they find some new text that may elicit some new hypothesis. - Etymonline seems to be a very solid, well researched source.I found a lot of information, including links to related words, at www.etymonline.com/word/sinister - Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! :D
@@joecato1138 the word "sinistro" is much older than "invention" of pocket. Moreover a non left-handed would have difficulties to use a weapon with his wrong hand. With fantasy I can imagine that origin of negative meaning of this word could come from LAT "sine-estrum" : without (female) ovulation, which was a serious and negative lack...but I am not an expert, I am just a curious self-taught from Roma.
I am not in this field, but I like very much how the words in the Greek language are connected. Let me give you an example. In Greek, money is «Chrima» and derives from the word «Chrisi» or usefulness in English. With money effectively we are exchanging usefulness. I think that such connections are highly sophisticated, especially if we consider that they have been developed 3.000 years ago.
You can find many examples of words of Greek origin around the world. English definitely has many of those, especially in science and technology. I have a series of "vocabulary building" videos. Greek word roots pop up quite frequently, of course. For example, here ruclips.net/video/Yb3iaKwMh_0/видео.html Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Cheers
Cham or Charm is used for animal skin in indo pak, there was a time animal skin was turned in to small round like coins and that was a money to buy any thing, so this way there is connection in these words
I'm a big fan of communication and its languages, have been a long time. Eventually I got into etymology which added immeasurable depth to my anthropoligical knowledge. The history of the languages is the story of our migrations, away from and back to, each other.
Etymology is indeed a fascinating area. It's archaeology, history, linguistics, statistics, and a great deal of patience all rolled up into one. Whenever I look up a word's etymology and there's a big surprise, that word means more than before. Really cool! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
This video was really interesting for me, because I was really surprised as I learned that PIE root of "heart" is "kerd", because I'm Georgian and noticed that the PIE word "kerd" is really similar to the Georgian word მკერდი (mkerdi), which means breast and which is the area, where the heart is located. It's totally mind-blowing. Also the most surprising thing is, that the Georgian language isn't the Indoeurpian language or the one related with those languages, but the totally independent language.
That's pretty fascinating. I'm sure the examples you gave are not just a coincidence. I'm sure etymologists have done research on Georgian. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
When you brought up how meat used to refer to food in general, i had a massive aha-moment! I'm Swedish and we use the word mat to refer to food, and I figured it might be a cognate with meat. I did some research and turns out not just that meat and mat are cognates, but that pretty much every germanic language has a word that's also cognate with meat/mat and refers to food in general, and that English is just an oddball
Thanks for sharing this great aha-moment! :) I don’t know very much about Swedish, but I understand that “food” in Old Norse is “matr.” Drop the ending (“r”) and, voilà, you’ve got yourself a meal-well, at least en måltid lol
We have a cognate to 'food' in Swedish as well, namely 'föda' which to some extent is synonymous with 'mat' but more often it has the sense of nutrition/nourishment/aliment or the like. 'Fast föda' means 'solid food' for example.
One surprising thing I learnt about word origins the other day is that the Greek word for "tail" is "ouros" seen in such scientific words like dasyure -an Australian animal with a bushy tail and this word "ouros' is closely related to the English and German words "arse" -makes sense when you think where these items of anatomy are located.
Hah! That really is surprising (and funny). Words have interesting histories, and some of them make you realize how word origins are hiding in words that sometimes sound very different. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. :D
Yes! I'm a native Greek speaker and really love etymology! Actually tail in Greek is ουρά (oura) but has many forms like ouros. Some other names with -ouros are coelurus (κοῖλος, koilos = hollow + οὐρά, oura = tail) which was a dinosaur (from Greek δεινός (dinos) = very big + σαύρα = lizard) and platurus (πλατύς= wide + oura)
Also, if you're interested in biology or science in general and search the etymology of the words you'll be surprised about how many they are as exactly they are in (ancient mostly) Greek!
Thank you for the video. I found it very informative. I'm an expat that speaks many languages and has been interested in this subject for decades. If I'm not mistake, Sanskrit belongs to the proto-Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the three earliest and most ancient documented languages. Maybe it should be included as a reference for all. Once again thank you!
Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, indeed. Many people take its early beginnings to mean that it is "the Mother of All Languages," though, which etymologists would disagree with. It's a large family tree, so the branches reach far and wide. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! Cheers
In Norwegian, we have this word "dass", meaning "toilet". It's not what you'll use in very polite terms, but it's very common. It turns out, the word originated from WW2, when German soldiers came to somewhere in the middle of nowhere and had to use the toilet and asked "Kann ich das Haus benutzen?" (or something like that, I'm not fluent in German), and the farmer or whatever he or she was, probably understood, but didn't know German too well. So "Das Haus" became a sort of slang, dropping the noun and written "Dass" [das:] (according to Norwegian writing, the a being short and the s being long). So an article turned into a noun. This is possibly one of more interesting examples in Norwegian etymology I know of ;)
Das ist sehr morsom :) Interestingly enough, some words in English were created or changed because people misheard something. In Middle English, an apron was "a napron." People misinterpreted it, and "napron" became "an apron." The same happened to "an ekename" (literally, an also-name), and it became "a nickname." Of course, the story behing "dass" is much funnier than any of that 😂 I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel. Tusen tak!
@@snaplanguage This is actually one of my favourite mistakes done to the "thank you" spelling in Norwegian. "Tusen tak" in Norwegian literary translate into "a thousand roofs". While "Tusen takK" means "a thousand thanks". It is a very common and tiny mistake, but non the less very funny to me :) and also understandable when the danes spell it "Tusind tak". But you know.. the danes... :b
@@thomhansen5298 People love picking on the poor Danes! LOL Oops!... I guess I mixed Danish and Norwegian there, huh? I'll make sure I wish people "a thousand roofs" only when I'm in Denmark
In Bengali, we have a similar word "daast" (soft d and soft t) meaning defecation. It has a Persian root, probably with same pronunciation. Norwegian "dass" may have come from the same source.
@@ArghaBagchi no, the roots of the Norwegian word "dass" is well known to be a misunderstanding where the German article "das" was beleived to be a noun or adjective in front of "haus", as in "das haus", beleived to mean "toilet house" by locals, while it really only means "the house". Etymologically, it really is quite a special case, the article that turned into a noun. Btw, definite article in Norwegian, is a postfix, so "a house" is "et hus", but "the house" is "huset".
Love your video! It's great. Just a quick comment; in Danish we say "fader" as the real word for dad, it's just easier to say far, it's sluggish and shortened, but in old Danish texts it is written out "fader", so the connection to father and vater (and even pater) is even more visible! Same goes with mother (moder, mor) and brother (broder, bror) :D
Thanks for the comment! That's very interesting and shows how most European languages are all related even though the relationships do not seem very clear on the surface.
If I'm not mistaken this all derives from ancient Greek Πατήρ (Pateer), then it went to Latin and then to all of Europe. But I don't know if there is some arab root to the Greek word.
@@AK-fu8ti no that's wrong 😊 They all derive from a word in Proto-Indo-European, *ph2ter, not from Greek, and it didn't go 'through latin! They all independently inherited the word from the proto-language. And no, there is no Arabic cognate, since the semitic languages are (as far as we know) aren't (immediately) related to the Indo-European languages 😊
Great video!! I love etymology. I'm an Englishman, who has lived in Denmark for nearly 40 years. I speak fluent Danish and it is clear that the old Viking languages had a profound impact on English. I was interested in the word 'meat, which originally meant food. The Danish word for food is 'mad' (the last d is like the word 'the' without the 'e') 'Heart' is 'hjerte' in Danish. Also many basic English verbs are based on Danish go - gå hear - høre see - se feel - føle And body parts hair - hår knee - knæ elbow - albue toe - tå nose - næse ear - øre eye - øje
Thank you! I learned a little Norwegian (definitely not enough to do much with it), and these similarities to the other Germanic languages were striking. If you put German, Dutch, Danish/Norwegian/Swedish, and English in a police lineup (identity parade), you might pick the wrong guy! LOL (It blew my mind when I learned "tå" and "to" in Norwegian!) Thanks for watching and for leaving a comment! -- Cheers!
It's a fascinating field in linguistics. I'm glad etymologists are doing all the work, though, because it must be really difficult LOL Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
"War" comes from the Germanic word "werra". It became a loan word in Latin, and in French it changed to "guerre". Germanic "w" at the beginning of a word becomes "gu" in French (like William -> Guillaume, ward -> guard).
@@quoileternite No, the word Wales has got a Germanic root. It means non-Germanic speaking strangers. The word is ethymologically related to the German word "welsch" which means the same. Wales is the name the Anglo-Saxons gave the country. To them, the Welsh were strangers speaking a Celtic language they couldn't understand. The Welsh people call themselves "Cymru". For example, Plaid Cymru is a Welsh party being represented in the House of Commons and demanding Welsh independence. A verse of the Welsh national anthem reads: "Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd" ("Old mountainous Wales, paradise of bards").
@@c.norbertneumann4986 Yes, I was just mentioning the correspondence between G and W ... (by the way, the correspondence is not W -> GU but W->G, and guard in French is spelt garde 😉)
Etymology is a surprisingly useful tool for people trying to study and learn other languages, not for everyone of course, but knowing where the words come from makes it super easy to expand your vocabulary.
I agree. It even helps you appreciate and understand your native language(s). I don't sit for hours studying the etymology of words, but I do enjoy looking it up now and again. -- Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.
I love this subject, it's incredible, and somehow it explains a little bit why different civilizations, separated by time and geography, sometimes have similarities in mythological and religious narratives.
I speak portuguese, and aways found interesting when I'm studying Italian and I find words like "Finisce" or "Scusi", words that I understand more because of the English variants than Italian being a Romance language
Indeed! It's as if all these word roots got mixed up in European languages. Some got one root, others got another related one. LOL These similarities are one of the reasons etymology got started. People started realizing that very different languages had words that deep down were somehow related. It's a fascinating field. Cheers!
I grew up with Italian parents in Canada so I knew English and Italian. In school we learned French. I was fascinated by how incredibly similar Italian and French were.The Spanish I heard in Western style movies amazed me because other than some basic words, they too were so similar to Italian. I found that I could follow the dialogue in Spanish without issue.
There are two simple English words that I find interesting. Both "in" and "me" are essentially the same words in English and the Italian language. I could never understand how these basic Italian words ended up in the English language.
Welcome aboard and thanks for leaving a comment! I have an ongoing new series on vocabulary, Word of the Week, which often gets into the etymologies of related words. Check it out. Cheers!
@@samhain1894 Some word origins are wild. Then you never see the word the same again. What were the ancients thinking?!! Literally and figuratively LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for information on that, but it sounds like a fascinating topic. I hope you’re enjoying the channel :)
@@snaplanguage yeah. I’m studying phenomenology and it’s very interesting. It’s just that I’m trying to zero in on what they mean by these two words. Not to mention the change in meaning from one philosopher to the next. That’s probably due to the metaphysical stance they have.
These statistics are not very precise because they depend on how you count words and even how you define "word." By some counts, the proportion of Latin to Greek is something like 50+ to 5-ish percent. Some people claim that Greek has a greater contribution if you count obscure technical terms (but the same could be said about words of Latin origin). Also, do you count words of French origin as Latin? It's a mess. But you're right. I could have been more precise and explained this better. Cheers!
Oh, yes! English is a "language sponge." Throughout its history (and even today), it has adopted any useful words from many languages. Also, remember that Portugal was a powerful kingdom, and traveled all over the world as far back as the 1400s. They left a lot of the Portuguese language behind. :D
I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying the channel. I'll keep making videos as long as there are people like you who are interested and so supportive of my work. Thank you so much!!
