Where did English come from? - Claire Bowern

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  • čas přidán 15. 07. 2015
  • View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/where-did-e...
    When we talk about ‘English’, we often think of it as a single language. But what do the dialects spoken in dozens of countries around the world have in common with each other, or with the writings of Chaucer? Claire Bowern traces the language from the present day back to its ancient roots, showing how English has evolved through generations of speakers.
    Lesson by Claire Bowern, animation by Patrick Smith.

Komentáře • 5K

  • @williamsmith8475
    @williamsmith8475 Před 6 lety +6895

    I’m from South Carolina and my buddy from New York understands 50% of what I say to him. We’re making progress

    • @miteshmohapatra7273
      @miteshmohapatra7273 Před 4 lety +255

      Underrated comment right here

    • @chaunceyhulbert7264
      @chaunceyhulbert7264 Před 4 lety +398

      I'm from Maine and my friend is from Louisiana. I understand nothing. He understands less.

    • @professormoptop
      @professormoptop Před 4 lety +59

      I totally understand that while being from Kentucky

    • @LadellTurner
      @LadellTurner Před 4 lety +66

      My family from Charleston and Ridgeville South Carolina and nobody knew what my grandma was saying here in NY. I had to talk for her.

    • @judah9934
      @judah9934 Před 4 lety +17

      Were is the lie in this is from texas and California New York Louisiana all have different accent

  • @johnrogan9420
    @johnrogan9420 Před 3 lety +3817

    3 billion humans are speaking the same words but cannot understand each other...how profound is that!

    • @mr.legend1196
      @mr.legend1196 Před 3 lety +24

      😂 lol

    • @JustsomeSteve
      @JustsomeSteve Před 3 lety +80

      r/im14andthisisdeep

    • @NoName-vu6bt
      @NoName-vu6bt Před 3 lety +33

      There same words but with different meaning

    • @haltdieklappe7972
      @haltdieklappe7972 Před 3 lety +24

      English is only spoken by 1.2 billion people. And it’s only properly spoken by half that

    • @DanksterPaws
      @DanksterPaws Před 3 lety +27

      @@haltdieklappe7972 He might be referring to Indo-European but dont quote me on that

  • @goergejohn6986
    @goergejohn6986 Před 4 lety +3845

    Persian: khoob
    English: good
    Persian: behtar
    English: better
    Persian: drost, raast
    English: right, Just
    Persian: dokhtar
    English: daughter
    Old Persian: Baq
    English: Big
    Persian: Ga'aw
    English: Cow
    Persian: Cart (means knife)
    English: Cut (what a knife is used for)
    Persian: Dar
    English: Door
    Persian: mard
    English: man
    Persian: setare
    English: star
    And many more including the usual father, mother, numbers etc..

    • @pirouz8042
      @pirouz8042 Před 4 lety +210

      goerge john yes! And also ‘baradar’ , which is ‘brother’ and ‘now’, which is ‘new’.

    • @gio_toro856
      @gio_toro856 Před 4 lety +386

      This is because persian is a Indo-European lenguage..

    • @avinashmishra6863
      @avinashmishra6863 Před 4 lety +324

      Fun fact is 80% of the Persian words written are in Hindi vocabulary also. Like Mard, Dar, sitara(star), khoob etc

    • @avinashmishra6863
      @avinashmishra6863 Před 4 lety +154

      @General William T. Sherman hindi language is actually a mixture of Sanskrit, Urdu , Arabic , Persian and other regional languages. 😆😆

    • @johnrogan9420
      @johnrogan9420 Před 4 lety +52

      German words are similar...tochter... tur... etc

  • @paulbroderick8438
    @paulbroderick8438 Před 2 lety +305

    I was brought up in England and was always amazed at the change in accent between cities and towns only short distances apart almost if you had immigrated!

    • @williamnethercott4364
      @williamnethercott4364 Před rokem +16

      Growing up in south east Northumberland in the 1960s, the accents used to change between neighbouring pit villages, even when it was hard to see where one of them ended and the next began. That's mostly lost now.

    • @TheIT221
      @TheIT221 Před rokem +2

      Just wait till you visit different parts of diverse cities like Boston and New York, the Deep South, or the old northwest... there’s tons and tons of variety based off where you live, not just “standard American” politicians speak in order to appeal to voters

    • @natknight9001
      @natknight9001 Před rokem +7

      @@TheIT221 there's obviously variety in accents in the US, particularly in the north east, but it's really nothing in comparison to the variety of accents in the UK

    • @kaushiksingh3818
      @kaushiksingh3818 Před 6 měsíci +1

      Just visit India,you will find different language only short distance apart

    • @Titancameraman64
      @Titancameraman64 Před 6 měsíci +1

      ​@@kaushiksingh3818it used to be the same in Europe I heard because of the telephone and other such communication technology they died out even now you probably never heard of Wmymsare (I think that's how you spell it)or Sords (Germanic and Slavic)or Marx and Esyemten (Celtic and Germanic) they're dieing Wmymsare (Poland)only has 14 speakers and Esyemten (Sweden)has 100s .

  • @anakinsandwalker6382
    @anakinsandwalker6382 Před 4 lety +935

    2:14 oh skit, didn’t know that

  • @mumblernumber7213
    @mumblernumber7213 Před 7 lety +675

    Well, when two languages love each other very much...

    • @dainn066
      @dainn066 Před 4 lety +52

      They make a new language

    • @L0RDK3Y
      @L0RDK3Y Před 3 lety +19

      And the process can take time...

    • @theodorepatel514
      @theodorepatel514 Před 3 lety +3

      @@dainn066 culture appropriations

    • @bykegetter478
      @bykegetter478 Před 2 lety +6

      @@theodorepatel514 ??????

    • @theodorepatel514
      @theodorepatel514 Před 2 lety

      @@bykegetter478 as woke man i am offended that we have taken other people's slang and other people's words to make a language and then call it ours.

  • @kangaroo4847
    @kangaroo4847 Před 3 lety +883

    God: ok England, who do you want your language to be influenced by?
    England: yes

  • @willnash7907
    @willnash7907 Před rokem +109

    I love English so much. You can just feel the texture of so many different languages in it. In its vocabulary, its phonetics, its styles...

    • @rammsteinrulz16
      @rammsteinrulz16 Před rokem +4

      Speaking it is so much fun.
      Reading it is nightmare 😂

    • @Rusty_Gold85
      @Rusty_Gold85 Před rokem +2

      But , wow, type it down in Twitter and the prose is taken entirely out of context

    • @Gh0st_0723
      @Gh0st_0723 Před 10 měsíci

      The problem is, your using Twitter bro.

    • @DameOfDiamonds
      @DameOfDiamonds Před 8 měsíci +1

      I love english because it's germanic, multicultralism is cringe!

    • @DameOfDiamonds
      @DameOfDiamonds Před 8 měsíci +1

      It's style and phonetics is germanic

  • @erikziak1249
    @erikziak1249 Před 8 lety +614

    I am a native Slovak speaker and also have been lucky in my life to learn German and English and speak both at a fairly good level. To me, both languages are so similar in many aspects (and both so different to Slavic languages) and when listening to Norwegian, I basically hear a mix of German and English.

    • @jean-louispirottin4144
      @jean-louispirottin4144 Před 3 lety +15

      Erik Žiak l'Anglais et l'Allemand basiques sont germaniques et donc similaires, mais au-delà de cette constatation, l'Anglais moderne tire aussi son vocabulaire du franco-normand ( la langue de Guillaume le Conquérant), du Français de Paris et du Latin . Comme le Français est une langue latine, plus de 50% du vocabulaire de l'Anglais est d'origine romane . Dans les domaines de la science , de l'économie, de la culture , l'Anglais et le
      Français sont très proches .

