Pronouncing some Anglo-Saxon Words

[@heretolevitateme]

1:45 So you're saying inhabitants of England were more likely to describe the sky as grey than blue? Who woulda guessed?!? XD

[@davidwuhrer6704]

I'm also told that blue used to mean cyan or light blue rather than what we today understand to be blue just a few centuries ago.

[@leod-sigefast]

Blue is a funny one. It is a colour that seems to cause difficulty in its individuality in most languages. Is this a symptom of human perception or the human eye? The green and blue colour cones being atuned to similar frequencies in the retina. Latin and Greek also beat around the bush in describing blue uniquely. Spanish and Portuguese borrow an Arabic word. French uses a Germanic word. Old English sometimes used haw, or less frequently blew, but more often than not used grey or green to describe it. Many languages 'confuse' green and blue. Again, I come back to the human perception argument and light frequencies.

[@Alphathon]

​@@leod-sigefast Colour in general isn't nearly as straightforward and definite as it might seem. Basic colour names and to what they refer of course evolve over time (as with any word) but there is a general pattern which that evolution follows. First there is a "light-warm" and "dark-cold" distinction, which all languages have. Then a distinction between "red" (which usually includes orange and yellow) and the rest of "light-warm" (which now becomes "white") is made. (Note that at this stage "white" and "red" are much broader than they are in English). After that either "green" or yellow added; "blue" may be lumped with "green" or remain part of "black"; after that the other of the two is added. Blue is added next (as distinct from "green" or "black"), giving 6 colours: white, red, yellow, green, blue and black. Brown develops next, followed by other "basic" colour terms (in any order) - in English orange, pink, purple and grey; another other example is a distinct azure/cyan (e.g. in Russian). Orange for example didn't enter English _as a distinct colour word_ until I think around the 19th century (which is why there are so many orange things that are called red, such as red hair, the red kite or robin red-breast). (It did exist both as the fruit and a colour term before then but was not considered a "basic" colour but rather a shade/group of shades, similar to blue-green.) The lines which divide these terms are ultimately arbitrary and also may depend on how the colours were grouped early on. The further down this path a language is (not all languages are as "far along" as English so don't use as many _distinct_ colour terms) the more distinctions there are and so the greater the chance of divergence. There is no reason, for example, why a deep dark blue such as indigo need be in the same category as, say, baby blue or sky blue. Also bear in mind that where the distinction is drawn is heavily influenced by what a culture needs to distinguish and the associations it has. "Blue" for example often carries connotations of verdancy (think "blue grass") while "green" often implies youth or new growth (e.g. a young, inexperienced or naïve person may be described as "green"), as well as illness ("green around the gills" etc). A good example of this kind of thing is in Scottish Gaelic, which uses the word _gorm_ to denote what English would call dark blues, blue-greens and "verdancy", _liath_ for light blues and greys, _glas_ to denote grey and grey-green and _uaine_ for other greens. The _liath-glas_ and _liath-gorm_ distinctions also vary by dialect, with "grey" hair able to be described as either _liath_ or _glas_ and the "blue" sky as either _liath_ or _gorm_ As I understand it the reason for "red" being first colour to develop is indeed because of our ocular anatomy. It may also be because it is useful to distinguish "the colour of fire, meat and ripe fruit" ("red") from "the colour of day" ("white") (although that may be circular as that is what our colour vision is evolved to be best able to distinguish). Of course it is possible for there to be more than one selective pressure at play. (As a side note I'd be interested to hear the perspectives of some colour-blind people and/or synaesthetes on all this.)

[@fy.nghariad]

Language has a huge effect on how we view colors! There's the Himba tribe in Namibia that considers blue to be a form of green, so while we see distinct colors, they only see one. They still see the same spectrum as us though, so they also have more words to describe green to make up for this lack of distinction. Language and culture become lenses for everyday life and affect how people interpret what they see.

[@davidwuhrer6704]

@@Alphathon _> First there is a "light-warm" and "dark-cold" distinction, which all languages have._ To me, dark is warm.

[@mrtactica]

I was born in Leicester and we moved to Australia. When in England my school declared that I had a well above average vocabulary which seems to have, on one hand, lessened by use over the years but, on the other, maintained to some degree by study and application in areas of interest (history, theology). I have tried to keep my vocabulary large and to use words as carefully and as etymologically accurate as practicable to impart and receive specific meaning and understanding. I consider myself fortunate to have kept much of my original accent and many words, including some slang, from my youth and parents. My children and grandchildren think me quaint/weird/interesting . Simon, your work has added to my knowledge, to my enjoyment of the beauty of our language, but mostly to my appreciation of the great gift of speech. Brilliant and well done.

[@jeffatturbofish]

Videos like this are why I'm not allowed to have the remote control to the TV when my wife is home. Was playing this on the TV yesterday and my wife walked in and gave me that look questioning my entertainment choice or my general sanity.

[@Kjordaen]

My Fiancée gives me "that look" when I'm practicing IPA out loud or under my breath

[@M-Afghan]

Languages are fascinating. I am a Pashto speaker. Pashto is an Eastern Arian/Iranian language, a branch of Indo-European family and is mainly spoken in Afghanistan. I can identify a lot of words which can be found in Pashto as well. For example Steorra is Stori in Pashto, fyr is aur, god is Khodai, thunder is talanda/tunder(persian), brother is wror, and many others.

[@magnushelin007]

Interesting!

[@omikhlephonon]

Indo-european family at its finest!

[@peterplotts1238]

That is so cool. You probably already know that it was a British scholar in India who, after learning Sanskrit realized that there were many English words with striking similarities to the equivalent Sanskrit word. You are virtually experiencing the same event that began the modern science of linguistics.

[@king_halcyon]

@@peterplotts1238 in those internet wasn’t a thing but NOW it is. It feels amazing to communicate to someone from, let's say, Siberia.

[@peterplotts1238]

@@king_halcyon I often marvel at this. Agreed. I think we are far apart, in fact. It's good to talk to you.

[@DaveTexas]

I never would have thought watching a video of a guy just saying words could be so fascinating m but here we are. This is SO cool! Your knowledge is very impressive.