I enjoy learning about word origins, too! I don't know of any apps. Whenever I'm curious about a word, I go to www.etymonline.com/ They seem to be pretty accurate. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
Language developed "naturally." Writing systems are "artificial" in the sense that they were created to represent the spoken language. Some writing systems use lines and scribbles to represent individual sounds, others to represent syllables or even whole words and concepts. I think it's pretty cool, too! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Cheers!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I think I'll be making new etymology-related videos to include more examples. "cœur" > courage is a good one, for sure. Make sure to click the bell button when you subscribe so you don't miss any of the new videos... Cheers! :D
It's fascinating. Once you start learning about word origins, you can't stop! LOL Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel. Cheers!
@@ATinyPillow very true indeed. The word derives from Sanskrit "āśáyāna" - 'laying on water' and Greek Ὠκεανός. They have the same proto-Indo-Germanic root 'ō-kei-ṃ[h1]no' - 'lying on top', related to Greek word 'κεῖται', meaning 'to lay'
@@charananekibalijaun8837: Please note that when I initially looked up the etymology of “ocean” there was no mention of the globe as well as other additions, - > “the vast body of water on the surface of the globe” < - and - > “ In early times, when the only known land masses were Eurasia and Africa, the ocean was an endless river that flowed around them. Until c. 1650, commonly ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Application to individual bodies of water began 14c. (occean Atlantyke, 1387); five of them are usually reckoned, but this is arbitrary. The English word also occasionally was applied to smaller subdivisions, such as German Ocean "North Sea." < - Those sections have been added fairly recently. ocean (n.) c. 1300, occean, "the vast body of water on the surface of the globe," from Old French occean "ocean" (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek ōkeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth (as opposed to the Mediterranean), a word of unknown origin; Beekes suggests it is Pre-Greek. Personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys. In early times, when the only known land masses were Eurasia and Africa, the ocean was an endless river that flowed around them. Until c. 1650, commonly ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Application to individual bodies of water began 14c. (occean Atlantyke, 1387); five of them are usually reckoned, but this is arbitrary. The English word also occasionally was applied to smaller subdivisions, such as German Ocean "North Sea." This is how it was originally written prior to the recent additions noted above; ocean (n.) c. 1300, occean, from Old French occean "ocean" (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek ōkeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth, a word of unknown origin; Beekes suggests it is Pre-Greek. Personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys. Anyway, I found it rather intriguing when it says “the great river or sea surrounding - > the disk of the earth < - “ Being a priest, I found this quite interesting because in the Great Isaiah Scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls it says; “It is he who sits above - > the disk of the earth < - “ It seems at the time of the origin/etymology of the word “ocean” and at the time of the writing of the Great Isaiah Scroll, earth was viewed as “a disk”. Also interesting is that the earth was all a single landmass according to the Hebrew Bible and the land was separated in the days of Peleg. Me thinks that there is more truth seeping through the cracks here than many would care to admit. As usual, there is a modicum of truth in everything. ;) .
Awesome! I'm glad you found the channel, too -- even though this video isn't perfect 😑 I'm glad it can give people some food for thought. You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel, too. I often get into the etymology of words so, even if you already knew a word, you may not have known its origins (which I often learn myself when I'm creating the videos. Cheers!
I love words. They are fascinating. When I did a creative writing MA, we looked into words and etymology. It's very important, because words have connotations which will come into the reader's mind, perhaps unwanted for your purpose. Looking at the etymology and choosing the correct word is all-important, if you don't want your meaning to be lost or diluted. The reason English is so rich is because we have the Anglo-Saxon roots (Germanic) and because of the Roman invasion and then the French invasion of 1066, we have Latin/French words. This is why some words are "vulgar" which simply means common, but has become to mean rude, and then to be "swear" words. "Swear" or "oaths" or "curse" because the words used to be used to swear an oath to God to curse someone. And it's why we have two words for most things. One Germanic root word (folk, dog, cat, horse)) used by the commoners and another more refined word (people, canine, feline, equine) with a Latin root. It's why we have one word for the animal (cattle, sheep, pig) and another word for the meat (beef, mutton, pork). The commoners would raise the animal and slaughter it. The rich folk would eat it. Often n a pie. Which would have an upper crust and a lower crust, which wasn't as good to eat. So the rich folk would get the "upper crust". Great channel.
These processes are fascinating and are taking place even in modern language. Take "sick" in English, which now has both negative and positive meanings/connotations. Pretty awesome Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave an interesting comment. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel.
P.S.: Check out Etymonline. I believe it's a reliable source. You may enjoy falling into some interesting rabbit holes there www.etymonline.com/ Cheers!
After spending some time studying Spanish and (somewhat less time) studying Welsh, it's interesting to me that English has a lot more in common with Spanish than it does with Welsh. The latter seems quite alien by comparison in its grammar, syntax, and cognates. That being said, Welsh is a beautiful language when spoken by its native speakers.
I didn’t learn about it but I did hear that English grammar was influenced by Latin language and that’s why it’s somehow different from other Germanic languages but I’m not an expert. It’s very interesting, though
It will be interesting if you learn a bit of history of English. As I remember, English once conquered by the Romans, Vikings (from Denmark) and Normandy. Trust me, it explained a lot of the language similarities in English :)
English borrowed so many words from other languages (especially Latin, French, Greek) it lost a bit of its Germanic flair. That's why German and Dutch vocabulary, for example, seem quite different from English. Welsh has preserved a lot of its Celtic vocabulary, hasn't it? Thanks for watching and leaving an interesting comment! I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
@@anandyaasprillia549 Actually the history of England, Britain, and the English language have been favorites of mine for a long time. Among many other interesting factoids is that after the romans abandoned Britain in the early 5th century, the Celtic Britons invited some Germanic warriors over to help deal with the growing threat of the Scottish Picts. This was the initial reason for the Angles, Saxons, etc., coming over from the North Sea coast of Europe. But, after their success at dealing with the Picts, they decided to stay, which may have been their plan all along anyway. That's the theory, anyway. I think the venerable Bede describes this in his Chronicles of the Anglo- Saxons. What I find really interesting is that, despite 4 centuries of Roman presence in Britain, Vulgar Latin did not take root and develop there into another Romance language, as it had in other parts of Europe where the Romans had established themselves, like Gaul (France), Hispanicum (Spain), Romania, etc. Surely the Celtic Britons would have retained something of this Britonized Vulgar Latin?
@@francishaight2062 That factoid is interesting tho, I never heard about that ;) My assumption of why they couldn't retain Vulgar Latin was maybe caused by political things happened that time. You know like, after being conquered, the were some classes in society and they maintained which language is appropriate than which. This reminds me of when Normans conquered Britain and they impacted many of English vocabularies since then. And as I remember, the Romans at that time did not interested to teach their culture and language but only to widen their colony. But that was just my thought, it could be other reason why the Vulgar Latin was not developed as other European language :)
Thanks! I've been back for a while and plowing along! :D If you can share the link to the channel with others, it will help the channel grow so I can keep making more videos without a long hiatus. haha
There was no hidden agenda behind leaving one language or another. English has borrowed and is still borrowing words from just about any language within earshot. I just had to edit the video down for length. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment -- Cheers! :D
I have a thought on what you said at 3:22, regarding Guerre turning into werre, which then evolved into war. Between French and English, there are a bunch of terms which have the letter W in English while the various Latin-based languages use Gue or Gui. The equivalent of the name 'William' is 'Guillaume', for example. 'Wasp' in English is 'guêpe' in French. Without the circumflex, it would be 'guespe'. I think that helps explain the connection between 'Guerre' and 'War'. Somewhere along the line, either terms that started with Gue morphed into terms that start with W, or vice versa.
That portion of the video came out confusing. I added the following comment to the descriptions (which, of course, I don't expect everyone to see): TO CLARIFY THE ORIGIN OF "WAR" PIE *wers- "to confuse, mix up" ► Frankish *werra ► Old North French "werre (Old French "guerre," meaning dispute, war) ► late Old English wyrre, werre "large-scale military conflict." Cognates suggest the original sense was "to bring into confusion." There's much confusion in the history of the word in European languages because they borrowed it either from the Germanic or from the Latin root. Etymological trees can have many twisted and intersecting branches (which makes me glad I'm not an etymologist:) Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the channel
Awesome! Etymology is hard, brainy work, but it must be very satisfying. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel
Awesome! Since you like etymology, you may be interested in the advanced vocabulary videos. I often go into the etymology of the words in the videos. Thanks again!
Even semitic languages share a large amount of terms with what so called in short ( PIE) : SEKKINE ( ARABIC WORD ) ( knife ) deriving from the root SEK = CUT ZAWG ( HEBREW WORD ) ( handsband ) ZWIG = TWO . In Arabic ZOUJ means TWO or COUPLE . Phoniciens as great sea marchents helped the widespread of semitic's terms in other languages . Aramaic was a lingua franca and even the language of the Bible . The ancient world had known GLOBALISATION in the epoque of PHONICIENS . Phoniciens were reputed traders and not conquerors . They roamed the seas to exchange goods ( importation & exportation ) and managed to improve a kind of a world common communication .
It's interesting how languages are connected throughout history and left traces behind in the language. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Make sure you clicked the bell when you subscribed. I'm working on the next video in the "grammar series." I hope you like it, too! :D
Not so many poeple are deeply educated more than low educated ones, that's why useful videos related to such deep knowledge are not so interested or worth likes, but keep going on, now more and more people are developing their knowledge. For me, who is inerested in languages really admire your work!
Thank you very much for your support. I agree that this channel reaches a niche interested in language and linguistics, but my hope is that some people will *gain an interest* because they watched these videos. Who knows? We may end up getting to a million subscribers... one day... in the distant future... LOL Thanks again, Cheers! :D
Well, no. Apparently, it is a Hebraism, and for them salt was a symbol of all things permanent, unchangeable and eternal, like their covenant with Yahweh (which was supposed to be eternal, unalterable and immutable). AFAIK Hebrew expression "salted covenant/ union/ alliance" means an "undissolvable one", but as I don't speak Hebrew I can't attest it myself. Of course, one could ask "what then is the meaning of this expression as far as Apostles go?", but that's yet another story - touching on Essene beliefs and views, Jewish Law, and who really Jesus was (and what is the real meaning of His teaching).
Awesome! You are witnessing generational differences in language change. I sometimes pronounce the H if I'm stressing the word, but usually I drop the H. I guess I'm in between your parents and your grandfather LOL Thanks for watching and leaving this great comment. :D
Thank you for this presentation. I am a native Greek speaker and speak also English and Italian. My main formal specialization is not linguistic, but I find the subject particularly interesting. Going through the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (edition of year c. 2000) I remember reading that English comes from Old Norse, Germanic, and Latin, and that it also acquired a considerable number of almost purely Greek words via the development of science in the course of the 19th century. The same dictionary provides an etymology for each term, mentioning backwards the languages the term has come from. You might be surprised about the number of times these languages include the Greek language, and when Greek is included, it is always in the last position, meaning it is the oldest known origin. Greek must have had its origins too (maybe Phoenicean, and surely the older Indoeuropean language you mention), but these are not so clear, and certainly do not include any other language spoken in the contemporary world. On the other hand, I understand Latin has a big debt to Greek, the Latin alphabet (and hence the Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian, English, etc.) comes straight from the Greek alphabet, as does (maybe more remotely) the Russian alphabet, and English, apart from the aforementioned big number of words with proved Greek etymology (a word of Greek etymology too (ετυμολογία)), also has a big number of words partly coming from Greek e.g.. 'meta-'. Apart from the extremely important Before Christ Greek scripts, I would guess that Greek has influenced the West through the Christian Gospels, all written in Greek, whether by Luke (Λουκάς), or Matthew (Ματθαίος), or John (Ιωάννης), etc., and still read from the original (ancient) Greek in all today's Greek Orthodox (Ορθόδοξες) churches. So I think the influence of Greek in the English language, whether direct or indirect, could have had a much more prominent position in your presentation. Thank you. (By, the the way, 'Europe' also comes from Greek (Ευρώπη).)
