Why Do Word Meanings Evolve? Evolution & Semantic Change

Поделиться
HTML-код
  • Опубликовано: 7 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 92

  • @Alliterative
    @Alliterative  7 лет назад +16

    A friend of mine and fellow medievalist has informed me that a couple of elements in the video are in fact myths about the history of the book (though seemingly quite widespread ones). First, parchment wasn’t in fact invented in Pergamon. For instance, the earliest known Egyptian use of parchment is from the 20th Dynasty (1195-1085 BCE). The widely reported story goes that parchment was developed in Pergamon when Ptolemy refused to export Egyptian papyrus to Pergamon. This belief seems to have developed from the fact that Pergamon was a major producer of parchment (but not in fact its originator). Most of the etymological sources I checked repeat the myth, though occasionally with hedging language like “was said to have originated” or “supposedly”. Surprisingly, Wikipedia seems to be the one place that gets it exactly right!
    Secondly, there seems to be no evidence of the folding method to produce book sizes earlier than paper books, so it wouldn’t therefore be connected with parchment and sheep. As my friend points out, it doesn’t make a lot of sense with parchment anyway, since it would be very difficult to fold. The source for the idea that book sizes are connected to sheep sizes is a post on the blog Got Medieval, written by a medievalist who works with manuscript images, so seemingly a reliable source, but it’s been widely reported in places such as Wired and Neatorama. If anyone has any more information about this, I’d love to hear it.

  • @Aleph_Null_Audio
    @Aleph_Null_Audio 7 лет назад +21

    I really enjoy this channel. Despite changes to The Algorithm, please don't be tempted to start a daily vlog or something. A quality upload once a month is great.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +10

      Thank you. Don't worry, I don't have any plans to stop making these long videos, though I may continue to occasionally intersperse a few shorter/easier videos while I work on the big ones.

  • @xh7385
    @xh7385 6 лет назад +1

    Your videos are so kaleidoscopic. I couldn't watch it without my etymological notebook and have to stop to confer reference sources intermittently. Do you happen to publish any kind of books? I learned really a lot from you.

  • @HattmannenNilsson
    @HattmannenNilsson 7 лет назад +2

    Wow! I usually enjoy your videos and find them really interesting, but you really outdid yourself this time. This is absolutely fascinating.
    I'm in no way a linguist and I don't really know much about languages and language in general, but from what little I know I like to make these sort of connections in my head whenever I learn a new word or a new root. This video just put a number of missing pieces together for me and added a few new.
    Thank you for educating us! :-)

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      Thank you so much! That's great to hear. I love the topic and it's good to know I'm able to make it understandable and interesting. :)

  • @Cadwaladr
    @Cadwaladr 7 лет назад +6

    Great video. The thing about tree bark reminded me of Onfim, a boy who lived in Novgorod in the 13h century, whom we know of because of bits of birch bark that he wrote and drew on.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      Oh, that's cool! It's amazing to have that kind of tangible link. Thanks!

  • @uis999
    @uis999 7 лет назад +3

    holy crap! Ill have to find the video to be sure I am remembering correctly, but I believe the "escroe (to cut)" refers to the the practice of tearing (in an asymmetric way) of a legal document's copies off the same piece of paper so that the edges matching up would verify that the two copies where from the same original document. It was a video on the old English guild practices. I'll report back if I manage to find it. XD As always, superlative vid!

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      Oh, that sounds fascinating -- do let me know if you find it, I'd be glad to be able to refine the explanation of that etymology. And thank you!

    • @korakys
      @korakys 7 лет назад

      That reminds me of tally sticks where the same process was used with sticks of wood split in twain. There were used to record loans; each party kept one half of the stick.

  • @conjecturemm
    @conjecturemm 7 лет назад +5

    This is cool! I love learning about etymological origins, and I like the petonym (was that the name?) that refers to words that got their names from the place where they originated.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      Thanks! It's a toponym, actually -- from Greek 'topos' meaning place. And yeah, it's always fun to find out that seemingly basic words actually come from a place name.

    • @conjecturemm
      @conjecturemm 7 лет назад +1

      haha I was way off. But that explains the etymology of topography

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      Yes, exactly!

