Each European Language Explained in 1 Sentence

From Spanish to Welsh and Ukrainian, to Romanian, Portuguese and Swedish, the langauges of Europe are an astounding patchwork of humanity and a rich tapestry of history - each language with its own cultural make up. In this video we make it simple to understand the cultural make up of each language in Europe - compressing them each into 1 sentence, so you know and you can explore further with this amazing knowledge. Enjoy!
00:00 Beginning
00:46 Portuguese
00:55 Spanish
01:03 Basque
01:14 Catalan
01:23 French
01:35 Breton
01:41 Cornish
01:51 Welsh
02:02 Irish
02:14 Manx
02:19 Scots Gaelic
02:26 English
02:28 Icelandic
02:43 Czech
02:54 German
03:13 Danish
03:21 Swedish
03:29 Norwegian
03:41 Lithuanian
03:56 Luxembourgish
04:05 Dutch
04:22 Polish
04:30 Slovak
04:43 Latvian & Estonian
05:10 Finnish
05:28 Russian
05:43 Belarussian
05:57 Ukrainian
06:13 Romanian
06:22 Bulgarian
06:37 Macedonian
06:49 Serbo-Croatian
07:19 Slovene
07:29 Greek
07:44 Albanian
08:01 Hungarian
08:38 Corsu
08:47 Italiano
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[@Dornwild]

Very funny, with lots of sprinkles! I'd be interested in what would you say about Faroese, Rusyn, Sorbian, Romani, Tatar, Crimean Tatar, Bashkir, Gagauz, Chuvash, Saami, Komi-Zyrian, Komi-Permyak, Udmurt, Mari, Erzya, Moksha, Maltese, Yiddish, Kalmyk and everyone else on the European slides of the Caucasus? :)))

[@egbront1506]

You could add Armenian, Turkish and Georgian to that list as all are spoken within Europe's boundaries. Kazakh straddles both Europe and Asia as well.

[@rumenok]

There is no "rusyn" language, speaking as "rusyn"

[@Dornwild]

@@rumenok There are at least 3 variants of Carpathian Rusyn spoken in Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, with at least 2 literary languages. :)

[@rumenok]

@@Dornwild you can say anything you want I'm 100% " rusyn "on both sides, it's artificial term for ukrainians and language it's just archaic dialect of ukrainian, I know there is minorities in Slovakia and Serbia but it's just misunderstanding because of historic past reasons ("rusyns" were closed in Austro-Hungary for hundreds of years)

[@Dornwild]

@@rumenok I understand what you're saying, but defining a language is not exactly from a purely linguistic point of view, it also respects the self identification of the people they speak the language. It also interferes with politics. See, the Russian policies were the same regarding Ukrainian and Belarusian, they were considered only dialects of Russian... Which is not true! Due to political factors, Serbo-Croatian was once considered one language, now considered 4 languages of their own, yet the differences are smaller than for example, between Czech and Slovak (also considered the same language for certain periods of times). The case for Rusyn is different, because it goes back long in history. Carpathian Eastern Slavic speaking peoples have been long separated from the rest of the East Slavic peoples under the kingdom of Hungary, so they developed somewhat differently, having their own distinctive ethnographical cultural identity. I know the Ukrainian opinion on the matter, and I understand it, yet almost every other countries recognise the self-identification of Rusyns. Also for the Csángó language from Moldva, Romania is considered a dialect of Hungarian, however Csángós don't see the two languages the same. (Nor they have a Hungarian identity.) For many cases in history, it will be a long debate... But in my opinion, we need to respect and recognise longstanding self-identifications of even minority languages and their speakers.

[@Remcore020]

My Hungarian father in law always said, Dutch is like a drunken Englishman trying to speak German. Never heard a better analogy TBF.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Dutch is a wonderful language with some of the silliest sounds ever.

[@telebubba5527]

It is known as the Chinese of the West. Some things you never learn.

[@maxgregorycompositions6216]

Or like a regular, sober Englishman attempting German.

[@zankerfeld9596]

I always felt Dutch was 1/3 German, 1/3 English, 1/3 French, at least when written down.

[@filipefernandes870]

And we in Norway say Danes speak Norwegian but with a potato stuck in their throat.

[@sergioromanomunoz8155]

The reaction to Hungarian didn't disappoint. This was both funny and deep. Great video.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@alaakela]

Hungarian ... He just left 😂😂😂😂😂

[@jout738]

Hungarian is proto-uralic spoken by germans and slavs with turkic sprinkles.

[@jout738]

Hungarian is proto-uralic spoken by germans and slavs with turkic sprinkles.

[@jout738]

Hungarian is proto-uralic spoken by germans and slavs with turkic sprinklos.

[@jout738]

Hungarian is proto-uralic spoken by germans, slavs and turks with italian sprinkles.

[@jout738]

Hungarian is proto-uralic spoken by germans, slavs and turks.

[@boomerix]

Hungarian is a nice hearty stew with many good ingredients, of which 30% are secret.

[@deniseb.4656]

Goulash :)

[@digoryjohns2018]

Caraway seeds, which I normally hate, are an irreplaceable and little-known ingredient. 29% to go.

[@Y_YX]

Fitting, considering most hungarian dishes can be described the exact same way.

[@peterpozman6972]

​@@digoryjohns2018 don't forget lard

[@filtheater716]

Yep, for example Goulash and Hungarian stew (pörkölt) is literally the same. Goulash is pörkölt with carots and more water.

[@gwilwilliams5831]

Italiano is a language ‘invented’ by Dante on his way back from the Inferno with sprinkles.

[@BenLlywelyn]

As long it has pistachio cheese, nice.

[@bantorio6525]

... totally agree ...