    • @nitinkataria6827
      @nitinkataria6827 Před 2 lety +2

      Damn right

    • @wren_.
      @wren_. Před rokem +8

      that’s the reason i started learning german, it’s so similar to english that it’s easy and it makes me seem cooler because i can speak 2 languages

    • @irvingdelahoz9390
      @irvingdelahoz9390 Před rokem +4

      That's how I feel about Portuguese, it sounds so much like spanish so I can somewhat understand but then it gets completely different lol

    • @harrymon0
      @harrymon0 Před 3 měsíci

      @@jean-louispirottin4144 I know enough Spanish and just enough Latin to understand almost your entire comment.

  • @boy638
    @boy638 Před 8 lety +1080

    the origins and evolution of language into the hundreds if not thousands of languages we have now fascinates me

    • @icedragon769
      @icedragon769 Před 8 lety +4

      boy638 You imply that there were not thousands of languages in the past.

    • @boy638
      @boy638 Před 8 lety +40

      Then my bad for giving the wrong idea. I meant that it's fascinating how languages began and evolved into the languages we speak today.

    • @danrich92
      @danrich92 Před 8 lety +12

      +icedragon769 Well there definitely would've been fewer at some point, I mean at one time there had to have been zero languages

    • @icedragon769
      @icedragon769 Před 8 lety +5

      danrich92 This is true. However, the first languages are expected to have appeared 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. The farthest into the past we can look as far as languages go is about 8000 years, give or take. It is impossible to know anything about a "first language".
      That said, my main criticism was to point out that, there are FEWER languages today than there were at the time of Proto-Indo-European, not more. It just so happens that this one group of people spread into areas familiar to Westerners so we know its descendants by name.

    • @khasab6124
      @khasab6124 Před 7 lety +2

      nonesense

  • @Fenditokesdialect
    @Fenditokesdialect Před 3 lety +402

    Romance and French loanwords used in this one video:
    Single: from Old French "sengle" (no modern equivalent)
    Language: from Old French "language" (modern langage).
    Dialect: from Middle French "dialecte" (modern "dialecte") from Ancient Greek.
    Dozen: from Old French "dozaine" (modern "douzaine).
    Country: from Old French "contré" (modern "contrée").
    Around: from Anglo-Norman "röunt" (modern "rond").
    Common: from Anglo-Norman "comun" (modern "commun")
    Relate: from Latin "relātus" (no modern French equivalent other than derivatives such as "relation".
    Strange: from Old French "estrange" (modern étrange).
    Evolve: from Latin "ēvolvō" (Modern French "évoluer").
    Generation: from Anglo-Norman "generacioun" (modern "génération).
    Major: from Latin "maior" (Modern French "majeur").
    Change: from Old French "changier" (modern "changer") from Celtic.
    Trace: from Old French "trasser" (modern "tracer".
    Present: from Old French "present" (modern "présent").
    Ancient: from Old French "ancien" (modern French "ancien").
    Modern: from Middle French "moderne" (modern "moderne").
    Similar: from Modern French "similaire".
    Derive: from Old French "deriver" (modern "dériver").
    Originally: from Old French "origine" (modern "origine").
    Part: from Old French "part" (modern "part").
    Invasion: from Middle French "invasion" (modern "invasion").
    Conquer: from Old French "cunquere" (modern "conquérir").
    Rule: from Old French "riuler" (modern French "régler" however it's a demominalisation of "règle" which is straight borrowed from Latin).
    Class: from Middle French "classe" (modern "classe").
    Add: from Latin "addō" (no modern French equivalent though there is a partial cognate in Spanish "añadir" and Galician "engadir").
    Massive: from Middle French "massif" (modern "massif") from Greek.
    Amount: from Old French "amonter" (modern French hasn't got a verbal equivalent but does have "amont").
    Vocabulary: from Modern French "vocabulaire".
    Previously: from Latin "praevius" (no Modern French equivalent but there is Italian and Spanish "previo", Portuguese "prévio" and Catalan "previ").
    Probably: from Old French "probable" (modern "probable").
    Very: from Old French "verai" (modern "vrai").
    Familiar: from Latin "familiāris" (modern French "familier").
    Recognise and derivatives like Recognisable: from Old French "reconoistre" (modern French "reconnaître" and "reconnaissable".)
    Cause as in because: from Old French "cause" (modern "cause").
    Family: from Latin "familia" (modern French "famille").
    Isle: from Old French "ille" (modern "île").
    Century: from Old French "centurie" (obsolete modern French "centurie").
    Comparative: from Middle French "comparatif" (modern "comparatif").
    Linguistics: from German "Linguistik", from Latin "linguisticus" (modern French "linguistique").
    Focus: from Latin "focus" (modern French "focus" is from the English word but there's also the inherited "feu" alongside it as well the related "focaliser").
    Grammatical: from Middle French "grammatical" (modern "grammatical") from Ancient Greek.
    Structure: from Middle French "structure" (modern "structure").
    Pattern: from Old French "patron" (modern "patron").
    Sound: from Anglo-Norman "soun" (Modern French "son").
    Certain: from Old French "certain" (Modern "certain").
    Core: from Old French "cuer" (modern "cœur").
    Example: from Old French "essample" (modern French "exemple").
    Systematically: from Modern French "systématique" from Ancient Greek.
    Counterpart: from Old French "contrepartie" (modern "contrepartie").
    Develop: from Modern French "développer" from Germanic.
    Direct: from Latin "dīrectus" (Modern French "directe" and inherited "droit".
    Just: from Old French "juste" (modern "juste".
    Various: from Middle French "varieux" (no modern equivalent though related words like "varié", "varier" and "variation" do exist.)
    Descend : from Old French "descendre" (modern "descendre")
    Ancestor: from Old French "ancestre" (modern French "ancêtre").
    Historical: from Latin "historicus" (modern French "historique") from Ancient Greek.
    Reconstruct: from Latin "re- + constructus" (modern French "reconstruire".)
    Compare : from old French "comparer" (modern "comparer".)
    Possible: from old French "possible" (modern "possible").
    Consistency: from Middle French "consistance" (modern French "consistance").
    Use: from Old French "user" (modern French "user").
    Process: from Old French "procés" (modern "procès).
    Include: from Latin "inclūdere" (modern French "inclure").
    Large: from Old French "large"(modern "large").
    Require: from old French "requere" (modern "requérir").
    "Correspondence": from Middle French "correspondance" (modern French "correspondance").
    Different: from Old French "diferent" (modern différent").
    Branch: from Old French "branche" (modern "branche").
    Distant: from old French "distant" (modern "distant").
    Displace: from Old French "desplacer" (modern "déplacer").
    Unfortunately: root is from Latin "fortunatus" (no Modern French counterpart but related words like "fortune" do exist.)
    Allow: from Anglo-French "alouer" (modern "allouer").
    Mystery: from Anglo-Norman "misterie" (modern French "mystère").
    Remain: from Old French "remanoir" (no modern French equivalents).
    Nature: from old French "nature" (modern French "nature").
    Prior: from Latin "prior" (modern French "prieur").
    Fact: from Latin "factum" (Modern French "fait".)
    Million: from Middle French "million" (modern French "million").
    People: from Anglo-Norman "people" (modern French "peuple").

    • @MaestroSangurasu
      @MaestroSangurasu Před 3 lety +22

      I am french I did know that some words came from old french
      for example : Dozen....

    • @footballsfirst1
      @footballsfirst1 Před 2 lety +19

      "Mystery" comes from the Greek "mysterion"

    • @woodhonky3890
      @woodhonky3890 Před 2 lety +13

      wow that took a minite

    • @ianlesterflor5111
      @ianlesterflor5111 Před 2 lety +23

      Wow... you are DEDICATED

    • @gonzoii148
      @gonzoii148 Před 2 lety +4

      There are indeed French related words for :
      Single : "singulier" (which means "different from others" or "strange")
      Relate : the verb "relater", which means to report, to recount)
      Add : the verb "additionner" which means...to add, and the related noun "addition"
      Amount : transformed in "montant" in modern French (same root obviously)
      Previously : the verb "prévoir", which means to foresee or to plan (a clear shift in the meaning compared to English)
      Unfortunately : the word "infortuné"' is still used, meaning "unlucky" (strangely enough, "fortuné" is not the contrary, as it now means "wealthy")
      Remain : "rémanent", which means "persistent"

  • @yiumyoumsan6997
    @yiumyoumsan6997 Před 4 lety +174

    2:05 wow, is that the reason why German's word for apple is 'Apfel'?