Hi, I appreciate your comment. I meant this video to be about how a handful of English words have evolved over time and to give people a quick taste of what etymology is all about. I simply chose words fairly randomly and kept the ones I thought would be interesting, and *unfortunately* they just happened to exclude Greek (among many other languages). I've had quite a few complaints from people saying I didn't include *their language.* In the end, I don't think I could have please everyone unless I had included every single language that contributed to English vocabulary in any way. Besides, there are people here that think that, choose one, Greek/Arabic/Sanskrit/Korean/Old Dravidian/Tamil, etc, is "the Mother of All Languages." In hindsight, I should have hand picked words to represent as many languages as possible but, again, that was not the thought process when I created the video. Your comment is spot on, though. Latin borrowed many words from Greek in addition to other languages. Greek was also the language of science, religion, and philosophy for such a long time in Europe that many words entered vocabularies that way. With the development of new science and technology, they needed to name things, so they used Latin and mainly Greek root words to create words that didn't exist in either language. The contribution of Greek to vocabularies, science, philosophy, etc. is undeniable. Don't take the video to mean any conspiracy to hide that truth. English has a preponderance of Latin words because many of them entered English through Old French. In fact, many words entered English directly from Latin and later, the same word re-entered English through French. Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment. Cheers!
@@snaplanguage You're a tremendously nice man but it ought to be stated that Greek does seem to be the originating language, even for some of the words you stated as being Latin originated [duo δύο (the-o), bellum πόλεμος (polem-os), even Sal άλας (alas)]. And taking into account that ancient Greek goes back to about 9 centuries BC it clearly precedes and therefore influenced Latin.
I could not have said that because the research-based evidence does not support that claim. There is a lot of misinformation about what some people call "The Mother of All Languages." Some people insist it's Sanskrit. Others insist it's Arabic. Others still insist it's Albanian. I do not go by what people believe to be true but by what the current science supports. Regardless, this does not take away the importance of the Greek language and culture throughout history. It's undeniable and provable. :) Thanks for watching and for the very kind comment :D
@@snaplanguage No no... I'm not saying Greek is the mother of all languages. Merely trying to point out that some words attributed to Latin really derive from ancient Greek! Again you are a most pleasant host!
Oh, I apologize for misunderstanding you. I thought that's what you meant by "the originating language." I've been hearing so many people make these claims here that I'm starting to hear it in my sleep! LOL You are a very graceful viewer yourself. I appreciate any comments because I enjoy getting feedback from people and talking about languages. Again, sorry for the confusion. -- Cheers! :D ... Εβίβα! (?)
I was surprised there was not even a cursory mention of Arabic, considering that it pervades quite a few other languages, like Urdu, Indonesian, Malay, Pashtu, Iranian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English.
There was no bias against any particular language. This was a video about the English language, so I focused on a few examples in English that I thought people would be interested in. To include the contribution of *all languages,” the video would have had to be a multi-part series. Cheers! :D شكرا
Here are a few: admiral, adobe, albacore, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, algorithm, alkali, almanac, amber, Arab, artichoke, assassin, azimuth, barbican, Betelgeuse, caliber, caliph, camphor, carat, carafe, carmine, carob, chess, cipher, coffee (one of my favorite words), cork, cotton, couscous, crimson, dura mater, emir, fakir, fardel, falafel, felucca, gazelle, genie, gerbil, ghoul, giraffe, halal, harem, hashish, hazard, hookah, imam, jar, jasmine, jinn, kismet, lilac, lime, loofah, lute, macramé, magazine, mask, mattress, minaret, monsoon, mosque, mullah, mummy (embalmed body), muslin, nadir, orange, ottoman, racket, ream (of paper), safari, saffron, Sahara, sash, sheikh, sherbet, sirocco, sofa, spinach, sugar, sultan, syrup, tabbouleh, tahini, tamarind, tariff, and zenith. There are a few more where these came from... :D I thought about making a video about this other influences on English. I'm afraid people would still complain because it's impossible to include all languages without making it a very long, extremely research-intensive video. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! -- Cheers!
@@snaplanguage Apricot ...even if Arab had little influence . Originally Malum praecocium ( because blossoms before peach ) .In North among African Arab speaking Countries became El Precoq.. Imported then in Langue d' óc ( south France ) as El precot and the article "el " was assimilated ( same as Al Gebra ) giving origin to Apricot pricosen ( German ) and so on ! We have " albicocche" !
I speak french english persian and some spanish.i am amazed by the similarities.i can find similar words in all these languages.a word in one language changes to a similar meaning i another..Amazing.
It *is* pretty amazing, isn't it. Even languages that seem so different from each other on the surface can still preserve common origins. Sometimes they're hiding deep in the words (which is why I'm glad etymologists are doing all the hard work to figure it out LOL). Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Cheers!
Very interesting video man ... I see those patterns everyday cause I speak Spanish, English, German and Italian .. it just amazing to see the connection between them
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I hear what you're saying about seeing those connections. When you start learning European languages, you start seeing them everywhere. Cheers!
@@kristybarnes2563 what can I say? I think the best way of learning a new language is actually living in the country where it belongs ... Also watching videos, shows, sports.. it's what works for me
@@kristybarnes2563 This is a very complicated question. Some people learn better by using the language from the start. Others need to focus on grammar so they feel confident when they start speaking. It also depends on each student's situation (for example, if you're living in the country where the language is spoken or not, how much time you have to dedicate to learning the language, and so on). I'll start a series of live stream events in a couple of weeks discussing second language learning. If you're interested, subscribe to the channel and click the bell to receive all notification so you know when these live streams are out. Thank you! :D
I'd just like to say that J R R Tolkien's Appendices to LOTR were a revelation to me back around 1966. I discovered a systematic approach to classifying sounds and the symbols used to depict them, and comparative etymology across multiple languages. By that time I had already sat through classes in French and Latin, but they never gave me the insight I got from his Appendices. It's hard to describe because I knew of the Latin roots of both French and English, and I could see the words with common roots, like castrum, chateau, castle. Tolkien made me aware that this could be and was a whole field of study.
Good on Tolkien! That's definitely a way to make such a dry branch in linguistics more palatable and accessible. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the other language- and linguistics-related videos on the channel. Cheers! :D
Glad you're enjoying the channel. I have quite a few plans for the near and long future. I hope to keep seeing you around our language and linguistics community. :D
CHECK OUT these vocabulary building videos; they go over the etymology of most words ruclips.net/p/PLS9dE7WMFmJikh_a26F9vn4CTX2ArXutB
This 6-year-old video has about 2.8K comments now, so maybe nobody’ll reply: the word “ancient” was said at least twice - which dialect led to its first syllable sounding like [ ˈæŋ- ] as opposed to the more mainstream [ ˈeɪn- ] ?
very badly made
I am from Afghanistan and speak 7 languages, farsi, pashto danish english german urdu and arabic, I see a lot of similarities between languages. Etymology is very interesting and can bring us closer, we are all one people.
Amazing!
Why danish and german?
@@arte0021 I live in Denmark, can also fully understand Swedish and Norwegian.
@@msc.fahmdyar1483 i also live in Denmark but come from Russia originally. I speak russian, danish and English with little bit of spanish and german
I agree, were are one people. Learning another's language brings us even closer as one. فرسی کوچکی حرف میزنم و فرانسوی و ایتالیایی. آدمها یکی هستند
There's even a word in English which came all the way directly from Polish - spruce. This freaky tree was imported from the East Baltic region (known back then as Prussia), brought by Polish-speaking merchants who when asked "where's it from?" answered in Polish - "z Prus" (from Prussia). It sounded like SPRUCE.
Hah! I used to think this was just a story people told about "spruce" until I looked in up in an etymology dictionary and... "literally from Prussia!!!" How cool is that?!
Thanks for watching and leaving an amusing comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
Cheers!
I'm was born and spent my childhood in that area of Poland, but I never knew this! Really unexpected!
English and Polish don't have many words in common, and some words sound very similar but have completely different meaning. I remember telling a girl at school that I was a lunatic (meaning that I sleep-walk). She was very odd with me after that and it took me some time to figure out why
SPRUCE transliterates from the Hebrew Baruch - blessed - hence blessed tree. POLand, or POLSKA, transliterates from the Hebrew as Land of fields. PRUSSIA, variation on Baruch, or Blessed Land. Baltic transliterates from the Hebrew as 'Raised up land' - probably mountainous, or perhaps 'higher' because its more to the north.
The etymology of the word etymology is etymon: truth and logos: reason, speech, word. So it's the truth of words
The Greek language gave us some great scientific or academic vocabulary. :D
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage And not only......so uneducated....and you put it out in public......cheers mate!
Εύγε φίλε μου!!
@@ΠρομηθεύςΤιτάν Personal attacks are lame.
@@snaplanguage No...just ''putting'' things in order. : )
I love anyone who loves his stuff, knows his stuff, and shares that passion with others 🥰
I'm trying! I'm trying! LOL
Thanks for your support. I really appreciate it.
Cheers!
Well put!
I started following Snap Language a few weeks ago. Dr. Franco's passion for langauge is hard to miss :)
"Are you worth your salt?" The ancient question posed to members of the merchant class. So really what is being asked is "Are you worth your salary?"
Cool. "Salt" always seems to be attached to something of value or worth, like "the salt of the earth."
Thanks for watching and commenting! :D
@@snaplanguage I could be wrong but I believe the Bible mentions something like that.
Yes, I believe so :)
Salt was a valuable commodity in old times and I believe it was even used as currency at one point hence the term "worth your weight in salt"
@@310shadow310 Yes. In Cheshire, England, Roman soliders were paid in Mancunium (Manchester) from the Cheshire salt mines.
"People who don't know the difference between entomology and etymology bug me in ways I cannot put into words."
Some of these words are very uncommon unless you're in those fields of study. They also sound similar. It's no wonder people get confused.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Cheers!
"bug"
@@goyonman9655 That would make it "buggology?" :D
Entomo means bug in Greek. Most of the scientific words in medicine, science etc are greek. Biology for example means "study of life", the way living organisms operate.
@@nikmar77 Yes, we have the Greek language to thank for "sphygmomanometer." (I love that I even know that word! lol)
I'm a Bengali and I teach children English.
It fascinates me that even though Bangla is technically the easternmost language by origin in the Proto Indo-European family while English is one of the westernmost, their grammar more often than not mirror each other. I know a good amount of Hindi-Urdu & a fair bit of German. And, I can assure you that in some ways German has features more in common with Hindi-Urdu than with English. And, even though Hindi-Urdu has a huge lexical similarity with Bangla, it's easier for a Bengali child to understand English and Bangla grammar side-by-side.
People fleeing the Hittite empire went East (sanscrit) and West (latin). People fleeing the Danes (Norse) went East (Kiev) and West (Greenland, Iceland, and the British Isles). In Europe, Norse and Latin are language sources. English is an uncompromised merger of two languages: moon/lunar hand/manual. German (language) is an integrated merger---2000 years of hybridization. The Duts were in between two languages and eventually become the Dutch and the Deutch. There are no "Germans" (people); it is a myth started by Julius Caesar himself.
All are based on Sanskrit 🙏 we are one family
@@charananekibalijaun8837 i feel really sorry for people like you
@@hitnailhalfway2485 how? Your comment makes no sense
0
Why are there so little likes. This channel deserves million likes.
Keep it up!!!
+Athrong Thongrü Thank you!!! That's a great compliment.
RUclips is a great platform, but it's not always easy to get noticed, especially when it comes to educational topics. With support from people like you, We'll keep working on it.
I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel. Thanks for watching! :D
Yeah, I agree. I love stuff like this.
lame
Athrong Thongrü Because ppl do not focus on educating themselves, they focus on “selfies” and stupidness as such
I'm about to purchase one. Because We have to embrace knowledge.