[@Gogleespecedem]

No, Dante spoke "Fiorentino” in republic of Florence, now a little part of Italy. Wises took this languages as a base for Italian language

[@laraklemencic9471]

​@@Gogleespecedem modern Italian (formed when the country was, in 1861 only) IS based on tre corone's - Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio - speech and literature. That's also why a modern Italian speaker understands Dante from 1200 much better than an English speaker understands the Bard from nearly 400 years later.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Welsh sounds a lot like a mix of Norse and Dutch and a bit of English on a Latin + Gaulish base, and it was influenced a lot by Norse, just like Dutch, while English comes mostly from Norse - I am learning all the Norse / Germanic / Nordic languages and the modern Celtic languages etc, and I keep seeing more and more new similarities between them, and, its sound patterns sound just like Dutch + Norse and Icelandic with English undertones, and I also noticed that, when there is a video spoken in Welsh, even the automatic voice recognition thinks it is Dutch!

[@spambaconeggspamspam]

As a Dutchman I have to say: "Gurgle blub grrrable burrr blub grr."

[@BenLlywelyn]

Wonderfully said.

[@dinkopausic6357]

I understand you

[@TheKamperfoelie]

Goed gedaan gozer, groeten!

[@worstebrooike]

helemaal mee eens

[@nenadireland]

That sounded like Swiss German to me honestly.

[@Hellspooned2]

Esperanto. Sprinkles sprinkled with sprinkles.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nice.

[@ander4163]

With some sprinkles of sprinks

[@davidbraun6209]

An old story my dad had read: "[Q.] Do you speak Esperanto?" "[A.] Like a native."

[@NickoOlimp]

@@davidbraun6209 it gets less funny with time, there are actually a few hundreds or thousands native Esperanto speakers nowadays

[@omerciftci4673]

Italian dialects uniting around a cookbook to form a standard language is perfectly plausible.

[@TMD3453]

I didn’t know about and am interested in the German sprinkles!! Thanks

[@mr.archivity]

@@TMD3453northerner regions near Austria If we didn’t sell Nizza and the other regions to France we would have also French sprinkles

[@pietrodauria7022]

​@@mr.archivityit's Italian language as whole that have German sprinkles, he didn't refer to dialect or something at all. We doesn't have French sprinkles cause both of our language have the same origin. We doesn't use the same words because we took them from directly their language, like we did with German, because French and Italian words are similar just because they both came from Latin.

[@mr.archivity]

@@pietrodauria7022 I know, I was jokingly requesting to reconquer Nizza

[@pietrodauria7022]

​@@mr.archivityon the way

[@paulom8804]

Lots of sprinkles everywere 😂

[@BenLlywelyn]

To go with doughnuts.

[@DanTheCaptain]

Or crepes… lots of doughnuts and crepes

[@gendo1123]

Ice cream

[@boka5290]

​@@BenLlywelyn Hilarious video 😂😂😂But I have to say there is no such language as Monetenegrian, that is just a dialect. Bosnian is also a dialect but officially a language due to politics. Serbian and Croatian have little to no differences. Similar to USA English and British English. Basically it's Serbian 🇷🇸 or Serbo-Croatian if you prefer with little to no differences.

[@damyankuzmic5605]

@@boka5290 I agree with YoU that is same language. ✋👌👍 When British English use Football, Serbian Croatian use Football instead Nogomet. Conclusion is British English and Serbian Croatian are same languages. 😏🤗🤔 When British English use History, Serbian Croatian use Historija instead Povijest. Conclusion is British English and Serbian Croatian are same languages. 😏🤗🤔 When British English and Serbian Croatian use Major instead Bojnik. Conclusion is British English and Serbian Croatian are same languages. 😏🤗🤔 When British English and Serbian Croatian use Chemistry (Hemija) instead Kemija. Conclusion is British English and Serbian Croatian very love ustashian letter H. 😏🤗🤔 I will say Serbian is Croatian sprinkled with English. 😏🤗🤔

[@siam_enjoyer8584]

I like that you mentioned Yiddish influence on Ukrainian, not a lot of people know about that

[@BenLlywelyn]

Well spotted.

[@brainblessed5814]

Can you elaborate? Like I suppose many other languages have word borrowed from Yiddish, what makes it special for Ukrainian to be worth mentioning?

[@sirwootalot]

​@@brainblessed5814American English is the only other language I know of with considerable Yiddish influence.

[@jout738]

Does ukrainian having any gottish influence on it, when the goths used to live in crimea few centuries ago, before their language went extinct.

[@siam_enjoyer8584]

@@jout738 I don't think so

[@amazingfireboy1848]

This guy is like a language person, but with unique _sprinkles._

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@julleri783]

A Finn here. The Finnish one was spot on 🙏🏻😂 love that you gave us whole Swedish biscuits instead of just sprinkles, it makes sense tho😂

[@telebubba5527]

You deserve the full cookie!🍪

[@petergustafsson1670]

Then what would be appropriate for a description of Meänkeli? Cakes? ;)

[@A.Sanchez.]

Kanske en Svensk Kaka och En Finsker Maka får barn?

[@0ll312]

As an estonian, i waited for estonian sprinkles on finnish

[@MilosBrajkovic-rc3ik]

Biscuits and some vodka maybe...

[@hoi-polloi1863]

Is it just me, or does the phrase "Viking sprinkles" sound both hilarious and terrifying?

[@BenLlywelyn]

Quite so.

[@luciamacakova7516]

Well, there is a myth that Russian was created when Mongolian horde tried to learn Ukrainian.