[@simonroper9218]

Thanks for the interest! :)

[@raphaelb6781]

I don't think I've ever heard an anglophone pronounce Eichhörnchen this perfectly.

[@servantofaeie1569]

does that mean squirrel or something?

[@servantofaeie1569]

@Hrǣdebrǣc The Gruelmaker its not hard to say [skʷwɚʟ̩]

[@servantofaeie1569]

@Hrǣdiȝbrǣc The Gruelmaker interesting

[@servantofaeie1569]

@A S i read it as ajhj-høan-hjen

[@leafes1644]

@@servantofaeie1569 correction, im no professional but i think you wrote the velar lateral instead of the velarized alveolar lateral. + i feel like the w is redundant since the k is already velarized

[@NobbyStilestheToothlessTiger]

This sounds still very similar to a lot of Modern Dutch and German words. There are even more similarities to Dutch Low Saxon. These dialects are spoken in the northeastern part of the Netherlands.

[@OP-1000]

It sound a bit Afrikaans also.

[@relo999]

That's what I was thinking, it sounds like people local to me only knowing certain English words and pretending to speak English like they used to do in my high school. (Speaking Sallands)

[@legend-rx9ik]

I mean that's where saxons came from

I understand most words

[@nikolairostov3326]

@@OP-1000 indeed, blue and fire is pronounced the same way in Anglo-Saxon as it is in Afrikaans

[@melaniewolf7244]

It was so cool seeing my suggestions in the video! Thank you Mr. Roper! 'Grimful' is indeed a cool word, and seems more accurate than 'violent'.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Words that continue to be used in Dutch, but not in modern English: 1:50 "sweart" ("zwart" in Dutch) 2:12 "wolcn" (wolk) 2:52 "holt" (hout) 3:03 "mere" (meer) 3:42 "wīf" (wijf) - cognate with English "wife" but different meaning 3:47 "dēor" (dier) - cognate with English "deer" but different meaning 3:50 "heorut" (hert) 4:06 "īl" (egel) 4:10 "ācweorna" (eekhoorn)

[@thelandadmiral9958]

Actually, most of these words still exist in English and are used from time to time. They just aren't that common as other words which have similar meanings or have been replaced by other words and have been shoved to obscurity. The words in Modern English are: 1: Swart 2: Welkin 3: Holt 4: Mere 5: Wife 6: Deer 7: Hart 8: This word didn't survive into modern English. 9: This word also didn't survive into English and was replaced by a French borrowing.

[@claudiussmith8798]

These words in my dialect (ripuarian): shwartz, wolkn, holtz, meer (sea)/maar(lake), wijf, dier, hiersh, ij(e)l, eekhorn. Thanks for the time stamps🙂.

[@leod-sigefast]

Many still do exist but as more specific cases or dialectal. Mere is still used for lake in some regions (think Winder-mere in the Lake district). Hart is another term for a deer. Welkin used to be used till quite recently for weather or cloud. It is seen in older literature. Swart lives on in swarvy. Meaning dark complexion. A little side note. Black in Old English meant ink. So that is why we use black now. Funny how one word takes over from another!

[@hennobrandsma4755]

Modern West Frisian 1. Swart. 2. Wolken (plural wolkens) 3. Hout (but still hoalt in the Hindeloopen dialect) 4. Mar (but -mer also in toponyms) 5. Wiif (now hardly used for “wife” any more) 6. Dier (alder obsolete form djier) 7 hart (a < e before r) 8 Igel (i:gel)m with voiced fricative and lengthened i (in my dialect) 9 Iikhoarn (with breaking in the second syllable in my dialect, so [i(:)kwan])

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

@@hennobrandsma4755 Thanks for the Frisian! I always find it interesting to compare to Old English. The pronunciations of words like brún (1:47) and hús (2:35) also sound quite Frisian, right?

[@garytong3395]

As a Man of Kent, but fluent Dutch speaker it is amazing the number of modern Dutch words that appear, either written or pronounced. Interesting videos, bedankt.

[@couchcamperTM]

as a guy from the north-west of Germany I am amazed, too. just not surprised ;-) English and Dutch both seem to be just like the Low German we speak here, plus a lot of French influences (messing it up real bad lol). we don't have those here... De hefft wie hier nich. We had Dutch and Swedes as guests or invaders^^

[@devenscience8894]

Old English always just seems like a cross between English and German to me. Although Dutch often seems that way to me, as well, so I could see why you would point to it.

[@couchcamperTM]

@Sky Winger yes exactly, we northerners in our Low German also did not participate in the consonant shift f/b (We have / wi heff / High German: wir haben The Linguists speak of Binnendeutsch ("inner German", southern German, Bavarian and allemans/Swabian languages and Butendeutsch ("outer German", the Low German languages all the way from Cologne up to the Danish border. The river Main is pretty much the natural border.

[@marcovtjev]

Actually, sometimes a slight leftover English accent makes it sound like Afrikaans to me.

[@txt9710]

The distinction between German and Dutch stems from around the sixteenth or seventeent century. I recognize quite some Flemish words and sounds in this Anglo-Saxon. No wonder as it is kind of the older version of Dutch.

[@Seraphim91]

Emmet is still used a lot in Cornwall, as a (somewhat) derogatory term for tourists (because they suddenly appear in large numbers in the summer, but are nowhere to be seen when winter comes). This derives from the custom of referring to lizards as "four-legged emmets", because like ants (and tourists) they only ever appear in large numbers in the summer. This has led to some people in Cornwall mistakenly thinking the word emmet is derived from Cornish.

[@jaojao1768]

Interesting

[@kernowforester811]

The Cornish word for ant is moryon or muryon. Ant is just a contraction of emmet. I prefer to use the moryon word for the English tourists. Moryon used as a dialect word in Penwith till recently. Emmet is also used in Devonian for ant.

[@Seraphim91]

@@kernowforester811 Yeh, my great grandmother (who died in the 1970s) used the word muryon, although she used it as a sort of slang for anything tiny - sort like "smidge" in modern English slang.

[@Marco_Venieri]

simon, can i say that you're one of the best channel on KZbin

[@lavenderandred_]

Mad compliments from *the* William Blake himself

[@Marco_Venieri]

@@lavenderandred_ blake, flesh and blood

[@goqsane]

he should shave though..