    • @hthunem
      @hthunem Před 4 lety +99

      No, it's the reason why the English word for apfel is 'Apple' :-)

    • @morgiewthelord8648
      @morgiewthelord8648 Před 3 lety +9

      Both kind of right i guess

    • @morgiewthelord8648
      @morgiewthelord8648 Před 3 lety +1

      Yes catastrobia you are more correct

    • @aramisortsbottcher8201
      @aramisortsbottcher8201 Před 3 lety +7

      In some dialects it still is "Appel".
      Also pepper - Pfeffer (but many say Feffer without p nowadays.)
      Ship - Schiff
      (But there is a verb "schippern" wich means moving around with a ship)
      Grip - Griff
      But there are few the other way around:
      Engl staff - germ Stab

    • @lissandrafreljord7913
      @lissandrafreljord7913 Před 3 lety +9

      @@aramisortsbottcher8201 You could see it in some last names too.
      Pfeiffer = Piper
      Fischer = Fisher
      Schmidt = Smith
      Müller = Miller
      Becker = Baker
      Braun = Brown

  • @78beast
    @78beast Před 5 lety +2712

    "In this country we speak American!"
    It cracks me up every time they say it.

    • @RedbadvanRijn-ft3vv
      @RedbadvanRijn-ft3vv Před 4 lety +1

      Wel its go from hindi to Germanic.
      The found 4 new DNA signs,from unknown humans.

    • @nofatchxplzthx
      @nofatchxplzthx Před 4 lety +132

      american = american english

    • @tesstickle7267
      @tesstickle7267 Před 4 lety +193

      @@nofatchxplzthx there is only English and incorrect English. Just like when someone says British English, it's false.

    • @Tikii_9
      @Tikii_9 Před 4 lety +196

      tj o• Your actually wrong, American-English is correct, it’s English still, but the American dialect.

    • @tejerojoshua2344
      @tejerojoshua2344 Před 4 lety +48

      america doesnt have officially language?

  • @laurab247
    @laurab247 Před 7 lety +2080

    There is a German dialect spoken mainly in the north of Germany called "Plattdeutsch" or "Plattdüütsch" that really sounds like English. For example:
    English: "Now it's too late"
    Normal German ("Deutsch" or "Hochdeutsch"): "Jetzt ist es zu spät"
    Plattdeutsch: "Nu is to laat"
    I've always wondered and why but now it makes a lot more sense.
    Edit: Yes, I do realize that Plattdeutsch is closer to Dutch than to English, I live pretty close to the Dutch border and when we're in the Netherlands we can get around just fine with our Plattdeutsch, even if we don't actually speak Dutch. We might not understand everything, but it's really similar. (In fact, we recently went to the zoo here in Germany, but there's a lot of Dutch visitors there as well because it's so close to the border. We came across a little 4 year old Dutch boy who had lost sight of his parents and could actually figure out his and his parents' names by speaking Plattdeutsch with him so we knew who we had to look for. Luckily his parents were also frantically looking for him and we found them within a few minutes.)

    • @kuyaleinad4195
      @kuyaleinad4195 Před 7 lety +92

      Laura B The Angles came from Northern Germany/Southern Denmark. So that might be why XD

    • @artem_na_ty
      @artem_na_ty Před 5 lety +28

      Auf Deutsch kann man auch nun sagen

    • @god5620
      @god5620 Před 5 lety +72

      it sounds more like dutch

    • @Bjowolf2
      @Bjowolf2 Před 5 lety +20

      Check out BBC's great series
      "The Adventure of English" here on CZcams - 8 episodes á 50 mins. ( especially episodes 1 & 2 in this context ).
      And also Langfocus' excellent video "The Viking Influence on the Language".
      And the hilarious "Verner's Law" for a humouristic, yet serious look at these deep links between our languages 😁

    • @Bjowolf2
      @Bjowolf2 Před 5 lety +15

      @Anglo-Celtic Mega Nationalist
      Because it's basically descended from the Northumbrian dialect of Middle English.
      But apart from that - and apart from all the other variants of English and creole Englishes spoken around the world... 😎

  • @liposify
    @liposify Před 4 lety +262

    From the perspective of a language learner, English just looks like a mix of French and German with a bit of sophisticated Greek terms and with "mutually exclusive" pronunciation and spelling :P

    • @williamscoro8147
      @williamscoro8147 Před 2 lety +1

      @Martin Cregan you're kinda right, but the germans didn't borrow from franks, remember the Franks were a GERMANIC tribe who influenced French a lot alongside the Gauls. So I'd say it was the other way around.

    • @VDchacon
      @VDchacon Před 2 lety +1

      Latin is under the proto indo European umbrella. I'm annoyed ot wasn't explicitly explained and the there is debate as to where the language actually originated.

    • @amynazza
      @amynazza Před 2 lety +2

      Think of English as a germanic language that uses latin verbs and nouns. This is why English can split an infinitive, yet French cannot.

    • @jayc1139
      @jayc1139 Před 2 lety +3

      @@amynazza I don't think English uses Latin verbs...it uses mainly Germanic verbs with some French in there.

    • @fabrizio.guidi64
      @fabrizio.guidi64 Před 8 měsíci +1

      58 percent of English words derive directly or indirectly from Latin

  • @mariammsayeed
    @mariammsayeed Před 3 lety +18

    OMG!!! The voice cover is just mesmerising ✨🖤

  • @veranet99
    @veranet99 Před 8 lety +271

    Really liked the animation.

    • @glossygloss472
      @glossygloss472 Před 4 lety +5

      EatPlums Cry about it b*tch.

    • @lumrrr
      @lumrrr Před 4 lety +1

      @EatPlums you sound like you're fun at parties

    • @zeltzamer4010
      @zeltzamer4010 Před 4 lety

      ​@EatPlums You are a middle-schooler.

  • @krisrp0
    @krisrp0 Před 8 lety +1918

    Wait- does that mean "shirt" and "skirt" are essentially the same word?!

    • @ThomasTheDankEngine1
      @ThomasTheDankEngine1 Před 8 lety +146

      That I was thinking and I guess so

    • @ThomasTheDankEngine1
      @ThomasTheDankEngine1 Před 8 lety +40

      It depends I'm pretty sure it really isn't but I guess it matters where it's origin/nationality came from

    • @GuiiBrazil
      @GuiiBrazil Před 8 lety +37

      Nice catch, bro!

    • @fredmiller1347
      @fredmiller1347 Před 8 lety +141

      yup. English borrowed "skirt" which became "shirt". Then English borrowed "skirt" again...hmm? borrowed? or STOLE?!

    • @BeeGeenie
      @BeeGeenie Před 8 lety +68

      Xopher000 Yes, exactly! and the meaning changed the same way that "pants" means underwear in England and jeans in America.

  • @znsaidi
    @znsaidi Před 4 lety +146

    I didn't know that English has so many origins. I knew it has a lot of Latin (especially French) and German backgrounds but not as many as listed in the video. Good to know.

    • @haltdieklappe7972
      @haltdieklappe7972 Před 2 lety +13

      Modern English people are primarily descended from Anglo Saxons. Anglo Saxons were primarily from Denmark as well as Lower Saxony and Schleswig Holstein in germany. So basically, English people are just germans and Danes lol

    • @Bjowolf2
      @Bjowolf2 Před 2 lety +11

      Germanic, not German!
      German is just one of the languages that belong to this large language family - German is only a remote cousin of English, and this took place centuried before an Old (High) German even existed.