  • @christophershae613
    @christophershae613 7 лет назад +2

    I am glad to have found this channel. My main passion is linguistics but I was veered off by the opportunities of a Computer Science degree... I digress I am still getting my minor in Linguistics though.
    I also agree with +The Hard Problem that you should keep up the style you have, don't buckle to the pressures of RUclips demands for weekly content for if the content is worth it, the subscribers will wait. I know I sure will!
    Good job! ^.^

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      Thank you! I think Computer Science with a minor in Linguistics is probably very smart, actually -- and I'm glad you enjoy the channel. No plans to change anything major in the near future, don't worry! :)

    • @christophershae613
      @christophershae613 7 лет назад +1

      Alliterative good! I sure was scared :P

    • @christophershae613
      @christophershae613 7 лет назад +1

      And here's a tangent, have you noticed that when one "goes down the rabbit hole" of Etymology and Linguistics it often takes you through many many more fields of study along the way? It's quite fascinating actually

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +1

      Yes! That's one of my favourite aspects of studying language in this way--it takes you to so many different fields.

  • @zhubajie6940
    @zhubajie6940 7 лет назад +2

    The great thing about etymology it often clears up what translators of ancient or even just older text really mean. Too often these books are not translated at all but use the word in the modern sense. The idea of the Stoics always going on about passion was not that they wanted complete repression of emotion (a idea the Romantic Age scholar seem to imply) but comes from "passio" to suffer. A very modern psychology idea if you ask me. If something is causing you to suffer it is going beyond normal emotions to a distress state be it mania, depression, out of control anger, etc. The Romantics I think transformed the word from suffering to a strong and justifiable emotion which causes a lot of confusion about writing from pre-romantic era times. Being stoic isn't being unemotional just not being distressed.

    • @cerberaodollam
      @cerberaodollam 2 года назад

      That's interesting....but also kinda doesn't work if your *default* level of emotional experience is what others would consider "distress" or "too much" and you don't agree with the modern idea that you deserve to be locked up and forcibly drugged for being more expressive than expected.
      Stoicism definitely has its value and place, but for an artist it's a bit, um, counterintuitive.

  • @riorinidiahmoehkardi3170
    @riorinidiahmoehkardi3170 2 года назад

    a fascinating explanation of the semantic change and the word evolution.

  • @TheJamesM
    @TheJamesM 7 лет назад +3

    This video is unrelentingly fascinating. Brilliant work.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +1

      Thank you! Really appreciate that.

  • @tombra7
    @tombra7 7 лет назад +1

    Very interesting and inspiring film , just for your information ,some words you used have Slavic connections -for example: silly - весёлый , kill - kłuł , chew , jaw - żuł , codex - kłoda , book - buk , quarto - czwarto , fable - papla . Off course it`s many more , try to dig deeper in languages and you will be surprised !

  • @kagi95
    @kagi95 7 лет назад +2

    Having learned a bit of Dutch, I can see so many similarities and common origins. Languages are a huge puzzle, waiting to be played around ;)