[@RobWhittlestone]

Another valuable video, thank you Simon! This triggered various thoughts: "Sunne" is exactly as "Sonne" (sun) is pronounced today in Swiss German. (A common name for pubs here). English folk name-phrases for animals "Brock (brocc) the badger", Reynard the fox, Bruin the bear, … Werewolf --> wer-wulf --> man-wolf? Amete --> Ameise (de) - Emmet (Cornish/Dorset dialect?) Naedre --> Natter (de) = Adder (en) Ceorl --> Kerl (de) - fellow, chap (en) I find your videos make me feel that I have been put back in touch with my ancestral heritage - a very rare and valuable quality. Thank you again, Simon. All the best, Rob in Switzerland

[@brittakriep2938]

But take care, the Wenwolf, Wemwolf and Wesswolf could also appear ;-)

[@Nazdreg1]

@@brittakriep2938 The Weswolf is about to be killed by the Wemwolf though, sadly...

[@bluenightgrinner8620]

Never thought I'd be studying old anglo but I'm learning latin aswell so I'm sure this will be a great help. It helps to love what you're studying and I find language, history and archeology/anthropology, biology, Physiology, philosophy, psychology etc to be bloody fascinating. So glad I stumbled upon your channel. Your love of what you're doing is obvious and contagious so I look forward to what else you have on the backburners...

[@d.2605]

the butterfly and laugh pronunciations were probably my 2 fave songs on this album.

[@jaykay1989]

Really interesting to hear some words still pronounced the same way in modern (northern/Scottish) British accents.

[@jungschiffer8423]

4:04 the word brocc was mentioned (with a brief explanation) in the children of cherry tree farm by Enid blyton. I recently reread the book to relive my childhood memories, and a little explanation of the word origin is making me giddy all again, like a child learning new words 😊

[@marajade9879]

Wow, you nailed the pronunciation of the German word "Eichhörnchen" there! :O Normally this is always a word we Germans make foreigners say to have a good laugh because they can never pronounce it correctly!

[@OP-1000]

I thought that was *Streichholzschächtelchen*

[@YabibiHabibi]

Awesome stuff, Simon. Your work is incredibly interesting to me as a history undergrad student who is garnering interest in Anglo-Saxon England.

[@Haddcore]

I'm so mind blown by how many words I recognize from their modern swedish counterparts

[@garethbrandt9163]

Precis vad jag tänkte :)

[@ThisIsRiky]

Which ones ?

[@Haddcore]

@@ThisIsRiky Fyr for fire is something we use in my variant of swedish still (southeast Finland) but also most of the colors are pronounced nearly the same as in swedish. Eoten for monster/giant sounds sort of like Jätte, also meaning giant. Geråd for wisdom. Deor, Grimful, Grym for violent. Djur for animal, Fager for beautiful. More so the pronounciation of the words feels and sounds familiar

[@garethbrandt9163]

@@ThisIsRiky for ex. Fur as in fyr meaning fire and tun as in Eskilstuna, skultuna small towns in Sweden

[@anderzzzzz]

Æthelstæn - ädelsten Geolo - gul Sweart - svart Eorđe - jord Èa - å Gäst - gast Dēor- djur Heorot - hjort Ācweorna - ekorre Mearđ - mård Eoten - jätte Ceorl - karl Faeger - fager Fæþm - famn With the same meaning in modern Swedish as in Old English.

[@njujuznem6554]

Could you do a video on the different way names & place names change (like you mentioned at the start)? I'd love to learn more about that

[@erikvandoorn1674]

Acorn vs Eekhoorn are among the funniest false friends between English and Dutch. Pronounced almost the same, being an animal (Eekhoorn - NL) and what it eats (Acorn - EN).

[@janfeger1148]

4:12 your pronounciation of Eichhörnchen is so spot on, I'm really impressed

[@CheLanguages]

4:04 there is a place near where my grandparents live in West Yorkshire called Brockholes, I was informed that Brock or Brocc means Badger in Old English sometime ago and I later found in it was one of the very few left over loanwords from the old English Celtic language.

[@frosty_brandon]

4:15 Squirrel in Swedish is ekorre, and in Norwegian it’s ekorn, so I thought it was a semantic shift from the animal to what it eats, but I suppose a false friend makes more sense

[@thattimestampguy]

0:00 1:39 Yeulu, Grene, Blaw, Brune, Sweart, Wheat (1:52, 3:38) 1:57 Sune, Mona, Steorre, Rain, SnOw 2:15 Grass 2:32 Willie 2:46 Ham 3:01 Seah 3:06 Gawd 3:55 Wulf 5:08 aelf 5:34 Buterfleoge 6:01 Frogga 6:14 Brodor 6:25 Gerad Smalkion

[@grandmastarflash]

An interesting business model you have there

[@Procrustinator52]

Username checks out

[@couchcamperTM]

@@Procrustinator52 nomen est omen^^

[@BramVanhooydonck]

The switching of ps to sp in "waesp" made me think of something that's almost dying out with the standardization of the Dutch language. Alot of Flemish dialects still say "weps" instead of "wesp" (meaning wasp) but again, it's mostly seen as incorrect. The same goes for similar words like "hesp" (which means ham).

[@jaojao1768]

I guess it is also a bit like how "ask" is oft pronounced "aks" in AAVE

[@bigaspidistra]

Ask / aks as alternatives do go right back to Old English (acsian or ascian). In early Modern English aks seems to have been the 'standard ' more common form.

[@toninunns1181]

We seem to have lost sweart for black but retained swarthy as a description of a dark haired person, where on earth did the word black come from? It’s nothing like the french noir so we can’t pin it on the Normans. I’m also very happy to know that so many of our everyday words for natural things have survived and are still amazingly close in pronunciation. I feel as if everything you say makes me want to ask another question! Was the word for sparrow, spearwa, come from spear? I would love to hear more if you ever run short of other topics!

[@raiknightshade3442]

Looking at the etymology section on the wikipedia page for black, it seems there were classically two words for black in many Germanic and other languages! Swart and other forms meant a sort of dull black, whereas blæk was a shiny or luminous black; I'd guess that over time each language just picked one word for black, and we just happened to pick the one that the other north and west germanics didn't! (Also of note, swedish still has a form of the older cognate in bläck, but it means ink specifically!)