I was so delighted and extremely excited to find your channel! My fourth grade teacher made learning etymology at a basic level (root words, suffixes, prefixes, origin of the words, original meaning, etc.) so fascinating that I began to read the dictionary out of curiosity and, frankly, just for fun. I still do. This love of words has continued over the years and has flowed over into my study of Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese) too. I’m ready to learn more about one of my favorite subjects. Thanks for making this wonderful resource available to all of us who love words! I feel like I just hit the jackpot and discovered a treasure trove of new information.
Awesome. Any teacher who instills a love for learning is a Grade A teacher in my book!
You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel as well. I often go into the etymology of words so, even if you already know the word, you might know its etymology.
Thanks for watching and for leaving such an inspiring comment.
Greetings! Saudações do Brasil!
Wow!! Finally I've met someone with whom I might engage in an intelligent exchange regarding etymology and good grammar. I am a person of color living in America where good grammar, per se, is rare, especially in certain demographics. You have only to visit RUclips to see what I am referencing here.
There are many language varieties out there, and they’re all good. When it comes to “standard English,” yes, many Oriole have trouble with all the (convoluted) rules :)
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment 😎👍
@@snaplanguage. Hey Language, when it comes to grammar and etymology, I can be very, shall I say, "fastidious," and prone to argue. I noticed in your comment you said, "There are many language varieties out there..." Wouldn't it be more convenient to simply say, "There are many languages out there.." By using the word "varieties" aren't you being superfluous? You also said, "..they're all good." Tell me, what language would NOT be good. Didn't quite understand what you meant with the word "Oriole". What has a bird to do with "all the (convoluted) rules," surrounding "standard English, as you put it?
Really interesting video!
That g -> w shift happened a lot between English and French. For example, garderobe gave English wardrobe, This is similar to the k -> h shift you mention: the two sounds used to be closer. Sometimes both survive, as in guarantee and warranty.
voiced verner law eg sauce is from me 'see' would be some segu in Pgermanic
Gu- words in many Latin languages is close to the English W. In Spanish, whiskey is guisqui. Guerra was like 'werra', which is similar to war. The English word 'ward' comes from 'guard'. It world have been more of a W or GW ("gward") sound back in the day, not the hard G it is now.
The latin and greek Gu could be related to the semitic Q but also the Dj or J. In the word Grammar from greek and latin orgin, we have the semitic Etyma JR which means "tie and tracted" : what is Grammar if not a principle to assemble words together and produce a speech following rules ? I study semitic etymology and now it's obvious the PIE is from semitic cradle. The etyma system is not enought known. An Etyma is an ancient root created with 2 letters, mostly 2 consonnants, it's not a syllabe.
This is one of the best examples of using text overlays to convey content and keep it interesting. Very well done.
It takes an enormous amount of editing time to get all that on the screen, but I think it's worth it. It's nice to hear someone appreciates it
Thanks for watching and leaving such a kind comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
Salt was physical money in ancient Roman. Roman soldiers were paid partly in salt. Hence 'salary'.
I had read before that they used salt as actual currency, but the sources I found for the video only mentioned salarium" as an amount of money to buy salt. It makes sense that salt (and other valuable goods) were used as currency, though... I find salt as currency a more interesting idea :)
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
don't forget to store Salt in the Cellar (from the same root of 'Sel')
@@snaplanguage I know that here in the past (I am writing from Rome) SOLDiers were payed with salt (in Italian SOLDI means money and of course it comes from Salt), which was precious, easy to transport and used all over the world. The farmers used to pay and be payed with sheeps and other animals, LAT Pecus, so another -less used- word for money is Pecunia, ENG Pecuniary.
something everyone already knew , glad you finally caught on. It was also mentioned several times in this video as if it were news.
Wow! That’s fascinating. I’m starting to get more and more into etymology.
Thanks for the interesting comment:)
Even when you said you ain't etymologist,I still gain lots in the the little you have said.You are such a good teacher.Thanks
Aww, thank you! I'm not an etymologist, but I can still do research
Thanks for watching and for the sweet comment
I'm a native Greek speaker learning Dutch. It's amazing how many similarities I see in verbs that are made out of a main verb and a preposition (example1) .
Υπό =onder =under
Θετω=stellen
And υποθέτω = onderstellen =suppose. Etc...
Cool! You see these connections all over European languages.
Wel bedankt voor het kijken en vor de voor de leuke reactie
It's almost like they're calques...
I wouldn't be surprised if "suppose" (sub-pose) was an calque of ypopheto (?), but I wonder if onderstellen (or German unterstellen with a vaguely similar meaning - to allege, or rather, to impute a motive to someone) is a calque.
another example, the German "entscheiden", like the English "decide" (which it means) seems to be composed of two words that vaguely mean "apart" and "cut down" (caedere.) and there are lots of such examples.
I wonder if these are all (or some of them) the result of conscious calquing, perhaps even in modern or early-modern times. An alternative would be everyone came up with the same mental imagery independently (unlikely). Another of course would be that these things go all the way back to PIE.
Stellen ist place in Deutsche...tankstelle...gas or benzene station.
60 percent is 3 out of 5 ...professor
@@au7weeng534 when you say calque, I thought calculate...
I am a native Persian speaker but I also speak English and French when I learned French and English I saw so many similarities between English French and Persian oh, there is hundreds if not thousands of similar words in these languages that were borrowed and have the same route
English is made up of 70% french words... and the roots of french are latin but not only.
We are all one people.
@@clairejonas6125 not all of those words are french though. Many were borrowed directly from latin, and in some cases is different from the French word
@@shaunmckenzie5509 I was only talking about borrowing from the french, the rest comes from latin and germanic languages.
Selon une hypothèse admise de presque tous, le Proto-indo-européen lie le Celte au Sanskrit en passant par le farsi. Pourtant, l'origine du PIE est le berceau sémitique. J'étudie les langes sémitiques pour en trouver son origine. L'enquête m'a mené sur 2 pistes : l'existence certaine d'étymon, des racines très anciennes, plus vieille que la civilisation summérienne. Un étymon est composé de 2 consonnes uniquement. La deuxième révélation lors de l'enquête, c'est l'existence d'un sens archéologique contenu dans un phone isolé, par exemple le Alif signifiant "causalité" d'où le terme Ab-père, le B signifiant Accessibilité d'où le terme Bab-Porte, etc. L'étymologie est encore de nos jours très mal abordée scientifiquement.
I'd like to know why the number 8 and the word "night" sound so similar in various languages:
Spanish: ocho - noche
Portuguese: oito - noite
Italian: otto - notte
English: eight - night
German: Acht - Nacht
Rumanian: opt - noapte
Catalan: vuit - nit
etc.
I've seen hypothesis going around about that. The one I buy into most is that the PIE root words for "eight" and "night" were similar to each other, but they were different words. We may never really know for sure.
Thanks for watching and leaving a question. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
@@snaplanguage Thank you so much for your answer. My own guess is that, in the days when there was no "official" summer and winter time, in most of the regions - for example - of the Rome Empire the night started at eight in the evening...so, who knows, maybe the ancient Romes decided to "baptize" that time of the day with a similar word (noctis - octo), but who knows 🤔
Greetings from Gran Canaria (Spain)...and, since the origin of words always fascinated me, you've got a new subscriber. Take care
Fascinating observation.
Dutch: acht, nacht
Nychta in Hellenic.
As a Greek, I love the fact that we learn Ancient Greek at school too. I'm proud to say that the English language has borrowed 41 645 words from Greek!
Indeed! There are many words of Greek origin in many languages, especially words in technical fields and in the sciences. They're usually "big words" that I'm sure Greek speakers have no trouble understanding LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel!
Thank you for the loneing the words!
And now the tables have turned and you're borrowing words from English
@@shaunmckenzie5509 i strictly use greek words when i speak or write in greek so no
@@angelinasophiakamaratou1205 I know many Greeks. They use a lot of English loanwords. You are not your entire country.
I am a brand-new subscriber. It's March 26, 2022, and my passion for words has led me to your channel. I look forward to watching many more videos.
Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy the channel. Did you find the "Word of the Week" series. I'm about to add new videos to it. Enjoy!
Interesting. Your example with "guerre" becoming "werre" then "war": the shift from w to g seems to be quite frequent.
So we have William, Wilhelm, Willem etc becoming the French Guillaume, the Italian Guillermo etc.
And Wales becomes "pays de Galles" in French.
Etymology : My son (French) used to pronounce DRAPEAU "flag" as CRAPAUD "toad". This simple example shows how a word can evolve in meaning and spelling even in modern time. It's important to say that the invention of written language had a very important impact on the evolution of the spoken language : it can slow it down or on the contrary it can speed it up !!!
The word etymology derives from the Greek word ετυμολογία (etumología), itself from ἔτυμον (étumon), meaning "true sense or sense of a truth", and the suffix -logia, denoting "the study of".
Thank you for this video ❤️
I think it's really cool how words "hide" a lot of information in them. That's a good reason to understand their ετυμολογία :)
You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel. I often go into the etymology of a word so, even if you already know it, you may not have known its origins.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
This channel deserves million likes,because its very very interesting,to know the roots from the words.Its a channel,for few people.maybe,its nice to make one dedication for greek language.
Thanks for the kind words. :)
I have a series of vocabulary videos where I often get into the word roots so, even if you already know the word, you may learn about its origin. There are plenty of Greek root words in that series, and I will keep making more of them for a long time.
Again, thanks for supporting the channel and leaving a comment,
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage That would be great. Thanks !
I am Dutch, and I read in an etymological dictionary about the Dutch word "oorlog" (war). It was described as a very ancient word still in use with the original meaning being: "an unwanted confusing situation that is put upon you". If this happens to you, you are (in Dutch) "in de war" (very confused). Therein lies the link with the english word "war".
Let me WARn you: when you are "in Dutch" (= in trouble) you should be WARy.
@@nemovidet2111 I did not know that! Haha. Thanks. I wish I had an English etymological dictionary now...
That's interesting. (ik spreek een beetje vlaams, dus dat interesseert me.) In Proto-Germanic, which is where "war" comes from ultimately, *werz-a* mea was the source for *vervirren* in German, meaning "confuse, perplex." I suppose even though oorlog is so different from English war or German Kriege, there is a connection there with confusion.
Wel bedankt voor het wetenswaardige commentaar!
Cheers!
WARn you and WARy is fun *pop linguistics* 😂😂😂
@@snaplanguage , As a Finn I wonder about the link of war to the Finnish "sota" and the Swedish "krig".
And indeed the topic of languages and how they are related is interesting. Nice also that the fact English is a Germanic language was mentioned and not a true unique world leading English innovation being copied all over the world.
I'm very lucky that my reading comprehension instructor showed us some of these videos. Both videos and comments are helpful for people who are interest in studying English. Great job thank you!
Thank you for the great feedback, Jesy! I'm glad instructors are using my videos... that's the whole idea :D
Very interesting. As a Spanish speaker my teachers always encouraged me to rather use the wordsderived from a Germanic root and to avoid those whitch have a Latin root. What I didn't expect was to find so many Latin roots in English.
Thank you very much
In general, words of Germanic origin sound less formal or "learned" than those from Latin or Greek. For example, to "look up" (e.g., a word in the dictionary) sounds more informal than "search" or "investigate." Depending on the situation, I don't see why not use them too
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel :D
I love etymology, it can give so many clues regarding cultures and history. I speak 3 languages as my channel content shows and what I've noticed is that apart from similarities in vocabulary, it also changes the way one thinks, even though I consider the tongues I speak more like dialects than languages.