[@gordonpi8674]

Seems like it’s exact the opposite! Russians are not the ones who have slanted eyes, Ukrainians are!😊

[@shef8764]

the ukranian language was made up in 19th century what else are ukranians making up to seem older than they actually are?

[@ThePanEthiopian]

😂

[@islmhhh4987]

You mean, a myth that only Ukrainians tend to believe 😮

[@militaryman111]

yet old east slavic is more similar to modern Russian than it is to Ukrainian

[@Bifito]

There's actually just as much germanic words as arabic words in portuguese. So it's more like latin language spoken by celts with germanic and arabic sprinkles.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nice.

[@jboss1073]

See my other post under this video, doing an analysis of Arabic versus Germanic words in Portuguese.

[@joaosalgado2312]

I was going to say precisely the same. Even so the video is very, very good.

[@matichagak548]

Precisely

[@pyrenaea3019]

"Spanish is latin spoken by Basques". That's the best definition I have ever heard of the language

[@woygenya]

If you hear from a further distance a spanish person and a basque person speak on their own language, may you cannot hear the difference. This was my impression. Spanish is latin spoken by ancestors of basques

[@osasunaitor]

Not many people know this unfortunately. Spanish is the descendant of the Vulgar Latin that was spoken in the area surrounding the Basque region, and thus inherited Basque phonetics and even some vocabulary.

[@CBZ-vk9bz]

Further note: turns out primitive forms of basque might evolve from ancient Iberian native languages

[@Basauri48970]

​@@woygenyaThat's really arguable! Your point only stands if by Spanish speaker you're referring by someone speaking Spanish from the historical Castille region. A whole different matter when that Spanish person is a native Galician, Catalan or Andalusian speaker, for instance. Vowels and some consonants will change considerably, let alone the tone, rythm and and musicality!

[@carlosbelo9304]

@@Basauri48970 There is no such thing as "Spanish". What there is is the language of the castilians that rule over all of spain (for now). Galician is much closer to portugues then to "Spanish" for instance

[@juankawai]

As a Hungarian I was curious, and you're reaction left me delighted😂

[@BenLlywelyn]

Splendid. Thank you.

[@freddledgruntbuggly9408]

I was eagerly anticipating the Hungarian segment, and you didn't disappoint.

[@aristarchos5342]

I'm Greek, ancient and modern greek are considered a continuous language. Even if someone who speaks modern greek hasn't been in touch with ancient greek (kind of difficult since we are taught since junior high school), he/she would be able to understand the general point of an ancient greek text. The biggest difference was probably the way of pronunciation and the different toning, but as with chinese, it's a continuous living language with steady core and characteristics.

[@BenLlywelyn]

I understand.

[@Athmoneus]

That's right. Greek is ONE language that has evolved. The last 2,500 years Greek has changed a lot less than English has the last 600 years.

[@MarbledKing]

@@Athmoneus Exactly.

[@MarbledKing]

I second that.

[@npapatri]

@@BenLlywelyn Well, being a Greek myself, I tend to agree with your opinion. Greek in not mutually intelligible with Ancient Greek. Of course, the modern Greek language has evolved from the Ancient one, having been influenced by Latin, Slavic and Turkish, as you explained. In addition, although the huge majority of modern Greek words have kept the same or similar roots to the ancient ones, there are many differences in grammar, syntax etc, so that a Greek person cannot understand the ancient language unless he has studied it. To conclude, in my opinion there is the Greek branch of languages that all have evolved from Ancient Greek, which itself consisted of at least 3 main dialects (ie Ionian, Doric an Aeolian). This branch nowadays consists of modern Greek, Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek,Tsakonian Greek, and Griko (southern Italy), although many consider all these as Greek dialects (I do not agree but I am not an expert). This means, that in the case of Greek, there is not a language continuum in the strict sense, but rather a discrete evolution from a common origin point.

[@davidpohl9774]

Czech here. You’re spot on. Also a language of handmaidens and stableboys who were told by their superiors to finally learn some german ( because its cool) and than later being told not to speak german ( beacuse its not cool now) by the very same kind of people….

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nice, thank you.

[@petervlcko4858]

Czech language has also English sprinkles from seamen who traveled rivers like Vltava. Thus you have ahoj/ahoy from there. Who knows what else.

[@Yanzdorloph]

You forgot Maltese= basicaly arabic with lots of italian sprinkles

[@CanonessEllinor]

Maltese is arabic that converted to catholicism.

[@sakesaurus1706]

he could add rusin as well

[@hollandvw4250]

The contrast between the very academic diction and the absolutely unhinged definitions is hilarious

[@michaelchr4239]

the french definition was gold

[@jasminekaram880]

I would add a Celtic Gaulish sauce over it all. Then the definition would be perfect.

[@markhughes7927]

Fascinating - liked the Lithuanian bridge to Old India.

[@dzonybajlando9270]

I laughed my ass off 😂

[@michaelchr4239]

true--especially with the funky counting@@jasminekaram880

[@EricNoneless]

@@jasminekaram880 exactly... how did he miss that?

[@sunrisings292]

That was hilarious. I speak well two very different European languages and learning another. The sprinkles are KEY!

[@PominReklamy]

Belgian or Swiss ?

[@thebeststoryevertold]

Dutch gurgling water was genius.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@ander4163]

That is actually how they speak, he did not make anything up, at least with dutch

[@embreis2257]

expected Dutch to invoke more voice box sounds than gurgling

[@lm7338]

Swede here, you forgot the old german sprinkles

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fair play.

[@clopec]

Plattdeutsch sprinkles.

[@DVladas]

… And old Lithuanian sprinkles)

[@petergustafsson1670]

@@DVladas In Swedish??? What? Care to give an example? As a Swede, that was a new assertion!