[@unexpected2475]

At 4:01, did you mean to write /foks/, or is the "x" deliberate?

[@everettdaugherty8817]

omg that's what I was wondering

[@brittakriep2938]

In german fox is Fuchs, to describe the pronounciation/ speaking you could write Fux or Fuks, same thing.

[@arvedui89]

He is pronuncing it as /foxs/ - voiceless "h" followed by "s", so I would imagine it is intentional.

[@unexpected2475]

@@arvedui89 thanks, I couldn't tell from the audio.

[@arvedui89]

​@@unexpected2475 I'm on my headphones right now, and - to be honest - I had to listen twice to be completely sure I'm not writing bollocks. Cheers!

[@AmbiCahira]

So many words sound incredibly similar to Swedish or overall Scandinavian words even today. Really cool :)

[@clerestonalvesdecarvalho3579]

For years I avoided the old english bacause of its phonology, but now your videos make it so much easier !

[@Arjunarjunskiy]

Thank you, man. Strangely enough, I find this video the most entertaining on your channel.

[@AntoekneeDE]

Thank you Simon, I need to watch it again and pause as I find it all rather fascinating. All the best

[@jamiel6005]

As a speaker of Welsh, it’s fascinating to see that many words (and some spellings) here are similar in modern Welsh, and it’s seems like a lot of the accent is similar. I don’t know why this is, but it’s fascinating! Interestingly enough, the Welsh get their words for English and England from 2 different roots - Saesneg means English (language), and comes from what the Welsh called the Anglo Saxons, to the best of my knowledge.

[@kernowforester811]

..and Cornish 'sowsnek', and 'sowsun' sounds like English spelling sawnek and sawsun. The place name Carsawsun, means the fort of the Saxon. The Cornish word for England is Pow Sows.

[@jamiel6005]

@@kernowforester811 cool! Caer is the Welsh word for fort, so I suppose that would be Caersaes. Languages are fascinating

[@CalmRising]

Just coming across this channel, and I want to let you know this absolutely incredible. Your knowledge of linguistics and your way of explaining it, is incredible. I’m sure you will do big things soon.

[@simonroper9218]

Thank you :) I'm glad it's appealing to people!

[@benwherlock9869]

Musician/Singer = Dreamer. That's perfect!

[@shmuelparzal]

WOLVERINE (hypothetical, reconstructed OE word): The Proto-Germanic word from which the Nordic languages evolved their words for wolverine, eg Danish jærv/jerv, is hypothesised to have been *erfaz. If this word had followed the same course of sound-evolution from Proto-Germanic that similar words had taken into OE, then I would like to conjecture that it would have become eorf in Old English. What do you or other people think? (for the initial vowel, compare OE eormen- from PG *ermenaz, OE eorcen- from PG *erknaz, and for the ending, OE scurf from PG *skurfaz)

[@mechgunz7809]

Welcome to eorf!

[@binkiesaurus]

In Dutch a wolverine is a warg and in Frisian warch, cf. Old Norse Vargr ("outlaw, wolf", anglicised as warg by Tolkien in his fictive realm). This word may also incorporate Old English wearh; from Proto-Germanic *wargaz > *werg, from Proto-Indo-European *werg̑ʰ- (“to choke”); Dutch wurgen. Cognate with Old Saxon warag, Old High German warc. Compare the meaning 'outlaw' in Norse with: Wearh hangian, fægere ongildan þæt he ær facen dyde manna cynne. The criminal shall hang, paying fairly for the crime he committed against the race of men. (Maxims II). Grendel is called a heoro-wearh at line 1267 and his mother a grund-wyrgen at line 1518. So perhaps 'wearg' is also a rather apt suggestion as an alternative designation for wolverine. See also: Jennifer Nevile, 'Monsters and Criminals: Defining Humanity in Old English Poetry', in: Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwest Europe, Louvain: Peters 2001, pp. 103--122: 120 esp. notes 73-75.. (We also have the Norse word fjeldfross (fjelross) for mountain cat or wolverine... so perhaps there was a cognate in Anglo-Saxon.)

[@shmuelparzal]

@@binkiesaurus Is there another spelling of the Dutch word warg? I tried looking for warg in numerous Dutch dictionaries and I couldn't find it. I could only find veelfraat in Dutch. Is there an online Dutch dictionary you could provide a link to that contains warg? How long has Frisian used warch to mean wolverine? What did it mean in Frisian in the 5th-10th centuries (ie in the OE period)? In OE, wearg/wearh means 'a wicked monster, evil spirit, or a vile person', hence 'an outlaw, felon'; as an adj it means 'evil, vile, accursed'. Every OE word that contains wearg/wearh in it (eg wearhnes, wearhol, wearhtreow, wearh-cwedolian, etc) all contain the idea of 'evil, vile, accursed, wicked'. All these compounds containing wearg/wearh firmly contain the idea of accursed or evil, rather than 'wolf', which I think is more from the Old Norse vargr = demon wolf. Didn't Tolkien get his idea of the warg wolf from Old Norse, rather than Anglo-Saxon?

[@binkiesaurus]

@@shmuelparzal Another spelling... no, I don't believe so. You're right about it being absent in Dutch Dictionaries; it is not in "Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal". Veelvraat is indeed more common, and now I am not sure whether it is a neologism or not. I refer to: nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/warg ; fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warch ; nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/warg ; See for the relation between wearg or wolf and felon also the "Wargus-begriff" in: Walter Koschorreck, Der Wolf: eine Untersuchung über die Vorstellungen vom Verbrecher und und seiner Tat sowie vom Wesen der Strafe in der Frühzeit, V&R unipress GmbH, 2010, pp. 83ff; especially the passus on the vargshar in the Lex Salica (p. 85). By the way, I think you're right about Tolkien as well. There exists the word Waarwolf (as variant of Weerwolf) in Dutch for Werewolve. See also: books.google.nl/books?id=BvlLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA129 Wareg and Warg can apparently also mean Barbarian, outcast, outlaw or fugitive in some older (Nether)German dialects.... I cannot find an old Dutch or Lower Saxon variant of the word when it concerns the animal. I found, however, this in the WNT, where 'stout als werge' is explained as 'brave as wild animal[s]': ivdnt.org/zoeken-in-woordenboeken?w=warg ; gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=MNW&id=72435&lemmodern=warg&Betekenis_id=72435.sense.1 For Koschorreck 2010: books.google.nl/books?id=JgCLzVzGUrcC&pg=PA83