    • @frankklein4872
      @frankklein4872 Před 2 lety +10

      Not German. Germany only existed since 19th century. English and Danish are Germanic languages

    • @dumigamez397
      @dumigamez397 Před 2 lety

      @@frankklein4872 ?

    • @user-ir1lu1ei4n
      @user-ir1lu1ei4n Před rokem

      @@haltdieklappe7972 Germanic not Germany

  • @robertoblatt8579
    @robertoblatt8579 Před rokem

    A very comprehensive explanation. Concise at the same time.

  • @mukhammadzokhirodilov5064
    @mukhammadzokhirodilov5064 Před 4 lety +229

    It’s very informative video. I learned that many languages ​​are interconnected and create a certain chain. I think the more languages ​​you know, the wider you see the world around you.

    • @ayobithedark2772
      @ayobithedark2772 Před rokem

      Definitely true, my native tongue is German, but I also fluently speak English and Spanish, so I can generally connect to most people around me

  • @zephyros3039
    @zephyros3039 Před 7 lety +916

    German is a big brother of English! I can speak them both. (I’m from Russia 🇷🇺) Examples: I can help you - Ich kann dir helfen. She is my friend - Sie ist mein freund. You must be here - Du musst hier sein. Good morning - Guten morgen. Hello - Hallo. This is blue - Das ist blau. Go and wash your hands - Geh und wasch deine hande. Water flows under the bridge - Wasser fliess unter der brucke. I have made it - Ich habe es gemacht. Bring me the book - Bring mir das buch. We drink tea in the morning - Wir trinken tee am morgen. My finger is broken - Mein finger ist gebrochen. I hate the wind. - Ich hasse der wind. Can you fly? - Kannst du fliegen? The grass is green - Das gras ist grun.

    • @TheMichaelK
      @TheMichaelK Před 7 lety +88

      There is also Low German, which is the successor of Old Saxon, and it's even closer than High German:
      I can help you - Ik kann di helpen / Ik kann ju helpen
      She is my friend - Se is min fründ
      Water flows under the bridge - Water flaut unner de Brüch
      We drink tea in the morning - Wi drinkt tee an'n morgen
      My finger is broken - Mien finger is broken
      I hate the wind - Ik haat den wind

    • @caivsklei4274
      @caivsklei4274 Před 7 lety +28

      +Michael Köther
      Old saxon is just a Dutch dialect.
      I can help you - ik kan je helpen
      She is my friend - ze is mijn vriend

    • @TheMichaelK
      @TheMichaelK Před 7 lety +16

      +Caius Klein
      Now that was a good joke :-). Give me one serious source that states that.
      Low Saxon and Dutch have a lot in common (same for Old Saxon and Old Low Franconian aka Old Dutch), but also distinctive features.
      Ik wünsch di en goden dag ;-).

    • @caivsklei4274
      @caivsklei4274 Před 7 lety +14

      +Michael Köther
      well, only half joking.
      Old saxon is older than high german, which sort of is an "constructed" language.
      Both Dutch and old saxon stayed more true to their germanic roots, hence why they are almost the same.
      I would even argue that because of that they are both closer connected to English, because old English looks more like Dutch than it does to German.
      High german had a Consonant shift thats why. Just google it.
      Ik wens u ook een goede dag ;)

    • @IchHassePasswoerter
      @IchHassePasswoerter Před 6 lety +3

      Naja, passt schon, wenn es Schweizer Standarddeutsch ist, vom Fallfehler mal abgesehen. Das beta-förming Ding ist übrigens noch ein Überbleibsel aus dem gothischen Alphabet. Wenn man die alte Schrift benutzt, sieht es aus wie ein Mix aus s und z, was ich ganz amüsant finde.

  • @patriciaschuster1371
    @patriciaschuster1371 Před 2 lety

    Thank you for making this accessible to us. I loved them.

  • @cheliae8560
    @cheliae8560 Před 2 lety +3

    Brilliantly and effectively narrated and illustrated 👏👏👏

  • @lovecomesfirst888
    @lovecomesfirst888 Před 5 lety +233

    thank you SO MUCH for this channel i can FEEL myself getting smarter

    • @sevengrapes1257
      @sevengrapes1257 Před 3 lety +10

      You`re so right. More's the pity that after watching some videos, one actually feels dumber.

    • @mateo_ferranco
      @mateo_ferranco Před 3 lety +1

      same

  • @CheckeredFuture
    @CheckeredFuture Před 8 lety +96

    I wish this video had been geared toward teaching about the origins of the English language. Instead it seems to have been geared toward sharing tidbits.

    • @theprinceofdarkness4679
      @theprinceofdarkness4679 Před 8 lety +7

      ***** Unfortunately, most of the best information on the subject is hidden in books. Of course, who reads books anymore. There are a few of us ancients who have lived over 500 years who still read them. But now everyone gets their information from videos. TED has a few good things but it is always the lite version and little substance.
      Oops! I might have exagerated a few things.

    • @woodfur00
      @woodfur00 Před 8 lety +4

      All right. Why don't you share what you think the video _should_ have said, so we can all learn it?

    • @BaalBuster
      @BaalBuster Před 8 lety +12

      ***** you should ask for your money back.

    • @CheckeredFuture
      @CheckeredFuture Před 8 lety +4

      Baal Buster - Ha! TED already sent me a gift basket, so we're good now.

    • @CheckeredFuture
      @CheckeredFuture Před 8 lety +5

      TheStrawhatmenace - I'm sorry you feel that way. Let's have a meal together if you're ever in San Diego.

  • @snehasisjena8714
    @snehasisjena8714 Před 4 lety +43

    Irrespective of its roots, the beautiful language called English, indeed plays a vital role in the modern world communication and is undoubtedly one of the most expressive languages used till date.

    • @Lumberjack_king
      @Lumberjack_king Před 2 lety +6

      I wouldn't call it beautiful

    • @uzaidgurjee4798
      @uzaidgurjee4798 Před 2 lety +5

      @@Lumberjack_king maybe not you but there are many more who think it is.

    • @Lumberjack_king
      @Lumberjack_king Před 2 lety +2

      @@uzaidgurjee4798 ok I just think it has more flaws than most languages but I got to give it praise for having a "th" sound most languages dont

    • @comdrive3865
      @comdrive3865 Před rokem

      @@Lumberjack_king is german a better language to learn than english?

    • @Lumberjack_king
      @Lumberjack_king Před rokem

      @@comdrive3865 I mean Idk they are related English used to be more similar to German then eventually became it's own language there's no way to say which is "better" though German is probably significantly easier to learn as a second language

  • @rogersledz6793
    @rogersledz6793 Před 2 lety

    Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

  • @niory
    @niory Před 8 lety +20

    This was so enlightening ! I did look into the roots of English language about 3 years ago but wasnt able to understand it this clearly untill now !
    you are amazing ted-ed

  • @kateaustin3557
    @kateaustin3557 Před 5 lety +9

    Thank you for posting! This is a great video, and I really appreciate the link to the lesson plan!

  • @christianigop
    @christianigop Před 7 měsíci +1

    I was brought up in Philippines and was always amazed at the change in accent between cities and towns only short distances apart almost if you had immigrated

  • @edwinmerks2567
    @edwinmerks2567 Před 2 lety +5

    Years ago I read some pages of a book written in medieval English, I was surprised that without my knowledge of Dutch it would not have been possible to understand the text. : )

  • @KnuxTube
    @KnuxTube Před 8 lety +117

    I'm just happy you said Western Asia instead of the Middle East.

    • @SuviTuuliAllan
      @SuviTuuliAllan Před 8 lety

      IKR!

    • @waldo8040
      @waldo8040 Před 8 lety +66

      SilverAbsol They didn't say that because they were talking about Iran and India. Middle eastern languages like Arabic and Hebru belong to the Semitic not the Indo European family.

    • @KnuxTube
      @KnuxTube Před 8 lety +1

      wyl Kan Then he would've said Iran and South Asia. Yes, Arabic is Semitic.