I'm Brazilian and I remember when I was studying French and I came across the word "celibetaire", which means "single" (a person who is not married) and is a very common word. But in Portuguese there is the word "celibatário" that, on the other hand, is not used anymore to define someone who is not married but to define the vow a priest must make to enter the priesthood, which means he is not either going to get married or make sex. If he does, he cant be a catholic priest anymore. interesting, isn't it?
That's really cool. Changes in meaning happen a lot in any language. When related languages split from their "parent language(s), the meanings can change in each language separately and you end up with cognates that actually mean different things. That's why "actual" in English and "atual" in Portuguese or have such different (but still related) meanings ("in reality" x "at present").
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel
This man is hero of linguistics. Just AMAZING!
I'm not sure about "hero" 😁 but I appreciate the supportive comment!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Love it! I'm a casual enthusiast of etymology and other historical linguistics. I drive my wife (a native Spanish speaker and actual linguist) nuts by asking questions about etymology, which she ironically doesn't care about.
LOL Linguists have a variety of interests. I myself don't like all aspects of linguistics; I find some quite boring actually. -- You may enjoy this video: ruclips.net/video/TktPNS1xxTc/видео.html -- your wife will thank me 😂
Thanks for watching and leaving a message. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.
Same here, just that instead of a wife, it's my mom
Your Portuguese pronunciation is so clear it sounds like a native speaker way of saying. Muito obrigado pelas informações.
De nada! Someone said my French sucks... Oh well, you can't please everybody all the time, right? LOL
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage I agree with you, but you can be sure that the majority of people enjoys your work and is very grateful to you. I'm into learning languages as well and invite you to visit my channel if you feel like.
@@snaplanguage I’m a French Canadian and I can vouch against this. Your french is obviously not perfect but it’s far from bad!
@@snaplanguage I honestly think that your way of pronounciating (?) French words is perfectly correct. By the way, thanks a lot for your very clear and understandable explanations. A bientôt.
Well, people like to pick on the imperfections when they can't think of anything to say. lol
Thanks for the kind words.
This video is sooooooo interesting. I love this 🔥♥️
Nice! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for leaving such a nice comment! :D
Another way you could've gone from "sal" leads to "salad" in English, via "ensalada" in Spanish, "salted". At one time the concept simply referred to cold preserved foods, and salting being the common way to preserve them...salad. Quite opposite to the current construction of salads from very fresh foods, but as before, they are mostly not cooked.
Yes, I find it fascinating how words can change their meanings when they're borrowed (and even within the same language). After a few generations, you're left wondering how we got from A to B.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
Cheers!
Great video, Marc. Thank you! I'm bilingual (Spanish-English) and, knowing both languages in depth, I clearly grasp their similarities. Thank you too, serendipity factor lurking about in RUclips!
Yay, serendipity! I'm glad you found the channel. Each time I learn about a word's etymology, it means more and makes more sense.
I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel. You may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often go into the etymology of a word so, even if you already knew the word, you may not have known about its origin.
Thank you!
At the moment when war was borrowed, it was "werre" that had been borrowed from Frankish. So, it is originally a Germanic word that was borrowed to Romance languages, and accidentally to English via old North-French.
Thanks. I had already added a note in the descriptions about that. Of course, I can't expect people to read it. I apologize for misspeaking in the video.
Actually, it is a little more complex than that. William spoke a variety of French, which was called Norman French (from Normandy). In this dialect, the Germanic "w" had been kept intact. In Norman French people used words such as: werre/guerre, warde/garde, wette/guetter(wait), warrant/garant, ware/gare. In Parisian French on the other hand, the germanic "w" evolved in "gu" and eventually since this variety of French became dominant, the old pronunciations faded and disappeared in continal French, while they survived in English.
Interesting, since Dutch stems from Frankish (and French from popular Latin, to confuse our minds :-) ). And in Dutch war is called "oorlog" nowadays, which means war fleet in DK, NO and SE.
Regard Latin „bellum gerrere“. As we know Frankish was a Germanic language borrowing heavily from Latin during a centuries long cultural and linguistic assimilation process. BTW I‘m from Franconia in Germany and my home dialect is „Frankish“ - closer to German than to French but softer than the surrounding German dialects.
@@HarryGuit It is Bellum gerere. The verb gero has nothing to do etymologically with werra.
What a great treasure, I found on youtube!!
"Gay" used to mean "happy" and then in the 1960's, the word "gay" was appropriated by homosexuals to refer to homosexuals. My teenage son and his friends use "gay" to refer to anything effeminate, fastidious, unnecessarily fussy or complicated, like wearing a shawl or fine shoes or having overly styled hair. So in the new meaning, not every homosexual is gay and not everyone gay is homosexual.
That's how language changes... and sometimes before our very eyes! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
Snap Language - Cheers! And thanks for the lesson. I have learned 11 languages - English is my third - and etymology and the evolution of pronunciation and meaning of words is endlessly fascinating. "Slim" in Dutch means "smart", in German means "bad" and in English means "thin". I can clearly remember conversations I had in languages that I spoke fluently at one time but have now pretty well completely forgotten through decades of non-use but could now not repeat the remembered conversation in that language but can in a language I still master, so the meaning is remembered in some abstract form that is not language. Cheers!
Your son is using it as a slur.
I like how your pronunciation of Portuguese is better than your French! That's rare for English speakers. Thanks for giving some highlight to our language! Also amazing video, I love how you teach!
Thanks for the very nice compliments!
I speak English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Dutch (so those words not a problem)... French, not so much... It was a fun video to shoot; a few minutes into taping, I didn't know what language I spoke anymore LOL
Merci d'avoir regardé la vidéo! I hope que esteja gostando do resto do canal! Bis bald :D
ruclips.net/video/VV10in63_Ok/видео.html :)
portuguese comes from Galego
galego is the mother language
Fascinating, beautifully presented, held my interest throughout.
This is the channel I was looking for :) I try to better understand the English language and your video was very interesting, thank you. I'm Hungarian - as I know and observed, our ancestral words don't resemble the words of any other language. (Language historians consider it similar to the Finnish language, but to be honest, Hungarian experts -and laymen like myself- strongly doubt the kinship between the two languages, as one can only create very forced examples to support the similarity of the two languages.) Compared to this, I find it interesting how similar the logic of the evolution of expressions is in the Hungarian language and in the Germanic language families. For example: "(just) for the record" = "megjegyzem", while this word is related to "remember" = "megjegyez" and "write down" = "jegyez"/"feljegyez". It's really exciting :)
Thank you so much for your support! I'm glad you found the channel. I'd love to make more videos about etymology. They are extremely time-consuming, but it's such a fascinating topic.
Cheers!
In the history of the universe, this is probably the best short and easy-to-understand video that explain this subject that even has been made.
Agreed
You're awesome! Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave such nice feedback. -- Cheers! :D
uh...read much?
In French, the equivalent of meat (viande) was also used to signify food in general. It's also the equivalent of the word flesh (chair) that actually meant what we refer to today by the word meat. The history of this word is thus exactly the same between English & French. No idea how though.
Originally in English the word meat referred to all kinds of foods even sweets -this usage continues in the word "sweetmeats" -the word for meat in the modern restrictive sense would have been "flesh."Same with word "corn" -originally it referred to all types of grains but in America it came to refer to only the maize plant.
@@kaloarepo288 You're probably replying to the wrong person. My comment was about the equivalent of the word "meat" in French.
How surprising is the evolution of words through time and space! In Spanish, the word "vianda" (obviously related to French "viande") according to a Spanish dictionary, it also means food in general. Well perhaps that is the meaning in Spain or in some Latin-American countries. However in Puerto Rico its meaning is not the same. It is a very commonly word used here to refer specifically to locally cultivated tubers in general which usually are prepared and served together such as sweet potato, manioc, and many others. As you see totally unrelated to meat!
La Verbe fait? chair. On the 'meat in general' question: meat was all there was. There was no potatoes or spagetti?
This was a very peaceful and insightful thing to watch.
Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel. Be sure to click the bell button so you're notified when new videos come out.
Cheers! :D
Another ethymology enthusiast here! Was great to listen to you !!
Awesome! I wouldn't call myself a total etymology geek, but it's pretty fascinating, isn't it?
Thank you for watching and for leaving such a supportive comment.
I hope you're enjoying the channel. You may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often get into the etymology of a word so, even if you already know the word, you may not have known its origins.
Cheers!
I learned SO MUCH from this video ... thank you very much. I will post and share this terrific educational work. Bravo and keep up your splendid explanations of the wonders of language.
Awesome, thank you very much for your support.
I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel. If you're interested in etymology, you may enjoy the vocabulary videos. I often get into the etymology of a word so, even if you know the word, you may not have know its origins.
Thanks again! 👍
As a native English speaker that learned Spanish and German, there are amazing similarities and wild differences that have developed between them. I also speak a little Italian, French, and Portuguese, but only a little. I'm still shocked how much I can understand listening to people speaking these languages, because of similar word usage and structure.
Definitely, once you learn a couple of European languages, the next gets even easier. The only problem is dealing with those pesky false cognates or words with identical roots but different meanings LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel
The names of some organs
it's used as the suffix for nouns, “Ak”= ~each one of both
(Yan= side) (Gül= rose) (Şek=facet) (Dal=subsection, branch) (Taş=stone)
Yan-ak= each of both sides of the face >Yanak=the cheek
Kül-ak = each of both roses >Kulak= the ear
Şek-ak = each of both sides of the forehead >Şakak= temple
Dal-ak=dalak=the spleen
Böbür-ak=böbrek=the kidney
Bağaç-ak>(Paça-ak)>bacak= the leg (the ankle)
Bathuw-ak>(Pathy-ak)=(phatyak>hadyak>adyak)=Ayak= the foot > each of the feet (pati = paw)
Taş-ak=testicle
Her iki-ciğer.=Akciğer=the lung
Tül-karn-ak =that obscures/ shadowing each of both dark/ covert periods= Karanlık (batıni) çağların her birini örten tül
Zhu'l-karn-eyn=the (shader) owner of each of both times
Dhu'al-chorn-ein=double-horned-one=(the horned hunter)Herne the hunter> Cernunnos> Karneios
it's used as the suffix for verbs, “Ak /ek“=a-qa ~which thing to / what’s to…
Er-mek = to get / to reach
Bar-mak (Varmak)= to arrive / to achieve
Er-en-mek > erinmek / Bar-an-mak > barınmak
Erin-ek / barın-ak = what’s there to arrive at oneself
Ernek / Barnak > Parmak = Finger
Tut-mak = to hold / to keep
Tut-ak=Dudak=(what’s to hold)> the lip
Tara-mak = to comb/ to rake
Tara-ak > Tarak =(what’s there to comb)> the comb
Tara-en-mak > taranmak = to comb oneself
Taran-ak > Tırnak =(what’s there to comb oneself)> fingernail
I've just come up with an etymological theory a few moments ago. The modern word sinister, meaning sneaky or conniving, or generally bad, comes from the Latin sinister, left handed, or left. But that word itself is of no known origin, with one somewhat unconvincing suggestion that it is related to an older Sanskrit word. However, the Latin for a fold, or pocket, or a curve, or bay, is sinus. The Romans commonly wore their toga with their right hand free for gesturing, and their left hand wound up in the folds of their toga. Is it possible that the word sinister comes from sinus, as it was the left hand that was enclosed in the sinus? Are there any etymological experts here who can shine any light on this possibility?
- I'm sure someone has studied this. It is often the case, too, that a word's true origin gets lost in time, and there is no way to know for sure until they find some new text that may elicit some new hypothesis.
- Etymonline seems to be a very solid, well researched source.I found a lot of information, including links to related words, at www.etymonline.com/word/sinister
- Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! :D
That actually makes a lot of sense. A left hand tucked away in a pocket or fold would be an excellent way to conceal a weapon.
