@yvanspijk@toot.community
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yvanspijk

@yvanspijk@toot.community

DJO-in ['ʤowɪn]

Historisch taalkundige, dialectoloog, leraar NT2, redacteur, auteur bij Onze Taal

Historical linguist, dialectologist, Dutch teacher, editor, writer

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yvanspijk, to random
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Yesterday I tooted about horse words.

"But what about 'horse', German 'Pferd', French 'cheval', Spanish 'caballo'?" people asked.

These words have their own histories. I'll summarise them below.

  1. 'Horse' stems from Proto-Germanic *hursan/*hrussan, which also became Dutch 'ros', German 'Ross', and Icelandic 'hross'. This Proto-Germanic word may stem from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (vehicle), which also became Latin 'currus' (chariot) and - via Proto-Celtic *karros - 'carrus', whence ... 1/
yvanspijk,
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5/ ... to many different languages through trade or the adoption of cultural practices.

The same goes for Ancient Greek καβάλλης (kabállēs: "nag").

From Latin 'caballārius' (horseman), we get French 'chevalier' (knight) and Spanish 'caballero' (gentleman), and Italian 'cavallaio' (groom; horse merchant).

Lastly: 'cavalry' stems from Italian 'cavalleria' via Middle French, and 'chivalry' from its Old French counterpart 'chevalerie' (cavalry; knighthood; nobility; chivalry).

Enough horses!

yvanspijk,
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6/
Argh, I forgot about Swedish 'häst', Danish and Norwegian 'hest', and Icelandic 'hestur'!

These stem from Old Norse 'hestr', from Proto-Germanic *hanhistaz (horse; stallion).

Its Verner variant *hangistaz became Dutch 'hengst', German 'Hengst', West Frysian 'hynst', whence 'hynder' (< hynst-dier: "stallion animal").

English has 'henchman', from Middle English word that meant "male attendant", from Old English *hengest-man "groom", literally "stallion man".

yvanspijk,
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3/ ... Old French, where it became 'palefrei(d)' (modern 'palefroi'). This was borrowed into English as 'palfrey'.

A last thing about Proto-Germanic: it also had *marhaz. This word doesn't have any modern descendants, but it does survive as the first part of Dutch 'maarschalk' (marshal), from West Germanic *marhaskalkaz (horse groom).

Via the Old French borrowing 'mareschal' (now 'maréchal') it became English 'marshal'.

The female counterpart, *marhijō, became English 'mare', German ... 3/

yvanspijk,
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4/ ... 'Mähre' (decripit old horse), and Dutch 'merrie' (mare).

  1. French 'cheval', Spanish 'caballo', Italian 'cavallo', Portuguese 'cavalo' etc. come from Latin 'caballus'.

In Classical Latin, this word meant "pack-horse", but in Popular Latin, it became the general word for a horse.

Its origin is not certain. It may have been borrowed from Gaulish *kaballos, which is related to Irish 'capall' and Welsh 'ceffyl'.

It may also have been a Wanderwort: a loanword that spread ... 4/

yvanspijk, to random
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Dutch 'zolder' (attic) and 'solarium' (sunbed) are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'sōlārium'.

'Zolder' was inherited from an early Proto-Germanic borrowing from spoken Latin.

'Solarium' was borrowed from written Latin, via English.

Number 9 in my series: Dutch doublets from Latin.

yvanspijk,
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@word_family_friday That surprised me too when I looked them up earlier tonight!

yvanspijk, to random
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Romanian 'femeie' (woman) and 'familie' (family) are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'familiam'.

'Femeie' was inherited from spoken Latin. It underwent the sound changes that turned Latin into Romanian.

'Familie' was borrowed from written Latin.

Number 6 in my series: Romanian doublets!

yvanspijk,
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@arcepi Just like every other Romance language, Spanish inherited most of its words from spoken Latin. That means: the words lived on in the spoken language when it evolved from Latin.

The words in the right column were borrowed during or after the Renaissance. Spanish has many of these, but so does every Romance language.

Here's a Spanish chart:
https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/111246651873867180

yvanspijk, to random
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German 'Messer' and Dutch 'mes' (knife) stem from a Proto-Germanic compound meaning 'food-knife'.

As it was frequently used, the four-syllable compound eroded and was obscured.

Click the video to hear how 'Messer' and 'mes' evolved.

On my Patreon I explain how Proto-Germanic *matisahsan acquired the variant *matizahsan and how its z became an r in German.

Below there's an infographic that shows the history of the words that formed *matisahsan and *matizahsan and their Germanic relatives.

video/mp4

yvanspijk,
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2/

Below there's an infographic that I made in August of this year. It shows the history of the words that formed *matisahsan and *matizahsan and their Germanic relatives.

yvanspijk, to random
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The word 'clean' has the same ancestor as German and Dutch 'klein' (small; little).

The meaning of this common Proto-Germanic ancestor is reconstructed as "shining".

In the Germanic daughter languages, this meaning shifted following different paths.

Click the graphic for more:

yvanspijk, (edited ) to random
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Latin had six noun cases, but in all Romance languages except Romanian, nouns only have one singular form and one plural form left.

What happened?

This extra large infographic tells you in ten steps how the Latin case system collapsed – and how the accusative case emerged victorious:

yvanspijk, to random
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'Archipelago' comes from Italian 'arcipelago', which used to denote the Aegean Sea, a sea that has many islands. It literally meant "main sea".