[@aliceberethart]

And Romani sprinkles as well. Tjej (girl) for example is Romani.

[@dawsonbrown8863]

Icelandic: modern old norse French: real bad latin😂 Finnish: ah yes, finnic spoken by finns😂 Hungarian: * leaves the room *

[@OkaJulKama]

5:11 FINliam Shakespeare Met[h]odi ✍ Change nouns into verbs (verbing) ✍ Transform verbs into adjectives ✍ Connect words never used together before ✍ Add prefixes and suffixes ✍ Invent the word you need ✍ Listen to things people say #Sananmuodostus #Yhdistäminen #Johtaminen #Kontaminaatio

[@petrskupa6292]

I like it. As a Czech… I’d say we eliminated lot of German words from vocabulary, while lot of “German sprinkles” remained in the sentence structure and logic. Mmm … and being entirely Polish doesn’t cut it for me entirely 😆 Maybe being somewhere in between Polish in the north and Slovenians in the south with unbalanced cleansing of the German influence might 🤔

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fair point about Slovenians as your relatives.

[@miagatwa2457]

@@BenLlywelynand then, might I add. Returning all the german sprinkles, disguised as slang

[@legg6221]

Nah you just robbed Slovak and made it harder to pronounce

[@petrskupa6292]

@@legg6221 Kind of. Kind of true Slovak and Czech have immediate common origin (Great Moravia), while Czech have undergone further evolution (as frontier language of free people), Slovak is based on conservative lingo of people surviving up in the mountains in country ruled by Magyars since 899 AD. So Slovak retains more of the original forms Czech ancestral form also had. So yes, we Czechs (didn’t rob them, we were them) were kind of Slovaks who made our language harder to pronounce over time ☺️

[@Calucifer13]

​@@BenLlywelyn I suppose you are Welsh, aren't you. I mean, the name. Dear Welsh dragon, thanks a lot for your input but your understanding of Czech is completely wrong. We Czech hobbitses haven't got rid of our germanisms. They just got naturally absorbed into the Czech language and masked as something originally Czech. But every other word is actually originally German, even the words where you wouldn't guess it at all. We Czechs and Poles started off the same base but the languages started differing somewhere in the 13th to 14th century. Polish kept the spřežky like sz instead of š or rz instead of ř, and so on, and it's generally much more soft sounding than the quite harsh Czech, which in turn has a lot of pronunciations that sound like baby talk mixed with jard sounds. Polish sounds go up and down like Welsh and the language is sing-songy, while Czech is flat. You got us completely wrong.

[@beorlingo]

I like the faces of this man saying "sprinkles".

[@bpopa27]

This brightened up my day, Multumesc!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Un lucru excelent.

[@DacianRider]

same 👍 ✌

[@theaveragenormie7151]

it's spelled mulțumesc, thoughbeit.

[@davidjhills]

Linguistic shade. With sprinkles

[@tibsky1396]

This is what I have always thought when I saw Catalan. By extension, Occitan is also the missing link between Northern France and Italy, Spain or Portugual. But there were the Albigensian Crusade, French Revolution and then III Republic's school...

[@bradwilliams7198]

I found it reasonably easy to read Catalan by interpolation between French and Spanish. Of course saying anything requires a lot more study.

[@miguelpadeiro762]

I find it incredibly interesting how Portuguese and Occitan/Provençal are similar

[@osasunaitor]

True, Occitan and Catalan are really similar, the main difference between them is that Occitan has borrowed more French words and Catalan has borrowed more Spanish in recent times.

[@digoryjohns2018]

That was an entertaining Rundfahrt through the mess/maze of European languages! Thank you. As an Englishman living in Germany for the last 30 years, and who taught English to (mostly) German speakers for the last 20 of those, I used to tease my students with something similar, if not so comprehensive: German is a work of engineering, French is a work of art, Italian is a work of comedy and English is a work of... chaos!

[@alyss_aq]

Got inspired by this to do a description of one of my conlangs: Lavinian is a baltic language spoken by balts that are separated from the rest of the Baltic tribes, with Polish, Finnish, Serbian and Albanian sprinkles

[@viljanov]

Finnish: Finnic spoken by Finns, baked into mix of Baltic and ancient Indo-European loanwords, seasoned amply with fresh Swedish, with just a tiny sprinkle of Russian loanwords. The colloquial version includes heavily sprinkled English loanwords on top.

[@virgilflowers9846]

This is a truly great video lol, I’ve been looking for something like this my whole life

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nice. Thank you

[@Dimension2364]

Thank you for taking the time, thought and effort to bring your interest into the form of a video. I enjoyed it so much! 😍

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@hank780]

I don't know how, but I have stumbled upon this video and this channel. As a hungarian, I was eager to see ehat you have to say about the language, andbit brought a smile on my face. Greetings from Hungary, and üdvözletem minden magyarnak, aki eme sorokat olvassa (greetings to all hungarians reading these lines)

[@BenLlywelyn]

Köszönöm. Glad you came here.

[@hank780]

@@BenLlywelyn Thank you. And szívesen. This randomly popped up in my recommended

[@amiwho3464]

I loved this, it was so informative!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Excellent.

[@jboss1073]

Hi Ben, I loved the content, but I think you missed out on an opportunity to showcase your usual editing skills and slow down the video a bit, in order to give the viewer a chance to absorb the picture you are painting for each language. I had to pause several times, but I still quite enjoyed it. Some of the languages were hilariously defined and I laughed out loud. Others were very informative and I learned a bunch. I completely agree on Lithuanian, and the world almost lost that language to the Russians. I'm curious what examples in Portuguese you were thinking of that fulfills the "prehistoric" aspect. Surely "manteiga" (which even if explained through PIE is still from pre-Roman Iberia) as the flagship example, but what else did you have in mind?