  • @patrichausammann
    @patrichausammann 7 лет назад

    Very good job! Your examples from the Old English, show very good the Germanic influence before English mixed up with the French language.
    2:15 mete (Old English) may have a correlation to the German word "Essen"(noun) which means "food". It is not easy to recognize, but if we change the reading direction of mete, we get "etem", which is very similar to "Essen". In the German dialects I speak, we say "Esse" or "Ässe" for the word food. Seems similar to "I am hungry" and " Ich bin hungrig" in German or in a Swiss German dialect " I bi hungrig". ^^ But it also can descend from the word "made", because food has to be made (hunted or harvested). In "baby language" we say "mäm' mäm"/"meam' meam'" to babies for food and they seem to understand. I guess, it is because "Mama" (German) for Mother is mostly the first word, which babies can say. I think babies recognize the relation of the word "Mama" and the expression of "mm" if they like to eat something, but milk could be also a relevant word because it is the first food for us mammals.^^
    2:17 deor (Old Engl.) > Tier (German), Steorfan (Old Engl.) > sterben (Ger.) and many people died from starving in the Middle Ages.
    2:30 girle (Old Engl.), girl (Engl.) reminds me to the German word Göre, which means in a funny or sometimes in a derogatory way a litte, lively, wicked child. The expression can be used for boy and girls, but is espescially used for girls.
    2:36 fugel (Old Engl.) > Vogel (Ger.), bridd (Old Engl.) > Brut (Ger.) word for the eggs and young birds, but it can also be the process from lying the eggs to the point where the young birds leave the nest.
    3:23 cunnan (Old Engl.) >to know (Engl.) > kennen (Ger.), sælig(Old Engl.) > selig (Ger.) word for blessed.
    4:24 cnafa (Old Engl.), knave > Knabe (Ger.) the "V" changed to "B". cniht (Old Engl.) may have a connection to the German word "kniet"(imperative) or "knien"(Verb), which mean "to knee down".
    5:05 gebed (Old Engl.) > Gebet (Ger.) word for prayer. ceasce (Old Engl.) reminds me to the German word "Kiefer", which means jaw. "Cheek" means "Backe" in German, so I agree to the suggestions of the video, that it has French influence from "joue", which means cheek in English, but "jouer" the French verb means "to play" for example a game. But if I'm correct, it may also have the meaning of "to be loose", which would fit to the function. In German I would translate "jouer" to "spielen". But in German it is not only the expression for "playing". If something has "Spiel"in German, it is another expression for "es ist lose"(Ger.) , what means "it's loose" in English, so it indicates the "movability".

  • @Andy-ej4bb
    @Andy-ej4bb 2 года назад

    Excellent video, I'm an amateur nerd fascinated by etymology. I have two questions...
    1, in France we say "escrot" for a fraudster, do you think I'm correct in assuming that this is related to the old word for "to cut"? Perhaps where someone might slice off a piece of a weight when selling a weighed product, or when someone chops off a piece of something after it has been weighed.
    2, I read in a Bill Bryson book that "nice" and "nasty" both had the same origins, originally meaning cheap or of low quality. Does this fit in with what you know?
    I've just thought of a third question. I have Scottish friends who say "you ken?" to mean "did/do you know?". I suspect that there's a connection. Is this correct?

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  2 года назад +1

      Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. To your questions: 1) I think that must be right, but I don't know the specifics of that word; it would make sense that it's connected, though. 2) I suppose that's about right, though they're not related; 'nice' comes from Latin nescius "ignorant, unaware," literally "not-knowing," and when it first entered English it meant 'senseless, ignorant, poor'; 'nasty' is much more obscure, but seems to have meant "foul, filthy, dirty, unclean," when it first appeared (maybe from Old French, maybe from Old Norse, maybe from Dutch). 3) Yes, 'ken' is from Old English cennan "make known, declare, acknowledge", lit. 'to cause to know', going back eventually to that PIE root *gno-

  • @GodsCommunity
    @GodsCommunity 6 лет назад +2

    Blessings!
    💭💭

  • @urinstein1864
    @urinstein1864 7 лет назад +2

    I never noticed before, but I think you have a tad of a Canadian accent. Are you from the great white north?

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      Well spotted! Yup, from Ottawa originally. :)

    • @seiban8455
      @seiban8455 7 лет назад +4

      Greetings outlander; I hail from the wastes to the south, a land forsaken by all gods, South Dakota, where the winters last a thousand years and the summer days grow hot enough to melt flesh.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      That sounds surprisingly familiar... from the forests of Northern Ontario!

  • @kaitlyn__L
    @kaitlyn__L 7 лет назад

    is your voiceover mic breaking? you sound a bit more muffled than usual. (cool video as always!)

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      No...but I think we might have processed the audio slightly differently. Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into it for the next one. And thanks!

  • @dragatus
    @dragatus 7 лет назад +6

    "You are nice, Jon Snow."

  • @willemvandebeek
    @willemvandebeek 7 лет назад +6

    Oooh, so many Dutch words come to mind that are so similar :)

    • @thaincrediblemaier
      @thaincrediblemaier 7 лет назад +3

      german too

    • @Phrenotopia
      @Phrenotopia 7 лет назад

      ikr

    • @jennyB07
      @jennyB07 6 лет назад +2

      Thats cause the English language especially was heavily influenced by French, Dutch, German colonization in Britain so they borrowed a lot of their words into the English language over the centuries!

