Tracing English as far back as possible

Enjoy this exploration to Proto-Indo-European! And start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡️ Here: go.babbel.com/t?bsc=usa-influ...
In this episode, we'll trace English back to its oldest known ancestor: an ancestor it shares with almost all of Europe's languages, as well as some Asian languages. That ancestor is called Proto-Indo-European.
I also talk about the controversial Nostratic language family and ask whether there could really be a "Proto-Earth" language.
📚LINKS📚
Quellant reading P-I-E: • "The King and the God"...
Britannica on Nostratic: www.britannica.com/topic/Nost...
Proto-Indo-European vocabulary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Eu...
Simon Pulleyn's "Secret Life of Language" is also an enjoyable read
⭐️PATREON COMMUNITY: patreon.com/robwords
📝FREE NEWSLETTER: www.robwords.com/newsletter
Check me out on the web, on Twitter & TikTok:
robwords.com
x.com/robwordsYT
/ robwords
#English #etymology #linguistics
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:17 English language family tree
0:57 What is Proto-Indo-European?
1:43 How P-I-E was discovered
5:00 Comparing Indo-European languages
7:20 Babbel
8:47 Tracing words to P-I-E
12:30 Surprisingly related words
15:45 What did P-I-E sound like?
16:55 Nostratic language
19:42 Proto-World

[@RobWords]

Let me know what you make of P-I-E below. And start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡ Here: go.babbel.com/t?bsc=usa-influ-eg-dt-1m&btp=default&KZbin&Influencer..Jul-2024..USA-TATAM..1200m60-yt-robwords-jul-2024

[@mizapf]

As a suggestion for a future edition, I'd find interesting to compare words (e.g. German/English) that were originally synonyms but which developed in different directions. Those are not really false friends, because they actually started from the same origin. I'd rather call them "estranged partners". Examples: Zaun/town, raten/read, ritzen/write, rechnen/reckon, stürzen/start, zählen/tell, tragen/drag, schlimm/slim, drehen/throw, Haut/hide, Bein/bone Can also be between other languages; I just know those two best.

[@CAP198462]

Not that I imagine it means anything to you, but I found learning Russian pronunciation useful for understanding and approximating the sounds of many other languages.

[@enrott8560]

Since ur learning Swedish sometimes the k sound turns into sh sound aswell like köttbular pronounced like shirtboolar(means meatball) this was interesting cuz you were talking about the origins of the word "kmtom" turns into the Sanskrit "shatam". Jag är studier svenska ochså.

[@andrethoma5635]

You are a genius to call it "Low". Up is not only English.

[@KGTiberius]

Thank you for picking up this episode. I’ve been asking and commenting on PIE for years on various videos. It is a fun concept.

[@athulprakash4447]

As someone who lives in India and speaks Hindi/Malayalam, being educated in English and after taking Sanskrit as a subject in school.. it was stunning to know that words like Father (Pitr), Mother (Maatr), Seven(sapta) and so many others were the same for what I thought were totally separate European languages. Gotta love linguistics and the people who put this together!

[@anowarjibbali]

Malayalam is a Dravidian language, the similar words are mostly just Sanskrit loans. Hindi is definitely related, though.

[@qtheplatypus]

The words for mother and father are very similar across all languages. They are all things like “mama” and “papa” sounds that babies will babble out.

[@b1battledroid882]

@@qtheplatypus Interesting tidbit: Some linguists believe the reason for the near universal use of the 'M' sound for mothers and 'F/P/D/T/B' sounds for fathers is due to babies spending more of their very early lives with their mothers, and only being able to vocalize simple mouth movements, like 'A' or 'M', which are then associated with mothers. Fathers spend a little bit less time with children's extremely early stages of development than mothers and are then associated with more complex sounds developed later down the road, like aforementioned 'F', 'P', 'D' or 'T'.

[@jyjyjyj3]

@@b1battledroid882 in russian we have very similar words "papa", "mama", "sem"

[@quiestinliteris]

I took Latin in grade school, and part of the justification for it being on offer was ability to work out English words by using the roots, but also to make it easier to learn Romance languages later. And it has been very helpful in learning Spanish and being able to parse signage in France despite not having learned any at all. But I was SHOCKED to find myself recognizing cognates in Hindi. Not enough to help me genuinely communicate, but it was still a heck of a revelation years before I had ever heard of PIE.

[@takanobaierun]

Indo-Europeans: we are a big family! Finns and Hungarians: Who are you people?

[@kcnmsepognln]

🤣

[@miyojewoltsnasonth2159]

*@takanobaierun* Who are you people SURROUNDING US? *Reply to:* _"Finns and Hungarians: Who are you people?"_

[@purplemarsmotionpictures]

Don't forget Estonians and the Sami! The big Uralic family outside of Russia

[@Onionbaron]

Perkele!

[@zoltanposfai3451]

@@purplemarsmotionpictures Our Khanty and Mansi brothers.