[@BenLlywelyn]

With Portuguese it is mostly the rhythm and nasality which is so starkly unique compared to Spanish, Basque, and Catalan, and that we know Lusitanians and others in the south had alternate origins to being totally Celtic.

[@jboss1073]

@@BenLlywelyn "and that we know Lusitanians and others in the south had alternate origins to being totally Celtic." Lusitanian language shows the same pattern as you showed us in your Hungarian roots graphic in this video - namely, the largest percentage words are from "undifferentiated Indo-European" and a close second are from Celtic. Wodtko said "it is very hard to find names in Lusitanian which are not Celtic" and those that are found that way cannot be more readily assigned to another language but simply to "undifferentiated Indo-European". I think if a people, like the Lusitanians, called themselves Celts, as they did, then who are you to say they were not "totally Celtic"? Some more respect around this identity issue is in order.

[@Erato7]

The Greek language including 7.000.000 unique words.The modern Greek language is an evolution of the Ancient one.For example when a Modern Greek read the original text of Homer Iliad and Odyssey (800BC-701BC)he have unknown words bur he understand the meaning.Also the New Testament (written in Koine Greek at the time of Christ )a Modern Greek ,read it directly from the original text , and fully understand the text.Koine Greek was the evolution of the Ancient Greek language that was formed in Alexandria from the time of Alexander -356 BC)to the time and death of Cleopatra - 30 BC.Even an uneducation Modern Greek understand the Koine Greek and read the gospels from the original text.

[@lucasribeiro7534]

That's also true of Romance languages vs Latin. I'm Portuguese and I can understand Latin fairly well, especially ecclesiastical Latin. It doesn't mean it's still the same language. I guess one could argue that Latin isn't a dead language and that Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, French, Sardinian, Italian, Romanian... are just dialects with huge differences amongst themselves.

[@cassandramalvasia3629]

True

[@issith7340]

@@lucasribeiro7534but Greek language was evolved to Greek language. Same language. Latin is a dead language. And it’s not my opinion. All linguists are saying that the same Greek language survived throughout the centuries and is alive, spoken by the modern Greek people. In comparison Latin hasn’t survived.

[@lucasribeiro7534]

@@issith7340 Suppose we called your language "Cypriot", then. Would you consider Greek to be a dead language? That's what happened with Latin. After the fall of Rome, Latin speakers renamed the language based on their dialects/countries. I don't think modern Greek is any closer to ancient Greek than Italian is to old Latin.

[@issith7340]

@@lucasribeiro7534 you csn call my language Cypriot if you like, cause it’s the same languagess we speak in Greece. If you don’t know about definitions of language and dialects, go study that first. And also there are specific historical reasons why the Greek language didn’t split in Greek-derived new languages. Also you need to study this before declaring whatever your mind invents, as it is a universal truth.

[@alfredflorin4419]

Dude! You have totally smashed it! ❤

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you. I may have to take down this video and reload it with different music because a song I paid for is being hit with a copyright violation.

[@Adson_von_Melk]

Catalan language shouldn't be represented by the separatist flag. Because 1) it's unofficial, the official one doesn't have blue triangle and star. 2)it doesn't represent the majority of Catalans who don't want the indepependence (and consider themselves Spanish).

[@BenLlywelyn]

When Madrid no longer fears a vote as put forward by Catalunya's elected government, maybe I'll change it

[@Adson_von_Melk]

@@BenLlywelyn LOL. There's a Constitution, which Spain, as every country in Europe, except the UK, has and which says the country is indivisible. You may put whatever coloured rag in your video, it won't change that. Catalonia (that's how it's written in English, FYI) is part of Spain and you have to deal with it. That "elected government" should abide by the Spanish Constitution and Spanish laws as in every single civilized country. Madrid shouldn't abide by the whims of an ultranationalist, racist minority - and they are minority in Catalonia itself.

[@embreis2257]

@@Adson_von_Melk do you know constitutions can get amended or changed? nothing is written in stone. if you would put down your tinted glasses and look at Spain with the neutral eyes of a foreign observer you would acknowledge there are problems with the concept of unitary states wherever you look. whether in Spain, in France or in the UK (even after 'devolution'). there are always frictions in nation states with a unitary concept because it doesn't accommodate local needs and interests in a sufficient enough way to make citizens of modern democracies feel content. Spain would probably be better off with a more federal structure.

[@ALEIJADINHOPATRIOTA]

The Portuguese definition was the best! I can feel it, that my mother tongue (Brazilian Portuguese) has something deep to do with Celtic. And I suppose that the Celtic influence spread to the Americas too! And Maltese? Maltese is a mix of Latin and Arabic.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Maltese, ah. Yes.

[@ALEIJADINHOPATRIOTA]

Ben, to be honest with you, I like to much your videos and your accurate way of explaining all the things. In Brazil there was before a native language called Tupi (Tupinambá). Nowadays linguisitcs say that Tupi was the most important language of a family. The Tupi was a very beautiful language too. I would appreciate if you would once try to study all the most important American native languages and maybe, perhaps, you could post a special video about them. I suppose that North American native languages could be related to the Celtics too. Why not start maybe with ALGONQUIN or CHEROKEE?@@BenLlywelyn

[@ThePanEthiopian]

You have inspired me to do the same to my language. Amharic is a southern Ethiosemetic language closely related to arabic and hebrew, its what you get when southern ge'ez dialects get mixed with local languages like agaw, oromo and others to form its unique fusion with some arabic, greek, italian, french and english sprinkles.