[@binkiesaurus]

I have searched for the introduction of the word ‘veelvraat’ in Dutch, and it appears to be relatively modern (first mentioned in 1710), at least according to Nicoline van der Sijs, in: Chronologisch woordenboek: De ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam and Antwerpen: L.J. Veen, 2001, p. 359 sub ‘Geleende benamingen: roofdieren’ [borrowed naes: predators]: “1710 veelvraat ‘marterachtige’< NEDERDUITS”. I also looked for animal names which could be related to ‘wearh’ or ‘warg’ and I only found ‘barg’, first mentioned 701-800, for a castrated pig [gecastreerd varken] (p. 351), and ‘weer’ used for a castrated ram, as recorded in Dutch texts of the 11th century (p. 349). The definition of ‘werge’ in the sense of wild animals in “Dese capitein, wide becant, die vrome waren, stout als werge” was first suggested by Gabriele Schiebe in reference to use of ‘warc’ by Veldeke (Eineit v. 1137): ‘Dar mite voriet unsz der warc. Her waz listic und karc.’ See: Gabriele Schieb, Henric van Veldeken, Eneide: Untersuchungen, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1965, p. 26. Hartmann von Aue describes a dwarf as ‘ein warc’ (Iwein v. 4924|40|42), apparently the same word used for demons in Hell by Veldeke. See also: Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, ed. J.. Stallybrass, Cambridge 1888 [2012], p. 1604 (sub Devil): helle-wargen. Source: “Daz bediutet die hellewargen die gitichlicher argen die ir guot ze samne habent und ez verbergent und vergrabent vor gote und vor den liute.” See for the relation between varg and wolve (besides Koschorreck, mentioned above): Wilhelm Grimm, ‘Die Mythische Bedeutung des Wolfes’, Zeitschift für Deutsches Alterthum XII (1865), pp. 203-228: p. 214 and Harry Eilenstein, Die Symbolik der Raubtiere: Die Götter der Germanen, 2019, Vol. 43, p. 176: “Der teufel war der ‘vil ungehiure hellewolf’ („sehr ungeheure Höllenwolf“) oder die ‘hellewargen’ („Höllenwölfe“).”; Michael Jacoby, Wargus, vargr, Verbrecher, Wolf: eine Sprach- u. rechtsgeschichtl. Untersuchung, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1974, pp. 101ff (helleuuark , hellewarg); Hermann Müller, Die Marken des Vaterlandes, Bonn, 1837, vol. 1, pp. 185, 198-205, 219: 199 “der Wolf und nächst ihm der Fuchs sind die Walen, die Wargen, die Verfluchten des Thierreiches.”

[@garmit61]

Thanks for yet another very interesting look at old English. I’m really enjoying your sharing of your study of linguistics. As an aside , the Welsh word for snake is Neidr so presumably one was borrowed from the other or they share cognates.

[@bethrodgers]

Thanks for this Simon. Your pronunciation is a joy to listen to and it has given me some confidence that my own isn’t as bad as I thought.

[@simonroper9218]

Thank you :) I've definitely made a mistake or two. Good luck with future pronunciation endeavours!

[@garret1930]

I find it funny that the words for Bear and Wolf both sound like the most common noises that come from those animals: bears go "Behrah" and wolves go "Wulf"

[@rossmcleod7983]

Garret Jacobs true that. Think Simon said a few weeks ago that there are only a few onomatopoeic words, but I find them everywhere.

[@tommydahill437]

I (who am not a linguist) think that many old languages echo the sounds of nature in the places that they were spoken-- I mean spake--but I have not found any literature concerning this.

[@Mercure250]

​@@tommydahill437 were spek, like lead -> led big brain And yeah, I think we might hear the animals do that sound in a way that sounds like one of our words because we know the word and try to associate it with the sound. Not necessarily because our ancestors named them after the sound they made. We often can trace them back to ancestor words that don't sound like that at all. That said, onomatopoeic words do exist.

[@frankthetank2550]

Man, the Anglo-Saxons would have loved Pokémon

[@ogga2busy]

Simon please read the following: A frogge biþ a smal beaste wiþ foure leggys, whyche liueþ booþ in watyre and on londe. It is broune or grene or yelowe, or be it tropyckal, he may haue dyuers coloures. It haþ longys and guilles booþe. It haccheþ from an ey and it þan ys a tadpolle. It groweþ to ben a frogge, if it þan ne be noght eten. I know it's middle english not anglo saxon sorry :/

[@simonroper9218]

That's one of my favourite paragraphs

[@HN-kr1nf]

My favourite: A frogge biþ broþers wiþ a toade.

[@janikusu8677]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpjYfIOMnK6Ngpo

[@arschkopp4592]

with the powers of german and english combined I could read it! Yes!

[@adventussaxonum448]

Pretty straightforward, even to modern English speakers. Mind you, having studied Chaucer for A Level English doesn't hurt. 😄

[@tairneanaich]

Nædre becoming Nadder becoming Adder is fantastic as a Gàidhlig speaker! It must be linked to Nathair, right? Also got so excited to hear that "brokk", too!

[@GreatGreebo]

Greetings from Portland, Oregon USA and Thanks!!! This is great.

[@bdkcorrigan7532]

Would you ever do a reading from Beowulf? I'd love to be able to learn the pronunciation by following along in a text.

[@devenscience8894]

"Regn" makes sense to me, since in German it's still Regen, with the "g" pronounced.

[@iyeet4504]

This is pretty close to the bavarian pronounciation

[@Halowarrior187]

During my study, this is actually quite frequent. Some examples in order of Modern English, German, Anglo-Saxon enough, genug, ġenog nail, Nagel, næġl way, Weg, weġ day, Tag, dæġ

[@claudiussmith8798]

Almost all aenglic words are intercomprehensive for me, everything is almost my dialect with a phonetic variability of modern dialects in 60 km radius. Not more than 5 single (not cummulative) recognized sound shifts. I grow up in southern bonn, with a very preserved ripuarian dialect-like a early middle ages kölsch without the middle high german influences. I could understand aenglic as much as a modern day dialects from koblenz or leverkusen (90% of the words, rest from context). For whatever reason i even understand alot modern day islandic. What is also strange for me is that english grammar is so close to my dialect, but standart german is nothing similar at al... My favorit of this video was the knight/cnisht/knecht. So knights are the knechte of the lord of the land, mindblowing!