    • @waldo8040
      @waldo8040 Před 8 lety +10

      SilverAbsol South Asia is too broad of a region. It includes Thailand, Indonesia and the Phillipines which have their own Liguistic family.

    • @KnuxTube
      @KnuxTube Před 8 lety

      wyl Kan You ruined it for me. ;-;
      But then again, when they said Western Asia maybe they only meant Iran but that doesn't mean they don't consider the rest of the Asian Arab countries as Western Asia. Doesn't make sense for a region to contain one country.

  • @dontwatchtheworldburn3673
    @dontwatchtheworldburn3673 Před 8 lety +20

    That last statement made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  • @user-mw2jf3ze7u
    @user-mw2jf3ze7u Před 3 měsíci +1

    Thank you brilliantly and effectively narrated and illustrated

  • @scottkraft1062
    @scottkraft1062 Před 4 lety

    So grateful I found this channel

  • @nolanfontaine7973
    @nolanfontaine7973 Před 4 lety +10

    Shout out to the animation team! Brilliant work as always.

  • @debradraper3441
    @debradraper3441 Před 4 lety +67

    I read Beowulf in 8th grade! It was amazing to me! Always interested in foreign languages since I was four, I ended up taking almost 1 year of Latin then a little French. After that 1 year of Spanish then two years of German. Twelve years later I moved to Germany (military). It was so easy for me to speak and read. I also speak a lot of SpA

    • @debradraper3441
      @debradraper3441 Před 4 lety +7

      Spanish, it is so easy for me! It’s been almost 35 years since I was in Germany but I can still speak it!

    • @hamdepaf6686
      @hamdepaf6686 Před rokem +1

      Dann lass ich grüßen und komm doch mal zu Besuch ;)

  • @user-lz3om9qc2u
    @user-lz3om9qc2u Před 3 lety +34

    i am currently learning greek and i found so many words with greek origion. such including, passion, hipopotomas, metropolitin, bible, kinetic and many more. i feel like greek influence was not talked enough about in this video

  • @jeanneblondewomanstamping9788

    Animation in this is WONDERFUL. 👏👏👏😎

  • @LaserMonkey
    @LaserMonkey Před 4 lety +5

    It has been my dream to be able to speak and understand every language in the world! I love learning how language evolved to form the languages spoken today

  • @houston.n4713
    @houston.n4713 Před 5 lety +170

    *me sitting in my room eating noodles just thinking about life* "Man I wonder how they made engish"

  • @vinnala-gk8jx9sq7q
    @vinnala-gk8jx9sq7q Před 9 měsíci +1

    Even if it is obvious, but, yeah, it is exciting, how these two languages are really connected between themselves. When I tried to learn German about 5 years ago, I realized, how many similar words there are in these languages. During that period I was so confused and mixed two languages in one.

  • @jjong0106
    @jjong0106 Před 2 lety +75

    It feels new to know about this because I speak Korean🇰🇷. Korean was invented by a king in the 15th century, so the alphabets are very distinct from English, and also from Japanese or Chinese. The grammars are also very different. I always feel that Kind Sejong was such a incredible king when I see things like this, explaining the origins of English and the connection between various languages or so. Just think about it; inventing a language!!

    • @meepulp
      @meepulp Před 2 lety +40

      Pretty sure he just invented the writing system not language

    • @shambhavidwivedi1707
      @shambhavidwivedi1707 Před 2 lety +5

      @@meepulp true.... this could just just be a myth created as a backing to the language... it's a legitimisation tactic that has been long prevalent in histories of the world

    • @user-ww9hp9fo5n
      @user-ww9hp9fo5n Před rokem +11

      @@meepulp Yes Im korean and what sejong created was not a language but an alphabet lol
      I think he misunderstood

    • @user-ww9hp9fo5n
      @user-ww9hp9fo5n Před rokem +2

      @@shambhavidwivedi1707 The korean language existed thousands of years ago No one in this world created a language😂
      But it is true that he created the korean alphabet

    • @simonkim8646
      @simonkim8646 Před rokem +2

      ​@@user-ww9hp9fo5nI mean, Tolkien made his own language for his books. It hasn't seen widespread use but many people made their own languages for various reasons.

  • @kittypine42
    @kittypine42 Před 8 lety +546

    Sko in Swedish = shoe in English this just popped into my head when he said k became sh

    • @panator
      @panator Před 8 lety +24

      Skit och shit är rätt obvious också lol

    • @heine1717
      @heine1717 Před 8 lety +11

      Hvorfor nevnte han ikke norsk? 😕

    • @tamar597
      @tamar597 Před 7 lety +31

      Add schoen, Dutch for shoe, and you can see how closely we are related :)

    • @pphyjynx8217
      @pphyjynx8217 Před 7 lety +3

      yeah but you need to be careful with german some of their words are stolen from english, which is bizarre. These words normally look the exact same as the english word, like Schwimmen and Auto

    • @emielverbeeren8181
      @emielverbeeren8181 Před 7 lety +15

      Isn't Auto from the Greek language?

  • @marcellabutay1090
    @marcellabutay1090 Před 5 lety +28

    Amazing art, music, and story! I loved this.

  • @HOLYLIFEIFY
    @HOLYLIFEIFY Před 3 lety

    From Airwolf to Bewolf from Bewolf to Airwolf has been my from the completing of my 5th semester of college where I received my first A on the semester in one of my psychology classes. Terrill TC!

  • @user-sy4ec3em5o
    @user-sy4ec3em5o Před 2 lety

    I love the evolution of language... it is highly fascinating

  • @SuperGirlLucy
    @SuperGirlLucy Před 7 lety +76

    i'm gonna study languages in college and this not only gave me chills, but got teary eyed...

    • @msmansilla
      @msmansilla Před 7 lety +4

      affect

    • @quantumquestthebillionaire1527
      @quantumquestthebillionaire1527 Před 6 lety +2

      really you need too get out more my dear ..

    • @lepredator189
      @lepredator189 Před 6 lety +1

      Lucy Sevi if you get teary eyed about linguistic phenomena such as this, then you've probably found your calling. Seriously. Now call this sexist or what not, I don't know why but women also tend to just love learning linguistics, I've found.

  • @heidipolizotto935
    @heidipolizotto935 Před 6 lety +8

    This will be great as I try to show how and why words are related to my French and German students! Thank you!

  • @mganguly7
    @mganguly7 Před 3 lety

    Thank you so much for this video..

  • @user-jh8be9sh6u
    @user-jh8be9sh6u Před 2 lety +3

    russian and english:
    wolf-волк(volk)
    night-ночь(noch)
    son-сын(syn)
    daughter-дочь(doch)
    dream-дрёма(dryoma)
    water-вода(voda)
    milk-молоко(moloko)
    gold-золото(zoloto) (g>z)
    track-дорога(doroga)
    tree-дерево(derevo)
    nose-нос(nos)
    day-день(den')
    cold-холод(holod)
    new-нов(nov)
    deal-дело (delo)
    angle-угол (ugol) (an>u)
    Cheak-щека (scheka)
    Eyebrow-бровь (brov')
    (to) Be-бы(ть) (by(t'))
    (to) Sit-сид(еть) (sid(et'))
    etc

  • @alexcursaru1498
    @alexcursaru1498 Před 7 lety +309

    Interestingly, Hungarian, Finnish, and Euscara (Basque) are the only languages in Europe without Indo-European roots.

    • @jimmyryan5880
      @jimmyryan5880 Před 7 lety +82

      estonian

    • @cicero1178
      @cicero1178 Před 7 lety +26

      Alex Cursaru There's also Turkic minorities in Ukraine and the balkans area such as Bulgaria

    • @horianeculcea3924
      @horianeculcea3924 Před 7 lety +11

      Baskue and Albanian are another two non-indo-european languages.

    • @cicero1178
      @cicero1178 Před 7 lety +24

      Horia Neculcea Only Basque is non-indo-european.