@@joecato1138 the word "sinistro" is much older than "invention" of pocket. Moreover a non left-handed would have difficulties to use a weapon with his wrong hand. With fantasy I can imagine that origin of negative meaning of this word could come from LAT "sine-estrum" : without (female) ovulation, which was a serious and negative lack...but I am not an expert, I am just a curious self-taught from Roma.
I am not in this field, but I like very much how the words in the Greek language are connected. Let me give you an example. In Greek, money is «Chrima» and derives from the word «Chrisi» or usefulness in English. With money effectively we are exchanging usefulness. I think that such connections are highly sophisticated, especially if we consider that they have been developed 3.000 years ago.
You can find many examples of words of Greek origin around the world. English definitely has many of those, especially in science and technology.
I have a series of "vocabulary building" videos. Greek word roots pop up quite frequently, of course. For example, here ruclips.net/video/Yb3iaKwMh_0/видео.html
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Cheers
Cham or Charm is used for animal skin in indo pak, there was a time animal skin was turned in to small round like coins and that was a money to buy any thing, so this way there is connection in these words
Thank you for your vids, idk why this isn’t getting 10000 likes
I know I am 2 years late
It's never too late :D
Thanks for the kind words. I hope to get a million subscribers some day lol
I hope you subscribe too :D
I wish... :D
I'm a big fan of communication and its languages, have been a long time. Eventually I got into etymology which added immeasurable depth to my anthropoligical knowledge. The history of the languages is the story of our migrations, away from and back to, each other.
Etymology is indeed a fascinating area. It's archaeology, history, linguistics, statistics, and a great deal of patience all rolled up into one. Whenever I look up a word's etymology and there's a big surprise, that word means more than before. Really cool!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
@@snaplanguage Don Winslow in 'Savages' went into it a little bit. Or 'The Gentlemen's Hour'.
This video was really interesting for me, because I was really surprised as I learned that PIE root of "heart" is "kerd", because I'm Georgian and noticed that the PIE word "kerd" is really similar to the Georgian word მკერდი (mkerdi), which means breast and which is the area, where the heart is located. It's totally mind-blowing. Also the most surprising thing is, that the Georgian language isn't the Indoeurpian language or the one related with those languages, but the totally independent language.
That's pretty fascinating. I'm sure the examples you gave are not just a coincidence. I'm sure etymologists have done research on Georgian.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
When you brought up how meat used to refer to food in general, i had a massive aha-moment! I'm Swedish and we use the word mat to refer to food, and I figured it might be a cognate with meat. I did some research and turns out not just that meat and mat are cognates, but that pretty much every germanic language has a word that's also cognate with meat/mat and refers to food in general, and that English is just an oddball
Thanks for sharing this great aha-moment! :)
I don’t know very much about Swedish, but I understand that “food” in Old Norse is “matr.” Drop the ending (“r”) and, voilà, you’ve got yourself a meal-well, at least en måltid lol
What about the word mate, being someone you share food (ie meat/mete) with..
@@DylanPerryFeatureAnimation English is so corrupted it ought to be abolished! Where do cows go to eat the cafeteria or the cafe? m/ate.
I had the exact same aha-moment! I stopped the video and had to ponder. I am Danish, and we say mad meaning food and I made the same connection!
We have a cognate to 'food' in Swedish as well, namely 'föda' which to some extent is synonymous with 'mat' but more often it has the sense of nutrition/nourishment/aliment or the like. 'Fast föda' means 'solid food' for example.
One surprising thing I learnt about word origins the other day is that the Greek word for "tail" is "ouros" seen in such scientific words like dasyure -an Australian animal with a bushy tail and this word "ouros' is closely related to the English and German words "arse" -makes sense when you think where these items of anatomy are located.
Hah! That really is surprising (and funny). Words have interesting histories, and some of them make you realize how word origins are hiding in words that sometimes sound very different.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. :D
Yes! I'm a native Greek speaker and really love etymology! Actually tail in Greek is ουρά (oura) but has many forms like ouros. Some other names with -ouros are coelurus (κοῖλος, koilos = hollow + οὐρά, oura = tail) which was a dinosaur (from Greek δεινός (dinos) = very big + σαύρα = lizard) and platurus (πλατύς= wide + oura)
Also, if you're interested in biology or science in general and search the etymology of the words you'll be surprised about how many they are as exactly they are in (ancient mostly) Greek!
Same with the Australian Platypus. Flat feet.
We've also borrowed it in the word 'Ouroboros', meaning a snake eating it's own tail!
Such a nice, friendly and informative video. Thank you, from England.
Thank *You* for watching and leaving such a friendly, supportive comment!
I hope you enjoy the other content on the channel
Thank you for the video. I found it very informative.
I'm an expat that speaks many languages and has been interested in this subject for decades.
If I'm not mistake, Sanskrit belongs to the proto-Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the three earliest and most ancient documented languages. Maybe it should be included as a reference for all. Once again thank you!
Sanskrit is an Indo-European language, indeed. Many people take its early beginnings to mean that it is "the Mother of All Languages," though, which etymologists would disagree with. It's a large family tree, so the branches reach far and wide.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Cheers
In Norwegian, we have this word "dass", meaning "toilet". It's not what you'll use in very polite terms, but it's very common. It turns out, the word originated from WW2, when German soldiers came to somewhere in the middle of nowhere and had to use the toilet and asked "Kann ich das Haus benutzen?" (or something like that, I'm not fluent in German), and the farmer or whatever he or she was, probably understood, but didn't know German too well. So "Das Haus" became a sort of slang, dropping the noun and written "Dass" [das:] (according to Norwegian writing, the a being short and the s being long). So an article turned into a noun. This is possibly one of more interesting examples in Norwegian etymology I know of ;)
Das ist sehr morsom :) Interestingly enough, some words in English were created or changed because people misheard something. In Middle English, an apron was "a napron." People misinterpreted it, and "napron" became "an apron." The same happened to "an ekename" (literally, an also-name), and it became "a nickname."
Of course, the story behing "dass" is much funnier than any of that 😂
I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel. Tusen tak!
@@snaplanguage This is actually one of my favourite mistakes done to the "thank you" spelling in Norwegian. "Tusen tak" in Norwegian literary translate into "a thousand roofs". While "Tusen takK" means "a thousand thanks". It is a very common and tiny mistake, but non the less very funny to me :) and also understandable when the danes spell it "Tusind tak". But you know.. the danes... :b
@@thomhansen5298 People love picking on the poor Danes! LOL
Oops!... I guess I mixed Danish and Norwegian there, huh? I'll make sure I wish people "a thousand roofs" only when I'm in Denmark
In Bengali, we have a similar word "daast" (soft d and soft t) meaning defecation. It has a Persian root, probably with same pronunciation. Norwegian "dass" may have come from the same source.
@@ArghaBagchi no, the roots of the Norwegian word "dass" is well known to be a misunderstanding where the German article "das" was beleived to be a noun or adjective in front of "haus", as in "das haus", beleived to mean "toilet house" by locals, while it really only means "the house". Etymologically, it really is quite a special case, the article that turned into a noun.
Btw, definite article in Norwegian, is a postfix, so "a house" is "et hus", but "the house" is "huset".
Love your video! It's great.
Just a quick comment; in Danish we say "fader" as the real word for dad, it's just easier to say far, it's sluggish and shortened, but in old Danish texts it is written out "fader", so the connection to father and vater (and even pater) is even more visible! Same goes with mother (moder, mor) and brother (broder, bror) :D
Thanks for the comment!
That's very interesting and shows how most European languages are all related even though the relationships do not seem very clear on the surface.
If I'm not mistaken this all derives from ancient Greek Πατήρ (Pateer), then it went to Latin and then to all of Europe. But I don't know if there is some arab root to the Greek word.
@@AK-fu8ti no that's wrong 😊 They all derive from a word in Proto-Indo-European, *ph2ter, not from Greek, and it didn't go 'through latin! They all independently inherited the word from the proto-language. And no, there is no Arabic cognate, since the semitic languages are (as far as we know) aren't (immediately) related to the Indo-European languages 😊
@@silasfrisenette9226 Oh, thanks for letting me know. Have a nice day.
@@AK-fu8ti you too! 😊
You should also do a video about how languages branched out to develop into uniquely sounding ones
Stop telling him what he should do, don't you know how to request?
Great video!!
I love etymology.
I'm an Englishman, who has lived in Denmark for nearly 40 years. I speak fluent Danish and it is clear that the old Viking languages had a profound impact on English.
I was interested in the word 'meat, which originally meant food. The Danish word for food is 'mad' (the last d is like the word 'the' without the 'e')
'Heart' is 'hjerte' in Danish.
Also many basic English verbs are based on Danish
go - gå
hear - høre
see - se
feel - føle
And body parts
hair - hår
knee - knæ
elbow - albue
toe - tå
nose - næse
ear - øre
eye - øje
Thank you! I learned a little Norwegian (definitely not enough to do much with it), and these similarities to the other Germanic languages were striking. If you put German, Dutch, Danish/Norwegian/Swedish, and English in a police lineup (identity parade), you might pick the wrong guy! LOL
(It blew my mind when I learned "tå" and "to" in Norwegian!)
Thanks for watching and for leaving a comment! -- Cheers!
As I understamd these words in eglish are not 'based' in danish, but they have the same 'grandfather'. Feel -føle - voelen (nl) - fühlen (d)
That is one of the most interesting exercises when studying the evolution of any kanguage. Thanks
It's a fascinating field in linguistics. I'm glad etymologists are doing all the work, though, because it must be really difficult LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
"War" comes from the Germanic word "werra". It became a loan word in Latin, and in French it changed to "guerre". Germanic "w" at the beginning of a word becomes "gu" in French (like William -> Guillaume, ward -> guard).
Spot on! :D
Oh cool so warden and guard are doublets, right
Wales = (Pays de) Gales
@@quoileternite No, the word Wales has got a Germanic root. It means non-Germanic speaking strangers. The word is ethymologically related to the German word "welsch" which means the same. Wales is the name the Anglo-Saxons gave the country. To them, the Welsh were strangers speaking a Celtic language they couldn't understand. The Welsh people call themselves "Cymru". For example, Plaid Cymru is a Welsh party being represented in the House of Commons and demanding Welsh independence. A verse of the Welsh national anthem reads: "Hen Gymru fynyddig, paradwys y bardd" ("Old mountainous Wales, paradise of bards").
@@c.norbertneumann4986 Yes, I was just mentioning the correspondence between G and W ... (by the way, the correspondence is not W -> GU but W->G, and guard in French is spelt garde 😉)
The ancient writings he speaks on is in Kemet/Egypt Africa ALL ORIGINALLY FROM THERE
"That would be a really long video..." DO IT!
Etymology is a surprisingly useful tool for people trying to study and learn other languages, not for everyone of course, but knowing where the words come from makes it super easy to expand your vocabulary.
I agree. It even helps you appreciate and understand your native language(s). I don't sit for hours studying the etymology of words, but I do enjoy looking it up now and again. -- Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel.
I love this subject, it's incredible, and somehow it explains a little bit why different civilizations, separated by time and geography, sometimes have similarities in mythological and religious narratives.
His portuguese accent is great I'm really impressed
We aim to please! :D
I've also been told that my French accent sucks... which sounds about right! LOL
Cheers!
Pensei que ele fosse português!
@@sergioevandro4259 I visited Portugal once. Does that count? LOL
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage yes it does 😁
@@snaplanguage where are you from?
I speak portuguese, and aways found interesting when I'm studying Italian and I find words like "Finisce" or "Scusi", words that I understand more because of the English variants than Italian being a Romance language
Indeed! It's as if all these word roots got mixed up in European languages. Some got one root, others got another related one. LOL
These similarities are one of the reasons etymology got started. People started realizing that very different languages had words that deep down were somehow related. It's a fascinating field.
Cheers!