  • @glifosfato
    @glifosfato 7 лет назад +3

    thank you for another excellent video.

  • @moni9004
    @moni9004 6 лет назад +1

    I am using your video when people start to ask why vegans use words wurst or meat or steak while describing non meat based products.

  • @nickc3657
    @nickc3657 7 лет назад +1

    I'm curious... in Spanish, a book is "un libro", which obviously comes from Latin. But a page is "una hoja," 📄 but "una hoja" can also mean a leaf 🍁. Is this just coincidence, a case of (linguistic) convergent evolution?

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      Ah, I've just looked it up and 'hoja' actually comes from Latin 'folia', so it's the same! It was Old Spanish 'foja', apparently. Thanks for bringing that up!

    • @nickc3657
      @nickc3657 7 лет назад +2

      Alliterative ahh, of course! How could I forget, Spanish expelled a bunch of Latin f's (no one expected it!). Formica became hormiga 🐜, facere became hacer 🤛🏼, filius became hijo 👦🏻. Thank you!

  • @Enelkay.
    @Enelkay. 2 года назад

    damn, the evolution of words is really cool

  • @ryeretsian
    @ryeretsian 2 года назад

    Great work. Thank you.

  • @DudeWhoSaysDeez
    @DudeWhoSaysDeez 7 лет назад +4

    What about people who are anti-Semantic?

    • @moodist1er
      @moodist1er 4 года назад

      They're the same people who cry and/or commit antisemitism, which should really mean an oppression of any semitic language speaking people but ironically it refers to the perceived oppression of European colonists who are oppressing real semites like in the world's largest concentration camp called Gaza.

    • @moodist1er
      @moodist1er 4 года назад

      Nasi nazis, i guess, because a rose by any other name..

  • @Jean-FrancoisBilodeau
    @Jean-FrancoisBilodeau 7 лет назад +1

    Thanks for the great video! I'm no expert, but the 'chinese' paper shown in your video looked potentially japanese.

  • @arcanics1971
    @arcanics1971 6 лет назад

    I've been learning old English lately/ Fugel was probably pronounced fau-uwel, which makes its evolution to fowl much less surprising. Often the g in old English takes the role of y in modern English, though as with modern English there are rules but they have many, many exceptions. :)

  • @Soliloquy084
    @Soliloquy084 7 лет назад +2

    When I dial my family on the opposite side of the planet there is something about the length of a day to do with it.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +1

      +Soliloquy Ah, true enough... ;)

  • @internalinjectiontrulyhere6182
    @internalinjectiontrulyhere6182 2 года назад +1

    Words change in time add plural to a defined words base some change into others in where there added with a connected foreword or tail conducted word give time of mind and how you hear a word currently just as the wod ending or started example an extinct animal may have wild reasons or lead wrong example chinese mixed with english may be chinese not graffiti on some art tip of the ages and ways trains pass window to doors not to forget your wAll

  • @mdminhazulislam1034
    @mdminhazulislam1034 2 года назад

    Awesome!

  • @saxoungrammaticus9132
    @saxoungrammaticus9132 7 лет назад +3

    Blessed are the silly, that's what I've always said.

  • @PureZOOKS
    @PureZOOKS 7 лет назад +2

    When you mentioned "leaf" I thought you were going to mention that verb "to leaf" which means "to read casually"

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +1

      True -- that presumably comes from 'to turn the leaves' of a book, but it's become a standalone verb.

    • @Andy-ej4bb
      @Andy-ej4bb 2 года назад

      Interestingly in French you say "feuille" for the leaves of a book, or leaves of a tree.

  • @moodist1er
    @moodist1er 4 года назад

    Modern dialing still relates to radial dialing and sun dial because it's a measure of division.