    • @titititirca3109
      @titititirca3109 Před 6 lety +19

      +Cicero
      Actually finno-ugric languages are not considered to be a part of the indo-european languages.
      +Horia Neculcea
      Albanian is an indo-european language.

  • @stilo398
    @stilo398 Před 8 lety +36

    English has absorbed a lot from other languages, but this hasn't changed its basic Germanic structure. Where German uses compound words, and double and triple, English developed from French vocabulary another way of expression. In 1066, French culture was imported to the merry isle as was my name, Geoffrey, a name most Americans can't even pronounce.

    • @PlannedObsolescence
      @PlannedObsolescence Před 2 lety +8

      The same way you’d pronounce Jeffrey.

    • @PlannedObsolescence
      @PlannedObsolescence Před 2 lety

      Why do people always mention Americans in comments sections of videos that have nothing to do with Americans. It really makes me want to punch holes through their faces.

    • @user-ir1lu1ei4n
      @user-ir1lu1ei4n Před rokem +3

      Germanic not German

  • @ishratjahan8627
    @ishratjahan8627 Před rokem

    This vedio was sooo helpful for me.
    Thanks a lot. ❤️❤️

  • @CrimsonRaven51
    @CrimsonRaven51 Před 3 lety

    Excellent presentation! 👍👍

  • @Aragorn.Strider
    @Aragorn.Strider Před 8 lety +194

    The Frisian language is not even mentioned once. And it might be one of the most important ones.

    • @juancariasr7932
      @juancariasr7932 Před 8 lety +17

      +Aragorn Strider I wouldn't say important, but definitely interesting

    • @daveh3997
      @daveh3997 Před 8 lety +39

      +Aragorn Strider Frisian vocabulary and pronunciation is so close that modern speakers can understand Old English. Frisian is more of a survival than an ancestor of OE.

    • @Aragorn.Strider
      @Aragorn.Strider Před 8 lety

      +David H That does not compute!

    • @daveh3997
      @daveh3997 Před 8 lety +4

      How so? Explain, please

    • @NymeriaMeliae
      @NymeriaMeliae Před 8 lety +7

      Geordie, Northumbrian, and Scots are the closest English dialects to Old English. Geordie and Frisian share a lot of vocabulary and pronunciation... while Scots is derived from Northumbrian Anglish when most of the Scottish lowlands were under Northumbrian rule after Rheged and Northumberland united through marriage. When Eddie Izzard went to buy a broon coo from a Frisian farmer, the only word I did not understand from Frisian was the word for shed.

  • @angbaongoc6055
    @angbaongoc6055 Před 6 lety +6

    I love Ted so mush :))) thanks to these lessons, I can develop my self for the better :))))

  • @barnalighosal5567
    @barnalighosal5567 Před 8 měsíci +2

    Learning English is important

  • @catmomjewett
    @catmomjewett Před 2 lety

    Wow. Great info. Great graphics. I want the book.

  • @jose_rico_ramos
    @jose_rico_ramos Před 6 lety +5

    It is so awesome how languages are created, how they merge with each other and evolve

  • @elliotlemon8402
    @elliotlemon8402 Před 7 lety +63

    I shall= jag ska. Shoot= skott. Shoe= sko.
    (English to swedish).
    Hadnt thought about this. Though its pretty cool when you actually notice those little things that makes them unique.

    • @herrfriberger5
      @herrfriberger5 Před 7 lety +14

      You could also write "jag skall" (a tad old or formal), making it even closer.

    • @Grunk111
      @Grunk111 Před 7 lety

      "Shoot" should be "Skjut" "Skott" is more... well it's a pronoun, you could translate it to "Bullet" but it's not really that precise, it means more something that can be fired, like if we use it in a sentence "Jag hör skott" "I hear shots" like the sound of gunfire, but you could also say "jag har slut på skott" which would mean "I'm out of shots". In this case meaning some kind of ammunition. Before the era of gunpowder I'm not really sure what the meaning of the word would be, but the word is used in some other contexts as well, like in "skottkärra" meaning "wheelbarrow", "skottår" "leap year" or "skotta" "shoveling" Considering these words it probably has to do with moving stuff around.
      "Skjuta" is a verb that means "shoot" f.ex. "jag skjuter med geväret" "I'm shooting with the rifle" or "Jag blev skjuten" "I got shot". But can be used in other contexts as well like f.ex. "Jag skjuter på bilen" "I'm pushing the car (onwards)" here we see the same pattern, the probably older meaning of pushing something onwards, moving something ina foreward motion.
      This comment became a lot longer than my original intent, oh well.

    • @BlissAden
      @BlissAden Před 7 lety +1

      elliot lemon more over shit would then be skit

    • @scarletdebrix7348
      @scarletdebrix7348 Před 6 lety +1

      Hyddan92 skott/shoot funkar om du tänker växter istället, tex ärtskott/pea shoot 👍

    • @pj-fg8vq
      @pj-fg8vq Před 6 lety

      Sandwich= sandewich
      Paradise=pardis
      Maman=mother
      Bat= batum
      In Persian

  • @serge2ndsiberian652
    @serge2ndsiberian652 Před 3 lety +2

    Очень наглядно демонстрирует в виде мультфильма. И комментарии в основном по делу и содержательные.
    А это редкость, значит, ролик выдающийся.

  • @drincocaj2971
    @drincocaj2971 Před 3 lety

    I would really love and appreciate if TED-Ed would make a similar video about the Albanian language.

  • @mourgos1234
    @mourgos1234 Před 7 lety +73

    you forgot to menthion greek in the narration but you do have it in the thrubnail. some english proff has said that english is 60% latin and greek. examples: all words with -logy -graphy in are greek, words with "photo" in (means light in greek) like photograph, photosynthesis, photogenic, photolysis. word phone, come from the greek word φωνη which means voice, even the word "problem" is greek, consists of preposition προ and word βλήμα which comes from verb βαλλω which u can find in thosand words in greek language, some other verbs that contain it are: (καταβαλω,περιβαλω, επιβαλω, υπερβαλω, μεταβαλλω, υποβαλω, συμβαλω, διαβαλω)

    • @giokun100
      @giokun100 Před 7 lety +10

      Living in the Anglo-sphere for quite a few years, I can tell you that they are in some sort of denial when it comes to what they borrowed from the Greek language. I still can't spot the reasons for that.

    • @ojonugwaattah2666
      @ojonugwaattah2666 Před 7 lety

      the most current is Nigeria pigeon English

    • @louisxvii2137
      @louisxvii2137 Před 7 lety +2

      Take a guess why the rather universal, ever progressive, user friendly language called English is vague with its origins and oddly seems a whole lot more important then is understand.
      Is it english or engels or anh or английский or anglais or anglican or ingrisi or Bèarla or maybe is the original vulgar tongue of men. While french was used by the royals and governments, and 'latin' was used in catholicism and early church....
      English, Ingreece, englyfh, Encrypt
      It is the true language of Egypt, the language of Hieroglyphic.
      The Sphinx is the Ark... the noise ark and the ark of consonant. The Archer.
      The HEAD is hallow... ed be thy name. Tap into the third eye of sphinx and mimic the solar.

    • @user-vr2vf9ty2j
      @user-vr2vf9ty2j Před 6 lety +8

      7% of English is Greek, that's nothing compared to 26% each for French and Latin.

    • @valentinch484
      @valentinch484 Před 6 lety +6

      mourgos1234 They adopted those words threw French. But yeah, they mentioned latin, they should have mentioned greek too. French deriving from both of them

  • @deanna.radiant
    @deanna.radiant Před 8 lety +881

    No wonder why I sometimes feel like German sounds like English.

    • @walterwinn6507
      @walterwinn6507 Před 8 lety +4

      NJ no on on

    • @rogerb7729
      @rogerb7729 Před 8 lety +59

      Deanna Radiant Almost all languages have some words that sounds like English. I think German is more complicated that English, they call pen a "kugelschreiber"

    • @marcgyver677
      @marcgyver677 Před 8 lety +82

      Roger B 1. to pen (a letter) means to write; 2. to write = schreiben (in German); 3. ball = Kugel (in German); 4. ball pen = Kugelschreiber (in German); 5. Q.E.D.: It's exactly the same!