[@jamespardue3055]

Brilliant and highly entertaining, thank youze.

[@OkaJulKama]

4:53 🇪🇪 Estonian vocabulary: Germanic 35%; Russian 7%; English 5%, Finnish 3%. Laentüved eesti keeles 45-49% kõigist tüvedest (v.a võõrtüved) indoeuroopa laenud (4000 BC, 16-40: mesi, müü-, sool, vili

[@BenLlywelyn]

aitäh.

[@dagsfjodorovs7896]

thanks for mentioning the context for Latvian and Estonian languages! Quite accurate, but I would say that in Latvian there is more than sprinkles of finnic-uralic. I think I would say a lump of germans and finnic, and sprinkles of russian.

[@cardenmanning2455]

That was awesome 😂. We need more videos like this

[@tedi1932]

I love th way you have managed to describe each language in a single sentence :))

[@NoanNorvang]

You forgot to put in Sami as it is a very distinctive language. But honestly great video! ❤

[@BenLlywelyn]

You're right!

[@vodbank9100]

this will have a million views soon, excellent piece

[@BenLlywelyn]

😀 Hope so!

[@CBernardo1]

Lovely! Haha. Great vid again!

[@lemon5730]

Awesome video

[@waynejones1054]

😂😂Brilliant overview. Fun and informative.👍👍

[@BenLlywelyn]

Diolch. Thank you.

[@Jade.Phoenix]

As a linguist and a historian, this is absolutely hysterical!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fantastic.

[@DianneWilderASMR]

Awesome video, Ben. I laughed so hard throughout

[@BenLlywelyn]

Excellent! Laughter heals.

[@DianneWilderASMR]

@@BenLlywelyn indeed, thank you

[@tibormalinsky8751]

I liked this video a lot and given how well you described the Czech language and Slovak I can assume that you described others just as well.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@PerfectBrEAThER]

8:30 #teamunknown 🇭🇺 #sayitinsaami #sägdetpåsamiska #sidetpåsamisk #sanosesaameksi Davvisámi Northern Sámi 🇫🇮 🇧🇻 🇸🇪 Anarâškielâ Inari Sámi 🇫🇮 Sääʹmǩiõll Skolt Sámi 🇫🇮 🇷🇺 Dego sávzačora. Juávhust jollâvuotâ lassaan. Jooukâst jõllvuõtt lâssan. People get dumber in crowds Buot dat maid galgá gierdat Puoh mun koolgâm killáđ Uuʹd juʹn puk ǩeâllʼjed This is too much to handle Gos leat ceakkos gáissát ja eanemus muohta? Kost láá ciägu kááisáh já enâmus muotâ? Koʹst lie čåʹǩǩtuõddâr da jäänmõsân muõtt? Where are the steepest mountains and the most snow? Loavttán buorebut jiekŋačázis go geassebáhkkasis Mun kal makkuum pyerebeht runneest ko kesipaahâin Maaššam pueʹrben kaʹlddjest ǥu pašttjest. I like ice-swimming better than hot weather Sámi vocabulary: 34% unknown, 24% Germanic, 18% Uralic, 16% Finnic, 8% other known origin. Eastern Sámi Mainland Eastern Sámi Akkala Sámi † Inari Sámi (300 speakers) Kemi Sámi [Extinct now for over 100 years] Kainuu Sámi† Skolt Sámi (320 speakers) Peninsular Eastern Sámi Kildin Sámi (600 speakers) Ter Sámi (2 speakers) Western Sámi Central Western Sámi Lule-Pite Sámi Lule Sámi (1,000-2,000 speakers) Pite Sámi (20 speakers) Northern Sámi (26,000 speakers) Southwestern Sámi Southern Sámi (600 speakers) Ume Sámi (20 speakers) The above figures are approximate.

[@dominikschmalstieg2912]

Just wondering, doesn't Bulgarian also have a few Greek sprinkles (or is it less than I think)?

[@BenLlywelyn]

Indeed.

[@ladinark1672]

We are NOT turks, dudes!

[@ladinark1672]

We do, just like every other country in Europe/North America.

[@yasinmehmed5600]

​@@ladinark1672I was looking for this comment, lol. Cmon what's wrong with having turkic origins

[@fabiomorandi3585]

@@ladinark1672Nowadays, certainly not, but the First Bulgarian Empire started off as a khaganate ruled by people who spoke Bulgar, an extinct Oghur Turkic language that, despite its name, was in no way related to any of the Eastern South Slavic dialects Bulgarian was assembled from.

[@the_Dark_Knight_12]

Awesome video, very educational and funny😂

[@gaullie4449]

Spot on! Well done, Mate!

[@bradwilliams7198]

That 18th century Kernewek speaker has spent much of the last century trying to improve his spelling!

[@jackboyle5142]

0:51 when there’s 20 people behind me in line at the ice cream shop and I’m ordering their whole menu

[@BenLlywelyn]

Delicious.

[@CastChaos]

The best language summary I have ever heard. Actually, a few are ones that I also thought, like Catalan being like a mix of Spanish and French. Greetings from Hungary!

[@ollikoskiniemi6221]

What is the name of that music which was playing during the graph about the language origins of Hungarian words?

[@BenLlywelyn]

A Peasant's Sonnet, by Jonny Easton.

[@hellascommentor]

Execellent work on simplification!!! Kudos! Πολλά συγχαρητήρια ;)

[@crossroadsfootwear3408]

Συγχαρητήρια; Πας καλά; Άκουσες τι είπε ο άσχετος για τα ελληνικά;

[@cosmindvd]

As a Romanian Hungarian, hungarian never seemed strange to me because my parents and grandparents speak it regularly, but after a while if I think about it doesn’t make any sense, it’s like alien language, and they kind of made us learn Romanian and spoke with us only in Romanian because is easier.