  • @KeithAvila
    @KeithAvila Год назад

    Broadcast is not when you post to RUclips. Broadcast is when you send out (cast) a signal broadly and old TVs pick up the signal.
    Posting a video on RUclips is no more “broadcasting” than if I texted my mom and called it “broadcasting”

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  Год назад +1

      To broadcast is to send something out widely; it existed as a term before radio or tv were invented, and the radio and tv uses were metaphorical. To post something on RUclips is to make it widely available, to spread it broadly. As opposed to texting a single person, which does not make the communication publicly available and does not reach a broad audience. The term 'broadcast' is now defined as "to send out or transmit (something, such as a program) by means of radio or television or by streaming over the Internet", to quote Merriam-Webster. There is a possible quibble that it is primarily used of live or streaming events on the Internet, but that isn't true of the use for radio or tv, so it's unlikely to persist as a meaningful distinction online.

  • @kishoreytc
    @kishoreytc 4 года назад +1

    How the turn tables....

  • @thegoodlydragon7452
    @thegoodlydragon7452 7 лет назад +1

    The word tea used to mean "water with tea leaves infused into it" and it now means "hot water flavored with anything."

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      It certainly seems to be widening, you're right. Though I'm personally pretty strict in my definition of tea! :)

    • @jclau3616
      @jclau3616 7 лет назад

      The word 'tea' could be more likely to come from the Malay word 'teh', as it's used in the name of a type of milk tea drink very popular in the Malay Peninsula - 'Teh Tarik' (literally meaning 'pulled tea'). In which the word 'teh' in Malay actually came from the Hokkien (Minnan) language pronunciation of the character “茶”(teh), due to many Minnan Chinese speakers settled in the Malacca Straits throughout the centuries even before European Colonialism.

  • @colinp2238
    @colinp2238 6 лет назад

    Amazing! A whole video with no references to fart.

  • @saxoungrammaticus9132
    @saxoungrammaticus9132 7 лет назад +1

    I can't see 'descent with modification' ever catching on.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +1

      It's less snappy, that's for sure!

  • @sillysad3198
    @sillysad3198 7 лет назад +2

    Linoleum, McAdam, Xerox

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад

      Yep!

    • @warxdrum
      @warxdrum 7 лет назад

      such things are always interesting to learn if the language isn't your mother tongue^^

  • @cerberaodollam
    @cerberaodollam 2 года назад

    Well that explains "sweetmeats". Confused the hell out of me as an ESL learner

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  2 года назад +1

      Pretty darn confusing even to us first language English speakers! 😆

  • @popular_dollars
    @popular_dollars 6 лет назад +1

    I see that you pronounce "evolution" in the un-americanadian way like me. You must listen to plenty European or Oceanic anglophones.

  • @Andy-ej4bb
    @Andy-ej4bb 2 года назад

    My only gripe is that this video is five years old and has had a billion fewer views than Justin Bieber. We're doomed as a species.

  • @anibalcesarnishizk2205
    @anibalcesarnishizk2205 2 года назад

    For example the word "Gay" nowadays has another meaning .It was meant for men that enjoyed life.Men who caught the day; it had nothing to do with homosexuality.The origin is French:Gai.

  • @the7th494
    @the7th494 7 лет назад +1

    We don't call phoning people dialling, dialling isn't a word

    • @quinterbeck
      @quinterbeck 7 лет назад +4

      Where are you from? 'To dial a number' is pretty common way of referring to inputting a phone number in the UK.

    • @Alliterative
      @Alliterative  7 лет назад +2

      That's my experience in North America as well, but perhaps it's starting to drop out in some places.

    • @the7th494
      @the7th494 7 лет назад

      Dialing is just wrong, it's weird, ur weird

    • @TheJamesM
      @TheJamesM 7 лет назад

      I suppose it feels like a slightly dated term, but I can't think of any replacement verb for the act of entering a phone number for the purpose of calling it. It's not typing... What else is there?
      I wonder whether it's the victim of changing behaviour: smartphones allow us to forego the act of dialling on almost all occasions, so there's no longer the need for a specific verb. I wonder what other words have been victim to a similar fate.

    • @the7th494
      @the7th494 7 лет назад

      PHONING!

  • @slimboyfat9409
    @slimboyfat9409 5 лет назад

    Cool and gay.