    • @rogerb7729
      @rogerb7729 Před 8 lety +10

      Marc Gyver For me, English is the third language and I have learned basics of the great German language. So I find it easy to say ball pen than Kugelschreiber. Yeah, kinda embarrassed.

    • @mikejandrews
      @mikejandrews Před 8 lety +52

      Roger B The thing with German, is that (it seems to me), when naming a thing, they shove a whole bunch of preexisting words together to create the new word. It's very logical, if not particularly creative.

  • @jazzflute2465
    @jazzflute2465 Před 3 lety +11

    I'm English and from Newcastle where we are called Geordies, the Geordie dialect is the only dialect remaining that is the closest to the old Anglo Saxon dialect that was spoken a thousand years ago.

    • @aramisortsbottcher8201
      @aramisortsbottcher8201 Před 3 lety

      Cuold you write an example please?

    • @jazzflute2465
      @jazzflute2465 Před 3 lety

      @@aramisortsbottcher8201 it's not really written certain words are, yhem means home it's the same in Norwegian as is Huss pronounced Hoose in Geordie, which is house.

    • @aramisortsbottcher8201
      @aramisortsbottcher8201 Před 3 lety

      @@jazzflute2465 in german home is "Heim" its like hi with an aditional m.

    • @jazzflute2465
      @jazzflute2465 Před 3 lety

      @@aramisortsbottcher8201 very similar the Saxon influence

    • @ANTSEMUT1
      @ANTSEMUT1 Před 3 lety

      @@jazzflute2465 Newcastle was also a viking outpost in England during the viking age, so there's another substratum of Norse influences to consider.

  • @edintheyugiohcollector6273
    @edintheyugiohcollector6273 Před 3 lety +37

    English now : hello my friend how are you today " future English prediction: hewo ma bruh how yoaht toda

    • @returdeez
      @returdeez Před 3 lety

      Ve nid to chang alfabet prunounciashun of Inglish to mak it isier to read
      Meaning: We nned to change alphabet pronounciqtion of English to make it easier to read
      My opinion :Hindi is easier to read

  • @1sunstyle
    @1sunstyle Před 5 lety +13

    Remake an expanded version of this video! Too interesting for 5 minutes.

  • @mooncactus404
    @mooncactus404 Před 5 lety +222

    It sucks that we have lost 80% of human history ..

    • @flutterwind7686
      @flutterwind7686 Před 3 lety +26

      True. But if you look at the bright side, human history is being made all around us right now!

    • @anyonegotasnickersbar
      @anyonegotasnickersbar Před 3 lety +19

      We haven’t lost it, It’s just hidden.

    • @innergod_8330
      @innergod_8330 Před 3 lety +6

      They didn’t lose it they jus not tellin us😂

    • @Artist_of_Imagination
      @Artist_of_Imagination Před 3 lety +8

      @@flutterwind7686 I want this level of positiveness in my life

    • @mohitchaudhary5560
      @mohitchaudhary5560 Před 2 lety +1

      History is 100% lost... We only have copies...

  • @sondossayed8994
    @sondossayed8994 Před 3 lety

    Oh my god its amazing 😻🙌
    I understand so much 👏❤
    I'm so interested to learn this in my department 😍🙌❤❤

  • @mmandeel7543
    @mmandeel7543 Před 4 lety

    I liked the Sk/Sh sound example, Is there any book that can teach me better to understand how english is formed and to improve my spelling?

  • @slothfromthegoonies8201
    @slothfromthegoonies8201 Před 8 lety +396

    Why do so many people emphasize linguistic "purity"? In my opinion, the diversity of English is a strength, not a weakness.

    • @jameelajameela66
      @jameelajameela66 Před 8 lety +5

      I totally agree! And its a natural shift too

    • @WAQWBrentwood
      @WAQWBrentwood Před 8 lety

      +1!

    • @yarmo28
      @yarmo28 Před 7 lety +12

      The problem with such diversity is best illustrated by this poem. Few native speakers of English can read it aloud without making errors in pronunciation. The reason, of course, is that many loan-words (foreign words) are not as know to the average English speaker.
      pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html

    • @yarmo28
      @yarmo28 Před 7 lety +4

      Another test of how difficult it is to borrow so much from other languages is this:
      German > English
      freundlich > friendly
      Freund > Friend
      Freundschaft > Friendship
      Freundlichkeit > Friendliness
      and now the opposite of the words listed above: you fill in the English words.
      feindlich >
      Feind > Foe (cognate to Fiend)
      Feindschaft >
      Feindlichkeit >
      hint: the opposites all are borrowed into English from French or Latin.

    • @slothfromthegoonies8201
      @slothfromthegoonies8201 Před 7 lety +4

      yarmo28 The issue isn't really with the fact that they were borrowed. The issue is that the men who codified those words were traditionalists who wanted to keep the original spellings, when they should have made the spellings phonetic.

  • @achraf9650
    @achraf9650 Před 4 lety +366

    The word "Alcohol" came from *ARABIC*
    Alcohol=الكحول
    Pronounced *alkuhul*

    • @djmuscovy7525
      @djmuscovy7525 Před 4 lety +50

      Many Arabic words start with al, al qaeda, algorithm. I guess al is sorta like the? So maybe alkuhul is al kuhul and kuhul means something?

    • @achraf9650
      @achraf9650 Před 4 lety +50

      @@djmuscovy7525
      Yeeeah u right, Al.. means The..
      "Al"cohol = "The" kuhul

    • @dhmkkk
      @dhmkkk Před 4 lety +7

      @@achraf9650 arabic is related to older language tho so its possible

    • @erickminto6778
      @erickminto6778 Před 4 lety +13

      ​@@djmuscovy7525 al-kuhul means something like: ''spirt eat body'', I am from Brazil and i don't know how I can translate that...is origem off the term: ''Ghoul'' too

    • @ali2538
      @ali2538 Před 3 lety +12

      Arabic is not an Indo-European language though. It belongs to Semitic group.

  • @e.falmawijemal663
    @e.falmawijemal663 Před 2 lety

    this is my first video, and it was so good, the video sketch is nice, amazing voice and not to forget it is my first video that made me subscribe

  • @NMalteC
    @NMalteC Před 5 měsíci +1

    This video leaves the impression that Swedish was a major influence on English. In fact, it was the Danes who predominately introduced Danelaw and many of the words used today.

  • @vaishnavinandhakumar2083
    @vaishnavinandhakumar2083 Před 2 lety +7

    This video has covered the whole of my 1st Yr of my UG in Literature in jzt 5 mins🙊🙊

  • @thaikieu4561
    @thaikieu4561 Před 4 lety +7

    Who was the first one translated in many of those language...? I wonder how all-time

  • @mrzsaszsaved2851
    @mrzsaszsaved2851 Před rokem

    This is such a cool video. I love etymology and language history…

  • @baherfyez7024
    @baherfyez7024 Před 3 lety +10

    2:18
    Sweden: skirt
    English: oh! you mean shirt

  • @prajjwalchaulagai998
    @prajjwalchaulagai998 Před 8 lety +14

    i wish one day i could see a video explaining the sanskrit language and its derivatives

    • @HD-dq9kr
      @HD-dq9kr Před 8 lety

      +prajjwal chaulagain Proto Indo European...

  • @samanthamisterka8529
    @samanthamisterka8529 Před 5 lety +9

    This is an incredible video and very factually accurate, but I want to add that one of these languages shifts is called "Grimm's Law." Named after it's discoverer Jacob Grimm, more popularly known as one of the two Grimm Brothers (yes, THOSE Grimm brothers) that gave us stories such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and The Snow Queen (aka Frozen.)*
    *They did not create these stories, but rather they wrote down a collection of tales from all across Europe that were passed down by word of mouth for thousands of years, and their book is the only reason why we still have them today.