[@robinpayne125]

@@Halowarrior187 also fowl/Vogel, say/sagen come to mind

[@Halowarrior187]

@@robinpayne125 indeed. sometimes turned into More examples in Modern English, German, Anglo-Saxon order: say, sagen, seċġan fowl, Vogel, fugol bow, Bogen, boga saw, Säge, saga

[@Sal.K--BC]

Grimful is a cool word.. I'm surprised and dissapointed that it didn't survive into modern English.

[@edgelordbazooka9461]

lmao

[@bigaspidistra]

Made it into the 18th century so now "obsolete".

[@traktortarik8224]

Be the change you want to see in the world

[@delta5433]

sound like the german "Grauenvoll"

[@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo]

The word survives in Birmingham, but the meaning hasn't, it now means things are very grim.

[@knutem2155]

Thank you from Knute (in California). It was a joy to hear my name pronounced correctly. (Knut was Anglicized to Knute here so that English-speakers would pronounce it properly. At least now they don't pronounce it 'nut' :) Keep up the good and interesting work Simon! P.S.: I've always guessed that English '-ham' derived from 'Havn' (haven), and that '-wig' came from 'Vik' (bay). (Two suffixes you mentioned in this video.)

[@kernowforester811]

Two meanings of ham in modern Engish placenames, either from OE 'ham' for a farmstead, literally a home, and 'hamm', typically a flat area by a river, bounded on two sides by that river. Topsham in Devon means the hamm belonging to Toppa. Meanwhile Brixham in Devon means the farm belong to Brixa. 'Tre' is the Celtic equivalent to English ham, common in place names in Wales and Cornwall, and still some across England.

[@TheBTAV]

I speak norwegian, and It was really surprising to hear so many similarities with Anglo-Saxon! Like the word for grass for instance sounds exactly like how a person from the northern parts of Norway would pronounce it: "GRÆS!" Perhaps with more emphasis on the S. "Dēor" sounds like "Dyr", which means any animal. And "Heort" sound a lot like "Hjort", which is the same animal. The fot-note that "dēor (animal) was sometimes used to refer to deer specifically" is interesting, because "Rådyr" is a word we have in Norwegian, and its the name given to a type of deer that is smaller. I don’t know what the prefix "Rå-" in "Rådyr" means though. Great video !

[@dr.topgun]

What really hit me just there was "waeps", as it is "wasp" and "Wespe" in german, but we say "Weps" in bavarian dialect, which has also the consonants switched. Dont know if they just switched back or derived directly from "waeps" though.

[@natejack2292]

I would like to see a comparison of words that were used more frequently compared to words used less often. I'm sure day-to-day words that farmers/peasants used (tools or certain kinds of produce) might change at a different pace than words used less often (by higher-class people or those with more niche occupations). milk, barley, grain, wheat, beans, shears, scythe, sickle, spade, bucket, plough, ox, donkey, horse, bucket, bread, basket, etc. vs. armor, taxes, war, foreign people, and other topics that nobles might discuss frequently. I don't know much about the topic obviously, I'm just fascinated by the way words can change over time

[@usmale4915]

You used the word: often! I was just thinking of the two different British English ways that it's pronounced! Sometimes as: OFF TEN then as: OFF EN! I suppose either way is correct! Can someone answer this for me? Thanks!

[@AnnaKaunitz]

I think of the Swedish word for marten; “mård” or “mårdhund” as they’re also called seing “meard”. Overall, there’s a lot of words that are so easy to understand as a Swedish speaker. German and a little Dutch as well in there.

[@ikbintom]

I would love to play a game of guess the word / test the mutual intelligibility! I speak Dutch and Gronings Low Saxon and almost all of these words make so much sense to me!

[@gravelroad1228]

English used to be almost entirely Germanic before the invasion of the French Normans.

[@ladysan_]

Many of these words sounds very similar to how we pronounce them in Swedish. I am not fully acquainted with the exact chronology of the historic eras in Britain, but of course I know the Norse people were there for a time, but then I don't know if this was related to the Anglo-Saxons (if the two languages could have mixed at some point). Many German words sound similar to Swedish words as well, so perhaps it comes through there... I don't know. But your content is super interesting in any case!

[@cynic5537]

sand is pretty close to how I pronounce it in my native austrian german pronunciation lol also interesting how the ps > sp change happened in german as well except for some dialects wepsen > wespen

[@chrissammis3521]

These particular words remind me of The Wake, which I just finished today. I had heard you reference the book in a some video, I’m not quite sure which one, but I was really taken aback that I had not heard of it before. Love your work Simon. We seem to be kindred spirits my friend. In case anyone is interested, my last name is come from the older pre seventh century “Samways” .... I’m sure many of you can see the significance there..

[@21stcenturyozman20]

Fascinating - even more than usual. Thanks. But I missed checking out the state of your woolly sideburns. LOL

[@stevec5586]

A very informative video. It was interesting how many of the words hinted at their modern German equivalents due to the spelling, rather than the pronunciation. For example, the word for "rain", where the Anglo-Saxon word "regn" is close to the modern German word "Regen", but the pronunciation was different, being like the modern English due to the soft "g".

[@andypoole3720]

People in Derby, UK, still say a lot of the 'as' like this (wasp, water, etc)

[@Thomas-er1pr]

6:21 does dreamere have something to do with 'dream'?

[@MB-fp9lq]

I felt like it could have something to do with drummer.

[@leod-sigefast]

Yes, that is the word dream. Dream, like today, also meant joyousness. That extended to the joy of music and party. Hence, musician.

[@couchcamperTM]

@@leod-sigefast oh good to know, I thought of "drama" ;- )

[@BombingCarpets]

This video has been extremely helpful in my learning Englisc! Any plans to do another group of words?