[@sanebooks]

My grandfather (Vittore Pisani, 1899-1990) was a world-renowned glottologist who taught linguistics at the university of Cagliari first and then at the university of Milan. I grew up knowing these notions in part because all of his children (he had 14) had to learn Latin and ancient Greek and so did a lot of his 30 grandchildren (me included) and basic word histories were passed down. I never realized how not normal this was, as a kid. I thought everyone knew these "basic notions" growing up! You can look him up in the Italian Wikipedia. He was a brilliant mind, but a very distant grandfather. He spoke 12 languages, most of them self-taught.

[@arrunzo]

A lot of "common knowledge" is not as common as one may think; especially when it comes to experts in certain fields overestimating the average person's knowledge. You're lucky to have been born into a family where this knowledge was easily shared and valued! A lot of families don't even truly value education in the first place.

[@DS-ll5fn]

In my family (8 children) my siblings and I were also used to s father who had lots of books about languages. We always used to look up the etimologic origin of words in different languages. I now do the same with my 7 children 😂. Speak 7 languages and enjoy your videos!❤

[@sendmorerum8241]

About the whole "not normal" thing... A story comes to my mind, one about a child from an animal trainer family. On his first day of school he asked the other kids: "What kind of bears do you have at home?" 😂

[@sanebooks]

@@sendmorerum8241 that is hilarious!

[@serbonkers4130]

No way! We learned about your grandpa at school just a few weeks ago!

[@quellant6937]

Thanks for the shout-out! PIE is often reconstructed as having a pitch-accent system, contrasting high and low level tones, as well as a falling contour tone from high to low. This is something I didn't account for in my rendition of PIE. Vedic Sanskrit and Ancient Greek retained this ancestral system for a while. Modern Norwegian and Swedish have a their own new pitch-accent systems that evolved independently, as well as a few other Indo-European languages such as Serbo-Croatian and Punjabi. I've always been fascinated by proto-languages and the idea that, collectively, we humans may be more interconnected than we previously thought. Great video as always!

[@blazer9547]

Proto indo European originated in eastern Europe , pontic steppe to be exact. Something hindu nationalists deny

[@ami443]

​@@blazer9547we don't know. Maybe in turkey.. Maybe in Armenia.. Maybe in Caucasus mountains.. Maybe in Ukraine...

[@economics12]

i come from teh remote mountains of northern Pakistan where we speak an old hindi accent and when i listen to the very old people they say words like; Hithar (here) huthar (there) Gars (grass) Madar (mother) Is (this) Nak (nose) bund (behind) ma (I) chan (moon) suraj (sun) darya (river) tu (you) vo (he/they) nasa (nostril) mun (mouth) ladna (loading) marg (death/morgue) khunee (knee) ga (cow) and i could go on forever. i see so many similarities with the European words.

[@kcnmsepognln]

Amazing! Just reading your list, there is much that is immediately familiar. EG "Hithar (here)": no very long ago "come hither" (come here) was in common usage! And "nasa (nostril)" is clearly related to "nasal".

[@julius9055]

That's so cool, absolutely crazy

[@youknow6968]

That's not old hindi, that's urdu. Hindi has no history in any of the northern regions of Pakistan. It's Urdu.

[@antonyreyn]

@@youknow6968Do you know that, as there was no Pakistan before 1946? Modern borders do not dictate ancient languages

[@aLadNamedNathan]

@@youknow6968 Hindi and Urdu are dialects of a single language, namely Hindustani.

[@purplemarsmotionpictures]

Growing up with Norwegian, English, Hindi, and Punjabi THIS has been the most obvious thing my whole life. I also learnt Norse, Latin, and Sanskrit as a teenager, and the words are one thing but the grammar takes this to the next level. Sentences in Latin make more sense translated into Hindi for me. And some Sanskrit idioms make more sense in Norwegian.

[@colorswordsandlearning]

This is so interesting. I love the interplay of languages and words and the depth all of it will add as you read . So many connections .

[@danielzhang1916]

the Indo branch kept many of the older sounds, maybe because they migrated earlier than everyone else

[@Amos18289]

I'm a Sri Lankan who speaks Sinhala ( an Indo European language). Years ago whem I was learning English and German I recognised these similarities and studied about it. That's whem I fell in love with linguistics and became one of my hobbies. Here how we count one to ten if anyone is interested Eka Deka Thuna Hathara Paha Haya Hatha Ata(ahta) Nawaya Dahaya

[@LiquidSolidus9000]

To explain more about "hundred", the "red" in hundred apparently comes from a word meaning "row", that was related to "read"

[@brookekrovic7739]

"Red" still means row or order in Croatian, the language I'm learning. :-)

[@charlesp.kalina4162]

Law school memory: Professor mentions in class that the word “testimony” comes from Roman men swearing an oath by reference to their testes. So I got to explain that this was a common misconception, that Romans didn’t do that, and that the word actually comes from PIE roots meaning “third person standing” (i.e. a disinterested bystander or witness). The anatomical term for male gonads comes from an unrelated PIE root meaning “dry”, via terms for baked clay containers. (Same root as "thirst", incidentally.) Didn’t do that well in the class, but at least I got to sharpshoot some etymological misconceptions. Good times…

[@squirlmy]

you not only corrected him but symbolically emasculated him! I'm sure he(assuming a male professor) was happy to have that association of legal-speak and masculinity, and you took it right from him. In his class no less! As someone diagnosed as "on the autism spectrum", this seems to me a very "aspy" faux pas.