[@BenLlywelyn]

It would be fascinating to speak with people more familiar with Hungarian.

[@cosmindvd]

@@BenLlywelyn Such a strange language and is 4th hardest to learn in the world for English speakers, after Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese.

[@vasarelly37]

You should be ashamed!

[@cosmindvd]

@@vasarelly37 Are you one of those brainwashed ultranationalist hungarians? I am not ashamed that I don't know to speak my ancestors language properly, I was born in Romania not in Hungary, Romania is my home, we make a lot of friends with hungarians, but with those who actually have a brain unlike ultranationalists brainwashed ones.

[@Macskapajti]

@@BenLlywelynyou just made me subscribe. By the way I’m Hungarian living near to Wales.

[@micheleferretto7079]

This is lovely. Incredible how Ben managed to be funny and - at the same time - very accurate!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Glad you gained good from watching.

[@micheleferretto7079]

​@@BenLlywelyn You can definitely say more than just "good": my fiancée is half Hungarian, so we really enjoyed the Hungarian part!

[@stanpodol8233]

Just brillant and I enjoyed every bit of it, though could be organised in a slightly more digestible way, as for me. I had to stop it topic after topic just to enjoy either a refined sense of humor or to devour a new bit od knowledge discovered. Nevertheless, thank you, Ben! I eagerly ask for more!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you for watching.

[@Ne0LiT]

Me as a bulgarian had a blast the moment he said that bulgarian had a sprinkle of Russian, as if it wasn't Bulgaria that gave the Russians their alphabet and Old Church Slavonic is not Old Bulgarian that later on evolved into Church Slavonic that is now the lithurgical language of the slavic countries :D Yeah we really did influence ourselves, thanks! :D P.S Modern Bulgarian is way more influenced by Turkish and French, more than anything. Turkish is related, since Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule for several centuries, so we are using some turkish words and in the 20th century many french words were adopted together with some Italian words. Yeah, if we're talking about modern russian language influence, then yes, there certainly is some, but not to the extent you'd expect x) Bulgarian is quite different and in fact has been distancing itself from Russian for a while now. The reason why we understand Russian fairly well, while at some point, bulgarian can seem alien at points to other slavs because we've stopped using some old slavic words and systems, and changed them for new ones, or started borrowing words from other languages, but we are still being taught bulgarian literature from the 19th century, so we know many of those *dead* words, which are still in use in many other slavic languages x)

[@BenLlywelyn]

Cheers.

[@stoyanstankov9158]

Ohh… this is a great summary of our language situation. I can confirm we understand way more other southern Slavic languages plus Russian than they are able to understand modern Bulgarian.

[@Yes-qj4bi]

True along with our brother ethnicity of Galicia who's more Celtic but hugely Spanish influenced recently

[@adrv7919]

The language wasn't "influenced recently", i think you mean the mix of Castilian and Galician spoken in a few cities like Vigo

[@Yes-qj4bi]

@@adrv7919 I mean if I'm wrong I'm wrong I'm really just assuming on my historic based knowledge that since Porto split from Galicia and Galicia went to Leon and Leon to Castile while Portugal prior (high simplified obviously) becomes a thing that after years of being conquered by Castilians that the Galicians would be assimilated into speaking a strong Castilian dialect though I'd hope not because Galicians are cool.

[@Claudiu_Dumitru]

Thank you Ben for this amazing pamphlet. You forgot the pesky Austria, where they communicate in a german(ish) language, with cancerous sprinkles. Leaving the pun aside, I must thank you again, for you have made my day (evening) brighter. The Swiss, the Andorran, the Maltese, my o-my. We have so many on this tiny map. (Please, don't take this as criticism, because it is not. Your work is highly appreciated). If I may, I would suggest to take it as a germination for your next stream. Perhaps? And here we are. Me, expressing my respect for your invaluable work. And for the stylish exposé. Please, keep the streams coming.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@dpw6546]

Nice one! And good acting! Are not most of these observations what we really think of each other's lingoes but usually dare not say in our faces? As a Pole I've never heard that opening description of our language. I myslef can't hear it, but I think it holds water with Russian to a certain extent - in my opinion, when it comes to cadence and phonics Russian is much like Balts trying to speak Slavic and then some. Spot on on the big lump and the sprinkles though. Also, I thought Welsh has some Hebrew (Phoenician? Or whatever similar ancient language from that very area?) sprinkles to it, doesn't it? I'd call German (that is "Hochdeutsch") a language created by the AI with some human sprinkles to it.

[@BenLlywelyn]

No Semitic in Celtic Languages at all. That was a 18th century idea put forward by mainly English Linguists to make us seem more otherly and a mystic stereotype.

[@Sanel_C]

Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are languages spoken by ancient slavic brothers who hate each other because they chose different friends to hang out with. Croatians chose Germans and Italians, Bosniaks chose Turks and serbians chose greeks and Russians. The family feud got so bad that they pretended they were victims of the tower of Babel when in reality it was a three story apartment. In other words they speak the same language but pretend its 3 different ones because they have their heads too far up their hmmm haaah. This is just an observation and opinion of a Bošnjak living in America since 93.

[@BlindBosnian]

Add to that Montenegrin which is a language spoken by people too sleepy to realize it's the same as Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian

[@user-uu4kz8sr5i]

Не всё так просто, что бы сводить всё до просто "выбрал других приятелей" - у каждой из культур свои убеждения и правила жизни, которые не совместимы между собой, отчего и конфликты. Потому что каждая культура автоматически навязывает свои правила жизни, которые недопустимы для тебя и ты вынужден защищаться и даже вести войну за свою свободу.