[@pauljohnston9768]

Very, very fine, according to all we theorize about OE. It's not always easy (I teach this stuff). I use the diphthong of broad Philly "down" for long and you're close. except my V2 sounds unrounded and yours sounds rounded, like before nasals. you're truer to the etymology.

[@airingcupboard]

It's amazing how many of these words sound like modern Norwegian, including the ig suffix. A squirrel is also "ekorn". The colors are also near identical.

[@Flufficat]

Fascinating. A lot of these words are recognisable today.

[@douglasfree1389]

Thanks for this. I have recently been learning a little Danish and recognized a few cognates that I wouldn't have otherwise - Danish for 'animal' is 'dyr', and for 'squirrel' is 'egern'. Cheers!

[@travelorchidslondon]

Wow. Very impressive. Thank you. Do you by any chance know how to pronounce west saxxon word " ieg", which means "island " and apparently name of the town Rye has come from it. It looks so far from "Rye". Thank you

[@MikePotvin]

it always amaze me that a few words will be familliar to French, German and English all together and even Norse in rare cases

[@ernstdevries8265]

There is so much dutch in what I'm hearing in these video's!

[@Leo-us4wd]

Did the Anglo saxons pronounce -ough differently?

[@ubelmensch]

This reminds me of the I love Lucy sketch

[@Halowarrior187]

The anglo-saxons would spell it differently. 'gh' often makes the /x/ sound which the anglo's just used 'h' some examples rough - ruh tough - toh through - þurh thorough - þuruh thought - þoht though - þeah bought - bohte wrought - worhte

[@emdadahmed5592]

'ou' might have been pronounced as /u:/ & not /au/. The /au/ realization was probably due to the great vowel shift. 'ou' makes an /u:/ sound in French. after the norman conquest of England in 1066, the English language gradually changed its orthography to fit french spelling rules. For example, hus ➡️house mus ➡️ mouse Þu ➡️ thou genug ➡️ enough rund ➡️ round hund ➡️ hound (dog) muÞ ➡️ mouth

[@オア-v7u]

This could be an ASMR

[@VoidUnderTheSun]

Like 90% of these are super close cognates with modern Dutch (for obvious reasons), but of course they're still active words in Dutch so it's amazing to see.

[@Alexander_Rezner]

When you sometimes said that it's only one syllable for considerable all German native speakers it is very logical. When explaining the changes with mishearing words with an indefinite article ”a“ and ”an“ the older form often immediately lets me understand the vocabulary. English is that close.

[@we_heart_ice_land8354]

5:29: sounds totally like the german word ”Ameise” 6:00: like the german word “Natter” 6:40: sounds like nowadays “lachen” in german

[@couchcamperTM]

so is dat. Us Plattdüütsch in Norddütschland is just as disse olen engelsen Woorden. Man blots ohne Franzosen de daa tussen rumfuhrwarkt un allens kaputt maakt.

[@imansolms6609]

dont forget the old word for butterfly sounding just like „Butterfliege“ in German

[@couchcamperTM]

@@imansolms6609 a word we don't use, you may know we use the infamous "Schmetterling" instead ;-) which is more like "niederschmetternd" (overwhelmingly knocking down - one would think there's brutal butterflies in Germany...

[@imansolms6609]

@@couchcamperTM a wasn't refering to the actual word "Butterfliege" but to "Fliege", which seemed to be quite similar in Old English

[@elblanquito33]

Now we’re know where the geordies get it from

[@kbhanna24]

It sounds quite Danish. I understand many of the words completely. Æ is a letter and a sound we use a lot today.

[@alexsteiger3643]

Thats so funny so many words are simmilar to my german Dialekt in switzerland👍, this is a very intresting channel thanks a lot

[@couchcamperTM]

very interesting, since Swiss German is "Binnendeutsch" as I explained in another comment. Allemanic/Swabian/Bavarian dialects, basically everything German south of the River main, the Weisswurst Äquator. We here in the north are much closer to the anglo saxon and nordic Germanic languages with our Butendeutsch. (binnen is inner and buten is outer) Did you know that the people in Manchester speak like Swiss German speakers, the ch for a k sound? I flipped over backwards when I first heard that. Thought the guy was Swiss and speaking English...

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

A tour de force performance Simon. I didn't hear much rounding in some of the Y sounds; also why would there be [iy] in "hliehhan" when the letters are ?

[@haskna]

fascinating that the old word for musician was Dreamere :)

[@Armadeus]

looking at the ipa at 5:33, i'm fairly certain you pronounced the "ge" in "buterfleoge" wrong? it's a voiced velar fricative, not a voiced velar plosive like the english g.

[@leod-sigefast]

I wondered the same

[@simonroper9218]

Listening to it back, I still hear a fricative rather than a plosive - it could definitely have been clearer, though! I'll try to keep an eye on it in future

[@OMGwtfSTFUbrb]

as a native swedish speaker a lot of the words are strangely similar to modern swedish in pronunciation and meaning, also you clearly hear the norse gods, wooden(oden-odin) thunor(tor-thor) tiiw(tyr) friig (frigg). its very interesting.

[@peterplotts1238]

I'm not a Swedish speaker, but I know enough to clearly hear the similarities with Swedish. Just before I read your comment, the thought occurred to me that Old English sounded quite Scandinavian. I think there are some linguists, a minority, who believe that English should be classified as being among the Scandinavian languages.

[@djparkermarshall]

If I had the money, I'd pay for all of Simon's research.

[@DillonHartwigPersonalChannel]

Slight correction at around 2:13, I think you meant to transcribe wolcn as /ˈwolkn̩/ rather than /ˈwolcn̩/. That aside, great video as always (:

[@Hebelios]

A wolverine's name being "thing that eats a lot" started as folk etymology, apparently old norwegian has it as fjeldfross which literally means "mountain-cat", unfortunately sounding just like "Vielfraß" in german, which led to it's new name (being "thing that eats a lot"). That is the case for german at least. I'd imagine this folk etymology spreading from german to other languages then, given that it's scientific latin name conveys the literal meaning of something that eats a lot. I don't know enough about wolverines and their history in europe however to make any deeper claim as to why that might be.