I grew up with Italian parents in Canada so I knew English and Italian. In school we learned French. I was fascinated by how incredibly similar Italian and French were.The Spanish I heard in Western style movies amazed me because other than some basic words, they too were so similar to Italian. I found that I could follow the dialogue in Spanish without issue.
There are two simple English words that I find interesting. Both "in" and "me" are essentially the same words in English and the Italian language. I could never understand how these basic Italian words ended up in the English language.
I am subscribed! I'm always looking up etymologies. Place names sources fascinate me, too.
Welcome aboard and thanks for leaving a comment!
I have an ongoing new series on vocabulary, Word of the Week, which often gets into the etymologies of related words. Check it out.
Cheers!
I’m the same...always googling origin of everyday words!
@@samhain1894 Some word origins are wild. Then you never see the word the same again. What were the ancients thinking?!! Literally and figuratively LOL
I’m trying to get the philosophical origins of perception and conception. Any links would be appreciated
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for information on that, but it sounds like a fascinating topic.
I hope you’re enjoying the channel :)
@@snaplanguage yeah. I’m studying phenomenology and it’s very interesting. It’s just that I’m trying to zero in on what they mean by these two words. Not to mention the change in meaning from one philosopher to the next. That’s probably due to the metaphysical stance they have.
Engaging and most interesting. I look forward to your future presentations
Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed it.
I hope you've subscribed so you don't miss the many new videos we have in the works.
-- Cheers! :D
Speech impediments, alcohol, and isolation have changed language a lot too
LOL @ alcohol!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment :D
Illiteracy is a factor as well.
At 5:02 you mean 'Latin *and Greek* in origin'. Even the supplied link says so.
These statistics are not very precise because they depend on how you count words and even how you define "word." By some counts, the proportion of Latin to Greek is something like 50+ to 5-ish percent. Some people claim that Greek has a greater contribution if you count obscure technical terms (but the same could be said about words of Latin origin). Also, do you count words of French origin as Latin? It's a mess.
But you're right. I could have been more precise and explained this better.
Cheers!
I hadn't know English also borrowed words of Portuguese
Oh, yes! English is a "language sponge." Throughout its history (and even today), it has adopted any useful words from many languages. Also, remember that Portugal was a powerful kingdom, and traveled all over the world as far back as the 1400s. They left a lot of the Portuguese language behind. :D
@@snaplanguage Portuguese has a lot af latin in it's origine.
I've been in search of something like this channel for a long time. Glad I found it today, subscribed to it straightaway
I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying the channel. I'll keep making videos as long as there are people like you who are interested and so supportive of my work. Thank you so much!!
I love etymology...it saved me and made me understand this world logically. Can anybody recommend a good etymology app?
I enjoy learning about word origins, too! I don't know of any apps. Whenever I'm curious about a word, I go to www.etymonline.com/
They seem to be pretty accurate.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! :D
What surprises me most is that the spoken language can use a different alphabet, or better, up to two or more alphabets. This is really incredible.
Language developed "naturally." Writing systems are "artificial" in the sense that they were created to represent the spoken language. Some writing systems use lines and scribbles to represent individual sounds, others to represent syllables or even whole words and concepts.
I think it's pretty cool, too!
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
Cheers!
only criticism is that the french "cœur" should have been included with heart and courage. its a huge cultural AND linguistic addition.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I think I'll be making new etymology-related videos to include more examples. "cœur" > courage is a good one, for sure.
Make sure to click the bell button when you subscribe so you don't miss any of the new videos... Cheers! :D
Etymology is extremely interesting
It's fascinating. Once you start learning about word origins, you can't stop! LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel.
Cheers!
I found the word “ocean” particularly intriguing ;)
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@@ATinyPillow very true indeed. The word derives from Sanskrit "āśáyāna" - 'laying on water' and Greek Ὠκεανός. They have the same proto-Indo-Germanic root 'ō-kei-ṃ[h1]no' - 'lying on top', related to Greek word 'κεῖται', meaning 'to lay'
@@charananekibalijaun8837: Please note that when I initially looked up the etymology of “ocean” there was no mention of the globe as well as other additions,
- > “the vast body of water on the surface of the globe” < -
and
- > “ In early times, when the only known land masses were Eurasia and Africa, the ocean was an endless river that flowed around them. Until c. 1650, commonly ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Application to individual bodies of water began 14c. (occean Atlantyke, 1387); five of them are usually reckoned, but this is arbitrary. The English word also occasionally was applied to smaller subdivisions, such as German Ocean "North Sea." < -
Those sections have been added fairly recently.
ocean (n.)
c. 1300, occean, "the vast body of water on the surface of the globe," from Old French occean "ocean" (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek ōkeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth (as opposed to the Mediterranean), a word of unknown origin; Beekes suggests it is Pre-Greek. Personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys.
In early times, when the only known land masses were Eurasia and Africa, the ocean was an endless river that flowed around them. Until c. 1650, commonly ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Application to individual bodies of water began 14c. (occean Atlantyke, 1387); five of them are usually reckoned, but this is arbitrary. The English word also occasionally was applied to smaller subdivisions, such as German Ocean "North Sea."
This is how it was originally written prior to the recent additions noted above;
ocean (n.)
c. 1300, occean, from Old French occean "ocean" (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek ōkeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth, a word of unknown origin; Beekes suggests it is Pre-Greek. Personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys.
Anyway, I found it rather intriguing when it says “the great river or sea surrounding - > the disk of the earth < - “
Being a priest, I found this quite interesting because in the Great Isaiah Scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls it says;
“It is he who sits above - > the disk of the earth < - “
It seems at the time of the origin/etymology of the word “ocean” and at the time of the writing of the Great Isaiah Scroll, earth was viewed as “a disk”.
Also interesting is that the earth was all a single landmass according to the Hebrew Bible and the land was separated in the days of Peleg. Me thinks that there is more truth seeping through the cracks here than many would care to admit. As usual, there is a modicum of truth in everything. ;)
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Damn, glad I found your channel 👍 it's been a while since I've encountered sanity and thoughtfulness, with regard to etymology 😊😊😊ty
Awesome! I'm glad you found the channel, too -- even though this video isn't perfect 😑 I'm glad it can give people some food for thought.
You may enjoy the vocabulary videos on the channel, too. I often get into the etymology of words so, even if you already knew a word, you may not have known its origins (which I often learn myself when I'm creating the videos.
Cheers!
I love words. They are fascinating. When I did a creative writing MA, we looked into words and etymology. It's very important, because words have connotations which will come into the reader's mind, perhaps unwanted for your purpose. Looking at the etymology and choosing the correct word is all-important, if you don't want your meaning to be lost or diluted. The reason English is so rich is because we have the Anglo-Saxon roots (Germanic) and because of the Roman invasion and then the French invasion of 1066, we have Latin/French words. This is why some words are "vulgar" which simply means common, but has become to mean rude, and then to be "swear" words. "Swear" or "oaths" or "curse" because the words used to be used to swear an oath to God to curse someone. And it's why we have two words for most things. One Germanic root word (folk, dog, cat, horse)) used by the commoners and another more refined word (people, canine, feline, equine) with a Latin root. It's why we have one word for the animal (cattle, sheep, pig) and another word for the meat (beef, mutton, pork). The commoners would raise the animal and slaughter it. The rich folk would eat it. Often n a pie. Which would have an upper crust and a lower crust, which wasn't as good to eat. So the rich folk would get the "upper crust". Great channel.
These processes are fascinating and are taking place even in modern language. Take "sick" in English, which now has both negative and positive meanings/connotations. Pretty awesome
Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave an interesting comment. I hope you're enjoying the rest of the channel.
P.S.: Check out Etymonline. I believe it's a reliable source. You may enjoy falling into some interesting rabbit holes there www.etymonline.com/
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage thanks. I'll have a butch. (Butcher's hook....look. Cockley rhyming slang) 😀😃
@@amanitamuscaria7500 Thanks for clarifying what you meant. I was at a loss for a second 😂
After spending some time studying Spanish and (somewhat less time) studying Welsh, it's interesting to me that English has a lot more in common with Spanish than it does with Welsh. The latter seems quite alien by comparison in its grammar, syntax, and cognates. That being said, Welsh is a beautiful language when spoken by its native speakers.
I didn’t learn about it but I did hear that English grammar was influenced by Latin language and that’s why it’s somehow different from other Germanic languages but I’m not an expert. It’s very interesting, though
It will be interesting if you learn a bit of history of English. As I remember, English once conquered by the Romans, Vikings (from Denmark) and Normandy. Trust me, it explained a lot of the language similarities in English :)
English borrowed so many words from other languages (especially Latin, French, Greek) it lost a bit of its Germanic flair. That's why German and Dutch vocabulary, for example, seem quite different from English. Welsh has preserved a lot of its Celtic vocabulary, hasn't it?
Thanks for watching and leaving an interesting comment! I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel.
@@anandyaasprillia549 Actually the history of England, Britain, and the English language have been favorites of mine for a long time. Among many other interesting factoids is that after the romans abandoned Britain in the early 5th century, the Celtic Britons invited some Germanic warriors over to help deal with the growing threat of the Scottish Picts. This was the initial reason for the Angles, Saxons, etc., coming over from the North Sea coast of Europe. But, after their success at dealing with the Picts, they decided to stay, which may have been their plan all along anyway. That's the theory, anyway. I think the venerable Bede describes this in his Chronicles of the Anglo- Saxons.
What I find really interesting is that, despite 4 centuries of Roman presence in Britain, Vulgar Latin did not take root and develop there into another Romance language, as it had in other parts of Europe where the Romans had established themselves, like Gaul (France), Hispanicum (Spain), Romania, etc. Surely the Celtic Britons would have retained something of this Britonized Vulgar Latin?
@@francishaight2062 That factoid is interesting tho, I never heard about that ;)
My assumption of why they couldn't retain Vulgar Latin was maybe caused by political things happened that time. You know like, after being conquered, the were some classes in society and they maintained which language is appropriate than which. This reminds me of when Normans conquered Britain and they impacted many of English vocabularies since then.
And as I remember, the Romans at that time did not interested to teach their culture and language but only to widen their colony.
But that was just my thought, it could be other reason why the Vulgar Latin was not developed as other European language :)
Aha, you back. It's great to see you back.
Thanks! I've been back for a while and plowing along! :D
If you can share the link to the channel with others, it will help the channel grow so I can keep making more videos without a long hiatus. haha
You forgot english words from arabic origins : Chimestry , Algebra , Alcohol ,Coffee ,Lemon ,Artichoke ,Cotton , Magazine ,Orange ,Safari , sofa , sugar , Zero ...
There was no hidden agenda behind leaving one language or another. English has borrowed and is still borrowing words from just about any language within earshot. I just had to edit the video down for length.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment -- Cheers! :D
Bellissimo video.
La spiegazione é molto calma🌸👍
Grazie mille! You're very kind.
I hope you enjoy the other videos on the channel
I have a thought on what you said at 3:22, regarding Guerre turning into werre, which then evolved into war. Between French and English, there are a bunch of terms which have the letter W in English while the various Latin-based languages use Gue or Gui. The equivalent of the name 'William' is 'Guillaume', for example. 'Wasp' in English is 'guêpe' in French. Without the circumflex, it would be 'guespe'. I think that helps explain the connection between 'Guerre' and 'War'. Somewhere along the line, either terms that started with Gue morphed into terms that start with W, or vice versa.
That portion of the video came out confusing. I added the following comment to the descriptions (which, of course, I don't expect everyone to see):
TO CLARIFY THE ORIGIN OF "WAR"
PIE *wers- "to confuse, mix up" ► Frankish *werra ► Old North French "werre (Old French "guerre," meaning dispute, war) ► late Old English wyrre, werre "large-scale military conflict." Cognates suggest the original sense was "to bring into confusion." There's much confusion in the history of the word in European languages because they borrowed it either from the Germanic or from the Latin root. Etymological trees can have many twisted and intersecting branches (which makes me glad I'm not an etymologist:)
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the channel
I do believe I’ve just found my calling
Awesome! Etymology is hard, brainy work, but it must be very satisfying.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the other videos on the channel
@@snaplanguage haven’t watched them yet but I definitely will
Awesome! Since you like etymology, you may be interested in the advanced vocabulary videos. I often go into the etymology of the words in the videos. Thanks again!