'Arcipelago' was borrowed by a large number of languages and underwent a series of changes in meaning.

Here's how:

yvanspijk, to random
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X is such a heart-warming place.

(For the record: Slavic doesn't have any direct descendants of *h₃dónts.)

yvanspijk, to random
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The English words 'of', 'off', 'after', and 'ebb' all contain the same root.

It also lies at the basis of German 'von' (of; from) and 'aber' (but).

This root, Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)p-, meant "off; away". By adding suffixes, related meanings were derived.

Here's more:

yvanspijk, to random
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German 'gegessen' and Dutch 'gegeten', past participles meaning "eaten", are quite peculiar.

German and past participles normally get the prefix 'ge-', but these words contain a doubled form of this prefix.

As 'ge-' had been obscured in earlier 'gessen' and 'geten', it was added to these forms once more.

Here's more:

yvanspijk, to random
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The word 'tooth' is a remnant of an ancient present participle meaning "biting".

It is etymologically related to French 'dent', German 'Zahn', Irish 'déad', Ancient Greek 'odṓn', and Sanskrit 'dán'. These words all stem from the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor.

Here's more:

yvanspijk, to random
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The Romance words for "self" and "same", such as French 'même', Spanish 'mismo', and Portuguese 'mesmo', don't come from the Classical Latin words for "self" and "same".

Instead, they stem from Popular Latin *metipsimus: "the very same", or literally "self-selfest".

The infographic shows how it went:

yvanspijk, to random
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The French adverb 'très' means "very", as in 'très grand' (very big).

It comes from the Latin preposition 'trāns' (beyond; across).

What happened in French was different from Spanish, where 'trāns' remained a preposition, 'tras' (after; behind; beyond), and Portuguese, where it became 'trás' (behind).

Here's more:

yvanspijk, to random
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In many Romance languages, plurals and certain verb forms end in -s.

This is how you say 'you see the stars' in French, Spanish, and Portuguese:
tu vois les étoiles
ves las estrellas
vês as estrelas

However, in Italian and Romanian none of these words end in -s:
vedi le stelle
vezi stelele

All of these had an -s in Latin: vidēs (illās) stēllās

So what happened in Italian and Romanian?

These languages lost their final -s, but they didn't just drop it. The infographic shows what did happen:

yvanspijk, to random
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Dutch 'hangmat' and German 'Hängematte' come from French 'hamac' (hammock).

Seeking to rationalise this opaque word, people associated it with their words for 'to hang' and 'mat' and changed it.

Here are more Dutch and German examples of this type of change: folk etymology.

yvanspijk, to random
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French 'poison' and 'potion' are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'pōtiōnem' (drink).

'Poison' was inherited from spoken Latin. It underwent the sound changes that turned Latin into French.

'Potion' was borrowed from written Latin in the second millennium.

The infographic below shows fifteen French doublets.

In the next two weeks, I'll be doing similar charts for Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan as well. 🙂

yvanspijk, to random
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'Pity' and 'piety' are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'pietātem'.

'Pity' comes from Old French 'pité', a word inherited from spoken Latin. It underwent the sound changes that turned Latin into French.

'Piety' was borrowed from Old French 'pieté', which itself was a borrowing from written Latin.

Number 8 in my series:
English doublets from Latin via French!

(This still isn't the last episode of my doublets series. Stay tuned!)

yvanspijk, to random
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Beside singular and plural pronouns, the Germanic languages used to have dual pronouns.

For example, in Old English you could say:
'Hē seah unc' (He saw the two of us)
'Wit sāwon him' (We two saw him)

My new infographic below tells you all about these Germanic dual pronouns.

What would the English, German, and Dutch dual pronouns look like now if they hadn't disappeared? Subscribe to my Patreon to find out: patreon.com/yvanspijk

yvanspijk, to random
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'Shirt' and 'skirt' are doublets: they both stem from Proto-Germanic *skurtijōn.

'Shirt' was inherited. It underwent the sound changes that turned Proto-Germanic into English.

'Skirt' was borrowed from another Germanic language: Old Norse.

Here's the finale of my doublets series: Germanic doublets in English.

yvanspijk, to random
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The French word 'trop' means "too (much)", as in 'trop grand' (too big) or 'il mange trop' (he eats too much).

It was borrowed from Proto-West Germanic *þrop (crowd; cluster; village), a variant of *þorp, which became German 'Dorf', Dutch 'dorp' and archaic English 'thorp', all "village".

Here's more:

yvanspijk, to random
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'To think' and 'thanks' are etymologically related.

The distant ancestor of 'thanks' meant "thought". This meaning evolved into "benevolent thought", "grateful thought", and ultimately "gratitude".

My infographic shows the Germanic relatives of 'to think' and 'thanks' and tells you where 'methinks' comes from.

On my Patreon I explain how the regular past tense form of the ancestor of 'to think' became irregular in a regular way (1200 words): patreon.com/yvanspijk

yvanspijk, to random
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Making one infographic takes me 2 to 4 hours. My work will always be free because I want to make people excited about linguistics and spread knowledge.

However, if you'd like to support my work I would be thrilled if you subscribed to my Patreon for $2 a month.

patreon.com/yvanspijk

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