[@damyr]

The family feud happened because one brother tried to dominate over other brothers. It's as simple as that. And as a Bosniak you should know that. Or you just don't give an eff, since you're too far from here anyway.

[@madmasseur6422]

​@@user-uu4kz8sr5i Not really. The most frustrating thing about all of the ex-yugoslav nations is the fact that their lifestyles and cultures are VERY similar and usually vary from region to region (for example: a Dalmatian will have more in common with a Montenegrin than a Slavonian and a Slavonian will have more in common with a Vojvodinian). The rift between them occurs because they all wanna rule over each other and because they've been fed propaganda from different great powers so they see their neighbors as inferior and so they try to eliminate them. Realistically if they stopped seeing each other as inferior due to their religious views and saw each other as equals there would be no problems.

[@BlindBosnian]

@@damyr The family feud existed before Yugoslavia was ever formed. It started as divide et impera by the Austro-Hungarians prior and during WWI, then by Germans and Italians during WWII, and finally Yugoslavia was ravaged from the inside by sellouts Milošević and Tuđman. Everything else is just a consequence or a byproduct of the aforementioned.

[@jackboyle5142]

0:39 my cat tryin to tell me he wants to come inside

[@BenLlywelyn]

Yes.

[@maringasca9128]

thank you , you are great !

[@torrawel]

Nice video! Leuke video! (saying this with water in my mouth wondering why? Because of the sea level? Because of the guttaral G?? Just wondering ;))

[@thanosgreco4859]

Ancient Greek and Modern Greek are not two different languages. The language has maintained such cohesion of structure and vocabulary that it is recognized by both scholars and native speakers as one language.

[@o_s-24]

4:16 that was very accurate dutch

[@FaustasEdinburgas]

Great presentation!

[@AzazelCain]

That was awesome

[@mariiris1403]

For Norwegian, you could have added: with English (especially the American kind of English) sprinkles.

[@mariiris1403]

And I forgot, historically: Lot's of low-German sprinkles!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Many of them these days.

[@mariiris1403]

Yes, true! 😄@@BenLlywelyn

[@magnusschive4696]

With very large Danish sprinkles

[@mariiris1403]

That too, even though the Danish have some problems with recognizing them. 🤭@@magnusschive4696

[@stasacab]

Dutch was really the best. Karelian is Finnish with lots of Russian sprinkles. Meänkieli is what Swedes call Finnish in their own country. Sami is the ancient Finnic language that gave Karelians more options for keyboard: ž, š and their own đ.

[@tovarishcheleonora8542]

Wait.... is "kieli" actually a word in swedish? Because that means "language" in Finnish.

[@stasacab]

@@tovarishcheleonora8542 Meänkieli means "our language" and it seems to be the same in most languages. But no, "kielli" is not a word in Swedish.

[@agasfer520]

well, that was actually pretty good!

[@andreehobrak1425]

Your were spott on in all the languages I know something about.

[@lorenzoloviselli1900]

One of the best videos i ve ever seen.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Considerate, thank you.

[@flaviucalin]

Great analysis in only 10 minutes. And funny, also. Greetings from Romania, Ben.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Bun venit!

[@OLDCHEMIST1]

Excellent! I was especially impressed by the description of English and German

[@scgamesonline7771]

As a Greek learning both ancient greek and Latin, does it mean I ll be able to understand everything?

[@BenLlywelyn]

Latin will open up a lot of German for you.

[@DimitrisTziounis]

At least you will be able to distinguish and identify the numerous latin words that we say in our daily life. I'm Greek too.

[@user-vw1vf5cw7d]

​​@@BenLlywelynGerman and Greek are much more similar between themselves you should have known this since you have an opinion for every language....

[@homerosmolinero131]

Its not even a European language but since its party spoken in the European continent i'm gonna do Turkish; Turkish... Turkic language spoken by the assimilated Greeks, Native Anatolians, Armenians and Kurds with a lot of Persian, Arabic and French influence and Greek and Mongolian sprinkles...

[@BenLlywelyn]

Good one.

[@OneTwo_1028]

I think turkish is a european language

[@homerosmolinero131]

@@OneTwo_1028 think again

[@VonKosmos]

Good job! This video is funny 😄

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you.

[@mugurelparaschiv8662]

Brilliant!

[@ioannishatzitheodorou4878]

Very interesting video, thank you. On Greek, my view would be that it actually is the same as ancient Greek - a language spoken continuously for over 3,000 years. Given this, changes are, of course, expected - is today's English the same as that of Shakespeare's time? So, Homer's Greek differs than that of the Classical (5th C. BC.) era, that differs than the Greek of the Gospels, that differs from the Byzantine Greek, and that differs from the Greek (actually, what's left of it) of today.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Byzantines went through profound changes.

[@kappani5734]

@@BenLlywelyn Changes yes, profound definitely not. The most important changes in the language happened in the hellenistic period and during the roman conquest when greek became the lingua franca of a vast region. The name of that language was koine greek which of course is also the language of the new testament and other literature of the era, both pagan and christian. Koine greek is also descended from a vulgarized version of the attic dialect and is the direct ancestor of modern greek. Byzantine changes were comparatively far less significant.

[@Gl00ten]

Love the french and english definitions.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Merci beaucoup.

[@leighcanham763]

Each language mentioned is a lifetime of study put into words and explained within seconds. An excellent presentation. "Do it on the radio." Susan´s (aka Rita), entire essay on Ibsent´s Peer Gynt Educating Rita.

[@jmegapixel7]

Just brilliant! 👏🏻🙏

[@JasonMoir]

Gotta love them sprinkles.