@@snaplanguage sure thing! Thanks for making the videos!
I loved this video! very interesting and fun. I love how his tone is very casual, makes the video less stressful:)
Thank you for watching and leaving great compliments. We'll let him know you like his tone :D
I totally agree....this is extremely interesting
He makes it all sound so interesting
There’s more that binds us, than divides us. 🙏🏽
I only see modern wars as left hand fighting the right 🙄
Nice sentiments.
Peace! :D
Even semitic languages share a large amount of terms with what so called in short ( PIE) :
SEKKINE ( ARABIC WORD ) ( knife ) deriving from the root SEK = CUT
ZAWG ( HEBREW WORD ) ( handsband ) ZWIG = TWO .
In Arabic ZOUJ means TWO or COUPLE .
Phoniciens as great sea marchents helped the widespread of semitic's terms in other languages .
Aramaic was a lingua franca and even the language of the Bible . The ancient world had known GLOBALISATION in the epoque of PHONICIENS .
Phoniciens were reputed traders and not conquerors . They roamed the seas to exchange goods ( importation & exportation ) and managed to improve a kind of a world common communication .
It's interesting how languages are connected throughout history and left traces behind in the language.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Make sure you clicked the bell when you subscribed. I'm working on the next video in the "grammar series." I hope you like it, too! :D
@@snaplanguage Great !
great info!
Not so many poeple are deeply educated more than low educated ones, that's why useful videos related to such deep knowledge are not so interested or worth likes, but keep going on, now more and more people are developing their knowledge. For me, who is inerested in languages really admire your work!
Thank you very much for your support.
I agree that this channel reaches a niche interested in language and linguistics, but my hope is that some people will *gain an interest* because they watched these videos. Who knows? We may end up getting to a million subscribers... one day... in the distant future... LOL
Thanks again,
Cheers! :D
Brings new meaning to Ye Are the Salt of The Earth ...
Well, no. Apparently, it is a Hebraism, and for them salt was a symbol of all things permanent, unchangeable and eternal, like their covenant with Yahweh (which was supposed to be eternal, unalterable and immutable). AFAIK Hebrew expression "salted covenant/ union/ alliance" means an "undissolvable one", but as I don't speak Hebrew I can't attest it myself.
Of course, one could ask "what then is the meaning of this expression as far as Apostles go?", but that's yet another story - touching on Essene beliefs and views, Jewish Law, and who really Jesus was (and what is the real meaning of His teaching).
My grandpa still pronounces the h in where, which and when and I love it
Awesome! You are witnessing generational differences in language change.
I sometimes pronounce the H if I'm stressing the word, but usually I drop the H. I guess I'm in between your parents and your grandfather LOL
Thanks for watching and leaving this great comment. :D
I still do.
I pronounce the h in -WH words off and on. Nothing is random in language, so I wonder when I leave it out and when I produce it... 🤔
I don't know anyone who _doesn't_ pronounce the 'h' in when, where, which, what or why.
@@Clodaghbob I’m from california, 90s baby and don’t pronounce the h in those words lol
Connecting the dots and seeing a pattern is good.. Teach an A.I to learn etymology
Thank you for this presentation. I am a native Greek speaker and speak also English and Italian. My main formal specialization is not linguistic, but I find the subject particularly interesting. Going through the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (edition of year c. 2000) I remember reading that English comes from Old Norse, Germanic, and Latin, and that it also acquired a considerable number of almost purely Greek words via the development of science in the course of the 19th century. The same dictionary provides an etymology for each term, mentioning backwards the languages the term has come from. You might be surprised about the number of times these languages include the Greek language, and when Greek is included, it is always in the last position, meaning it is the oldest known origin. Greek must have had its origins too (maybe Phoenicean, and surely the older Indoeuropean language you mention), but these are not so clear, and certainly do not include any other language spoken in the contemporary world. On the other hand, I understand Latin has a big debt to Greek, the Latin alphabet (and hence the Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian, English, etc.) comes straight from the Greek alphabet, as does (maybe more remotely) the Russian alphabet, and English, apart from the aforementioned big number of words with proved Greek etymology (a word of Greek etymology too (ετυμολογία)), also has a big number of words partly coming from Greek e.g.. 'meta-'. Apart from the extremely important Before Christ Greek scripts, I would guess that Greek has influenced the West through the Christian Gospels, all written in Greek, whether by Luke (Λουκάς), or Matthew (Ματθαίος), or John (Ιωάννης), etc., and still read from the original (ancient) Greek in all today's Greek Orthodox (Ορθόδοξες) churches. So I think the influence of Greek in the English language, whether direct or indirect, could have had a much more prominent position in your presentation. Thank you. (By, the the way, 'Europe' also comes from Greek (Ευρώπη).)
Hi, I appreciate your comment. I meant this video to be about how a handful of English words have evolved over time and to give people a quick taste of what etymology is all about. I simply chose words fairly randomly and kept the ones I thought would be interesting, and *unfortunately* they just happened to exclude Greek (among many other languages).
I've had quite a few complaints from people saying I didn't include *their language.* In the end, I don't think I could have please everyone unless I had included every single language that contributed to English vocabulary in any way. Besides, there are people here that think that, choose one, Greek/Arabic/Sanskrit/Korean/Old Dravidian/Tamil, etc, is "the Mother of All Languages."
In hindsight, I should have hand picked words to represent as many languages as possible but, again, that was not the thought process when I created the video.
Your comment is spot on, though. Latin borrowed many words from Greek in addition to other languages. Greek was also the language of science, religion, and philosophy for such a long time in Europe that many words entered vocabularies that way. With the development of new science and technology, they needed to name things, so they used Latin and mainly Greek root words to create words that didn't exist in either language. The contribution of Greek to vocabularies, science, philosophy, etc. is undeniable. Don't take the video to mean any conspiracy to hide that truth.
English has a preponderance of Latin words because many of them entered English through Old French. In fact, many words entered English directly from Latin and later, the same word re-entered English through French.
Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment.
Cheers!
@@snaplanguage You're a tremendously nice man but it ought to be stated that Greek does seem to be the originating language, even for some of the words you stated as being Latin originated [duo δύο (the-o), bellum πόλεμος (polem-os), even Sal άλας (alas)]. And taking into account that ancient Greek goes back to about 9 centuries BC it clearly precedes and therefore influenced Latin.
I could not have said that because the research-based evidence does not support that claim. There is a lot of misinformation about what some people call "The Mother of All Languages." Some people insist it's Sanskrit. Others insist it's Arabic. Others still insist it's Albanian. I do not go by what people believe to be true but by what the current science supports.
Regardless, this does not take away the importance of the Greek language and culture throughout history. It's undeniable and provable. :)
Thanks for watching and for the very kind comment :D
@@snaplanguage No no... I'm not saying Greek is the mother of all languages. Merely trying to point out that some words attributed to Latin really derive from ancient Greek! Again you are a most pleasant host!
Oh, I apologize for misunderstanding you. I thought that's what you meant by "the originating language." I've been hearing so many people make these claims here that I'm starting to hear it in my sleep! LOL
You are a very graceful viewer yourself. I appreciate any comments because I enjoy getting feedback from people and talking about languages.
Again, sorry for the confusion. -- Cheers! :D ... Εβίβα! (?)
Buen trabajo informativo y educativo.
Gracias por ver el video y por el amable comentario. Me alegro que hayas disfrutado.
Cheers!
I was surprised there was not even a cursory mention of Arabic, considering that it pervades quite a few other languages, like Urdu, Indonesian, Malay, Pashtu, Iranian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English.
There was no bias against any particular language. This was a video about the English language, so I focused on a few examples in English that I thought people would be interested in. To include the contribution of *all languages,” the video would have had to be a multi-part series.
Cheers! :D
شكرا
Here are a few: admiral, adobe, albacore, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, algorithm, alkali, almanac, amber, Arab, artichoke, assassin, azimuth, barbican, Betelgeuse, caliber, caliph, camphor, carat, carafe, carmine, carob, chess, cipher, coffee (one of my favorite words), cork, cotton, couscous, crimson, dura mater, emir, fakir, fardel, falafel, felucca, gazelle, genie, gerbil, ghoul, giraffe, halal, harem, hashish, hazard, hookah, imam, jar, jasmine, jinn, kismet, lilac, lime, loofah, lute, macramé, magazine, mask, mattress, minaret, monsoon, mosque, mullah, mummy (embalmed body), muslin, nadir, orange, ottoman, racket, ream (of paper), safari, saffron, Sahara, sash, sheikh, sherbet, sirocco, sofa, spinach, sugar, sultan, syrup, tabbouleh, tahini, tamarind, tariff, and zenith. There are a few more where these came from... :D
I thought about making a video about this other influences on English. I'm afraid people would still complain because it's impossible to include all languages without making it a very long, extremely research-intensive video.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! -- Cheers!
@@snaplanguage Apricot ...even if Arab had little influence . Originally Malum praecocium ( because blossoms before peach ) .In North among African Arab speaking Countries became El Precoq.. Imported then in Langue d'
óc ( south France ) as El precot and the article "el " was assimilated ( same as Al Gebra ) giving origin to Apricot pricosen ( German ) and so on ! We have " albicocche" !
I speak french english persian and some spanish.i am amazed by the similarities.i can find similar words in all these languages.a word in one language changes to a similar meaning i another..Amazing.
It *is* pretty amazing, isn't it. Even languages that seem so different from each other on the surface can still preserve common origins. Sometimes they're hiding deep in the words (which is why I'm glad etymologists are doing all the hard work to figure it out LOL).
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment.
Cheers!
Muy bueno y aclarar cualquier aspecto de los idiomas
Very interesting video man ... I see those patterns everyday cause I speak Spanish, English, German and Italian .. it just amazing to see the connection between them
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I hear what you're saying about seeing those connections. When you start learning European languages, you start seeing them everywhere.
Cheers!
tell me please how is it best to learn new language?
What is best practices to learning new language?
@@kristybarnes2563 what can I say? I think the best way of learning a new language is actually living in the country where it belongs ...
Also watching videos, shows, sports.. it's what works for me
@@kristybarnes2563 This is a very complicated question. Some people learn better by using the language from the start. Others need to focus on grammar so they feel confident when they start speaking. It also depends on each student's situation (for example, if you're living in the country where the language is spoken or not, how much time you have to dedicate to learning the language, and so on).
I'll start a series of live stream events in a couple of weeks discussing second language learning. If you're interested, subscribe to the channel and click the bell to receive all notification so you know when these live streams are out.
Thank you! :D
I'd just like to say that J R R Tolkien's Appendices to LOTR were a revelation to me back around 1966. I discovered a systematic approach to classifying sounds and the symbols used to depict them, and comparative etymology across multiple languages. By that time I had already sat through classes in French and Latin, but they never gave me the insight I got from his Appendices.
It's hard to describe because I knew of the Latin roots of both French and English, and I could see the words with common roots, like castrum, chateau, castle.
Tolkien made me aware that this could be and was a whole field of study.
Good on Tolkien! That's definitely a way to make such a dry branch in linguistics more palatable and accessible.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I hope you're enjoying the other language- and linguistics-related videos on the channel.
Cheers! :D
I really like this channel. There's so much to learn, so much thought and research put into your videos!!!
Glad you're enjoying the channel. I have quite a few plans for the near and long future. I hope to keep seeing you around our language and linguistics community. :D