[@alanbarnett718]

How the Hel were we so daft as to let go of the word "grimful"? Now I know it, I shall try not to use it, but I can't promise anything - it so perfectly describes so many of Clint Eastwood's characters, Dirty Harry for instance...

[@Nicki-jk9th]

Hi, I enjoyed your video. Do you have any idea about the origin of using auxiliary verbs such as DO/DOES in negative statements and questions in English?

[@fromchomleystreet]

Simon, do you think it would be possible (for someone with way too much time on their hands) to look at all the phonological differences between Old English and contemporary modern English - combined with data about the (presumably predictable and rules-based) relationship between the phonology of languages and the idiosyncratic ways in which native speakers of those languages will speak another language they subsequently learn - and extrapolate from that data a hypothetical accent with which a hypothetical time-travelling native Old English speaker would speak contemporary modern English if they learned it as a second language? I’m intrigued by the possibilities of what such a hypothetical accent would sound like to our ears. Would it sound like a regional British accent of some kind? Or would it sound continental-Germanic. If our hypothetical time-traveller, once they had become conversant in modern English, were to go down to the shops to buy some milk and a paper, and we asked the shop keeper to guess where this person came from, what would they say? West Country? Northern England? Scotland? Germany? The Netherlands? Scandinavia?

[@fromchomleystreet]

I say Scotland because I am often struck by how closely the Scottish accent seems to adhere to pronunciations once common in English (eg, the Scottish pronunciation of “house” and “thou”, the trilled “r” etc) and also the remarkable phonological similarities it bears with Germanic languages. Think of the the “ch” sound in “loch” and the same sound in many German words. If you listen to a vocabulary list in Frisian, many of the words sound identical to the English cognate said with a Scottish accent.

[@ZipplyZane]

2:24 It sounds to me like you used a different vowel than in the IPA transcription. It seemed closer to the modern pronunciation of the word than would expect from that transliteration Apologies if you've explained elsewhere that /æ/ is not the a in cat in this case.

[@simonroper9218]

I often pronounce /æ/ a bit too low! For some reason it's one I have difficulty with.

[@jonh8488]

@@simonroper9218 animals we pronounce djór ( that strange e became a J ) but elsewhere in our languange that E has become g or something else , almost a multi sound letter ( our written language is much newer). apart from that .... many of those words and sentences you show ... they are written as we speak them .... a bit differently from your pronounciation.

[@mississippisoen]

Simon, can you do more OE vocabulary videos PLEASE!

[@mr-sheep]

I love your videos. Being a native speaker of the Dutch language, I think in this video there are some words that sound more equal to the Dutch language than they do to German. So my humble advice to you would be to also use Dutch examples;-)

[@hankwilliams150]

I LOVE your videos!

[@gavinparks5386]

Grass in Ayrshire is pronounced gress, and we'd talk aboot " gawn doon the toon ". There is a Scots word blae , which can mean blue , or grey , or sort of washed out and insipid.

[@mandersson6754]

Our Swedish word for Wolverine is "Järv" (Djärv) meaning "Bold" or "Audacious". Another good one is our name for "Polecat/Fitch" which is "Iller" in Swedish meaning "Bad maker"!

[@Ssarevok]

For a modern version of Eotan, can we look at Ettin? Your explanation for "a nadder" to "an adder" seems a bit unlikely to me, since it would have to have happened independentaly in Dutch and German, too...

[@divarachelenvy]

amazing how many of those words are so similar to what we use today...

[@eliaskrogh22]

At 3:55 the “Roe” and “deer” looks a lot like the danish word “rådyr” which literally means deer.

[@Robinsonero]

Thanks Simon, great work.

[@peters.778]

It's funny that sae and mere both meant either lake or sea. In lower germany, there are many lakes which have the word "Meer" (germ. "sea") in the name. So it must have been common to use "Meer" for inland waters as well at some poiont. In modern German, "Meer" is exclusivly used for "sea" while "See" can either be a lake or a sea, depending on the grammatical gender (masculine: der See = the lake, feminine: die See = the sea/the ocean). In English, people apparently also chose to use "sea" for these big salty waters surrounding their island while the word for inland waters was replaced by a latin loanword. How is a lake and the sea called in other Germanic languages?

[@leod-sigefast]

There was also the OE word lagu which was also used for lake. That might have influenced the modern word. But most consider it of French origin (lac).

[@peters.778]

@@leod-sigefast thanks. Very interesting that there was even a third word for lake. There might be also a celtic cognate for it: The swiss french name of Lake Geneva is "lac léman" with léman being a celtic word for lake (so lac léman means something like "Lake Lake").

[@33lex55]

In Dutch, lake translates to 'meer' , and sea translates to 'zee', so we have it just the other way round from German. Confusing for beginners, when learning the other language.

[@rudde7918]

@@leod-sigefast According to Wiktionary, French "lac" and English "lake" are unrelated, their form and meaning just happen to be similar.

[@33lex55]

@Hrǣdiȝbrǣc The Gruelmaker It always strikes me as how much all these Germanic languages are similar, at a basic level, and that it might very well be possible to travel widely in West- and Northern Europe using your native language, as long as you stay far from abstractions. Mind you, I am not an expert in any of this, but my interest was piqued as a kid, watching 'Catweazle', when I heard the actor pronounce words in a way that sounded very much like my language. I'm just glad that we use subtitles on TV and in films in the Netherlands; sometimes, even in Scandinavian programs, I hear words and expressions that are very similar - or even completely the same - as in Dutch. We have much more in common than we think.

[@lordvlygar2963]

1:14. That "ij" for "y" is still used in Dutch. Bakerij is pronounced the same as bakery in English.

[@nickstaley96]

I've always wondered what that accent is above certain letters that looks like a straight horizontal line. What's its purpose as far as pronunciation goes?

[@simonroper9218]

It marks a long vowel :)

[@nickstaley96]

@@simonroper9218 All right! Thank you, Simon.

[@thomasspicer4130]

My nan still uses the old pronunciation of wasp with the hard A sound .

[@trojanette8345]

This was a great video. (I for one) would DEFINITELY enjoy more videos like this one (which literally teaches how to prononce words rather than relying on so much phonetic-speak. Also, for thise that love your content but could use a little visual help a bigger font, PLEASE would help very much.