  • @virucarvalho06
    @virucarvalho06 Před 3 lety

    Patrick Smith , hats off to you !!!!

  • @JustMe-xp6pl
    @JustMe-xp6pl Před 2 lety

    This helped a lot in school thx, even after 6 years woe

  • @spacepoland3819
    @spacepoland3819 Před 3 lety +3

    I like how in the thumbnail English was a part of making English
    This makes sense

  • @user-ci2lg1lw5b
    @user-ci2lg1lw5b Před 3 lety +3

    영어가 어디에서 왔는지 알아보는 시간이 되었습니다. 영어를 한개의 언어라고 생각을 했었는데 많은 언어의 조합이라는것을 알게되었습니다. 언어가 어디에서 왔는지 이런 근본적인 생각을 해보는것이 정말 재미있었습니다. 좋은 시간 감사합니다.

    • @achaemenid
      @achaemenid Před 3 lety

      저도 한국인인데 유익한 시간 가졌어요. ^^

  • @tomasesquivel2942
    @tomasesquivel2942 Před 2 lety

    That is the best sentence ending I’ve heard

  • @anactualalpaca7016
    @anactualalpaca7016 Před rokem

    I remember going on a trip to west Virginia when I was like 14, there was a kid there my age I hung out with who was raised there, and a lot of our conversations were him making fun (lightheartedly) of the way I spoke (I'm from upstate NY). Dialects are strong here in the US

  • @serriayisasia
    @serriayisasia Před 7 lety +71

    In Junior year if high school, I became my English teacher's favorite student because I could tell him why 1066 is important haha. I love history.

    • @kagenlim5271
      @kagenlim5271 Před 7 lety +2

      But 1066+710 years is also important in history

    • @TheSkyrimmaniac
      @TheSkyrimmaniac Před 7 lety +8

      1776 is not as important as 1066. 1066 is one of the most important years in history.

    • @serriayisasia
      @serriayisasia Před 7 lety +2

      kagen lim Not on a global scale really....

    • @kagenlim5271
      @kagenlim5271 Před 7 lety

      Depends on the time period I guess.If it's during the war of 1812,then not so much.But if its during the cold war,it is a very important year

    • @TheSkyrimmaniac
      @TheSkyrimmaniac Před 7 lety +13

      kagen lim Still, 1776 would not have happened if William did not conquer England. 1066 affected everything that happened after it.

  • @jamiegreenberg8476
    @jamiegreenberg8476 Před 4 lety +11

    im just wondering how languages change over time like creating something new requires a new word but how one word for one specific things changes but the object stays the same

    • @Kehwanna
      @Kehwanna Před 4 lety +1

      I imagine it had a lot to do with people migrating and trying to communicate with foreigners, where they had to form some means to communication. Humans developed a lot because of tool making, agriculture, language, trade, and eventually record keeping that formed alphabets. Throughout history we can see that people would integrate and influence foreign cultures and languages, such as how a lot of Spanish contains Arabic words or how religions or Rome, Mongolia, and Greece's expansion influenced languages. Writing and literature also develops language too, such as how Geoffrey Chaucer and Shakespeare changed English which eventually helped evolve into modern English.

    • @williamjordan5554
      @williamjordan5554 Před 4 lety +3

      Evolution. It's how rugby became American football, how the blues became rock music, and how fish became amphibians. Tiny changes over massive amounts of time.

    • @hydrolito
      @hydrolito Před 4 lety

      Walter Cronkite became so famous some foreign country used word Cronkite to mean a news anchor man.

    • @charlottedaly1003
      @charlottedaly1003 Před 4 lety

      The answer to this is multifaceted. Read The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher, it is a very content rich book and will definitely answer your question :)

    • @aramisortsbottcher8201
      @aramisortsbottcher8201 Před 3 lety +2

      People get lazy, they leave letters or words away, so the language is easier to speek, but also not as exact.

  • @amarocasado7040
    @amarocasado7040 Před 3 lety

    I am from Brazil and I am learnig this wonderful language!

  • @AA-le3xe
    @AA-le3xe Před 9 měsíci

    Do a segment on the origins of the Basque language.

  • @user-eg3rz1yx2s
    @user-eg3rz1yx2s Před 3 lety +4

    pour quelqu'un comme moi parlant le français en tant que langue native, on voit vraiment énormément de mots français ou d'origines française dans l'anglais quand on commence à un peu l'apprendre, on dit toujours que 1/3 de l'anglais vient du français, je me disais qu'il y avait de l'exagération mais en fait pas du tout

  • @jeremymonin8343
    @jeremymonin8343 Před 3 lety +5

    Like Clemenceau a french politician once said " England is nothing else than a former French colony that went bad "
    But unfortunately you should have learned how to make a good wine like us 😂
    Love you my English brothers from France

    • @andym9571
      @andym9571 Před 3 lety

      Think you will find we have learnt how to make pretty good wine now ! 😉

    • @andym9571
      @andym9571 Před 3 lety

      By the way, I live at the exact spot where the Norman's first landed ...Pevensey in Sussex

    • @jeremymonin8343
      @jeremymonin8343 Před 3 lety +1

      @@andym9571 oh perfect I should come to test it when there is no more lockdown!

    • @andym9571
      @andym9571 Před 3 lety

      @@jeremymonin8343 leave your sword at home next time !

  • @marwaferradji8054
    @marwaferradji8054 Před 2 lety

    wow that is so true well if she writes a book about it it would be amazing !

  • @langqin4602
    @langqin4602 Před 3 lety +8

    Ted Ed: This video is about English and the origin of it
    Me: This video is about history and the origin of it

  • @BlindGuitardian
    @BlindGuitardian Před 2 lety +3

    Short and interesting. Thanks for the video.
    Notice that quite a number of English words with the /oʊ/ diphthong have an equivalent in German with the /aɪ/ diphthong?
    English: home - German: Heim
    English: stone - German: Stein
    English: ghost - German: Geist
    English: holy - German: heilig
    English: token - German: Zeichen
    English: spoke (noun, the things that hold wheels together) - German: Speiche
    English: go - norhtern German / Plattdeutsch: geit
    Going one step further, many have a common ancestor with a long /a:/, such as "daham" (German: daheim = English: at home), which still can be heard in southern German and Austrian dialects today.
    #Bonus fact: I was wondering why the English word "horse" is "Pferd" in German. My research revealed that "horse" is a hyper correction of "hross" which corresponds with the archaic German word for "Pferd" = Ross.

  • @linusfondin464
    @linusfondin464 Před 7 lety +24

    You have so right about Sweden when you talked about: SK to SH like.
    SKA>SHOULD
    SKAKA>SHAKE
    ETC...

    • @linusfondin464
      @linusfondin464 Před 7 lety

      I'm from Sweden.... if you wonder.

    • @deamonic456820
      @deamonic456820 Před 7 lety +2

      Yeah, that was pretty obvious by you saying "you have so right" lmao.

    • @linusfondin464
      @linusfondin464 Před 7 lety +3

      My grammar is not the best, and I know that without you.

    • @madoffmoney2121
      @madoffmoney2121 Před 6 lety +1

      Frank Jensen\ The development of a language is an ongoing process and it doesn't take place in a vacuum. Swedish developed from old East Norse and as you said the starting point is often set to the 1200s.
      A starting date of a language is often quite arbitrary. In the case of Swedish, its starting point is often set to 1225 because that's when the first known/preserved document was written in Swedish using latin scrip. However, old Swedish of the 1300s has less in common with the modern Swedish language of today than with old East Norse of the 1100s.

  • @MohammedGAbid
    @MohammedGAbid Před rokem

    Valuable linguistic information
    🌹🌹

  • @davidtice4972
    @davidtice4972 Před 4 lety

    There is a book called Madrigal's Magic Keys to Spanish which is all based on English and Spanish words that are similar based on that 1066 Norman conquest of England.