[@jonesnori]

Yes. Well done, though!

[@charlesp.kalina4162]

@@squirlmy -- Nah, it was all good. Granted, he did retire the next year, but I'm sure that was unrelated... :-)

[@mfaizsyahmi]

@@charlesp.kalina4162 would be funnier if it _is_ related. Like you shattered his whole world view that he's incapable of continuing on teaching.

[@robcat2075]

Whenever I hear a teacher spouting something obviously false, I have to wonder, how much of the rest of this class is BS too?

[@davidfrogley7117]

child in Swedish is "barn", and child in Scots is "bairn". Fascinating!

[@aLadNamedNathan]

And they're both related to English "born." A child is someone who was born only a few years ago.

[@alexythemechanic8056]

My pet theory is it comes from the Danes/Nords. "Bairn" exists in Scots, and also in dialects from North-East England like Geordie from Newcastle where the Danelaw existed. Another interesting one is "braw" in Scots, meaning "good", which is very similar to the Swedish "brå".

[@LoverofHistory3000]

@@alexythemechanic8056You’re right. In another of Rob’s videos he says how that these Scots/northern English dialect words come from old Norse, as the Vikings raided then settled these parts the most

[@blackshard641]

@@alexythemechanic8056 the Danes and the Nords did in fact settle the northern British Isles - quite possibly where my Scottish surname (which just so happens to also feature in Beowulf) comes from.

[@user-gd4ku5se8h]

Thanks! Now l know why Mr. Scott called the Enterprise's engines his "wee barins" 😂 Have mercy Captain!

[@samroberts7404]

This is one of the most satisfying videos I've seen in a very long time...

[@user-xb5eo2bm1n]

I'm Indian and I have basic knowledge in Sanskrit. I once tried learning Latin and I was amazed to find similarities not just in vocabulary but also structure. It might not seem obvious at first but my knowledge of Sanskrit and my overall interest in languages in general led me to observe those similarities. For example, in Sanskrit the third-person singular and plural verb conjugations are respectively -ti and -nti. In Latin they are -t and -nt. I also tried learning Persian and observed even more similarities there but that was more obvious are Persian is much more closely related to Sanskrit.

[@staninjapan07]

Thanks.

[@blueeyedbaer]

As a Lithuanian I'm so excited that you've included some examples of our language. We have lots of words that are literally the same or very very similar as in Sanskrit, and lots of our words sound similar to reconstructed PIE words.

[@BGM16]

Exactly, Lithuanian is the closest living language in Europe to Proto Indoeuropean, cheers for that. 🍻

[@ModernDayRenaissanceMan]

Lithuanian is considered the closest living language to pie.

[@ami443]

Lithuanian language is extremely close to pie.... Yes

[@CocoSon-we2rg]

@@ModernDayRenaissanceMan A linguist who could draw correct conclusions about PIE should know the following languages: Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Lithuanian, Armenian, Romanian, Albanian and Ossetian.

[@trafo60]

Small correction, the initial h in Greek 'hekaton' doesn't correspond to the initial k of PIE, but the middle k does. The he- part comes from a root meaning 'one', so the whole thing means 'one hundred', with the 'katon' part being a very close reflex of kmtom.

[@davidsturm7706]

Yes, the he- part comes from sm°- a root for one. So it's sm°-+km°tom. Greek initial s- becomes h-, m°- becomes a vowel... he+katon. *One* hundred

[@ModernDayRenaissanceMan]

​​@@davidsturm7706That's also very similar to the progression of the word for son. Son & one probably were related at one time as 'firstborn." However language was much more simple back then so they probably said one born

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

It ABSOLUTELY wasn't more simple. It was slower and with less vocabulary, but it had a BUNCH more grammar. Hunter-gatherer societies tend to have a lot more complex grammar because they have more time and less things to talk about.

[@trafo60]

@@bacicinvatteneaca You're right for pointing that out, but what do you mean when you say that the language was 'slower'? Also, how would having more time and less things to talk about make grammar more complex?

[@satoru.nakata]

PLAT - word family • Platus, an ancient greek word means flat or brode. 1. Platypus- flat footed animal 2. Platinum- flat or inferior silver metal 3. Plate- flat metal disc 4. Plato- nick name for his brode chest 5. Plateau- flat area 6. Platitude- flat or empty saying

[@Parso77]

Maybe four things to expand on (including one to correct outright) here: 1. “Proto” is not Latin but rather Greek; it remains the Modern Greek for “first”; 2. The Ancient Romans pronounced “pater” roughly to rhyme with “latter” (not “later”), but note it did not rhyme with “mater” as that had a long “a”; 3. English “see” is actually ultimately cognate with Latin “sequor” (meaning “I follow”; hence also “sequence”, “consecutive” etc) and thus “I see” in English really means “I follow” (but often from context this now means specifically with the eyes); 4. “Chief” did not, of course, develop within English but was a borrowing specifically from Norman French (cf. “chef”, a later borrowing from Standard French).

[@dbryn2]

About #2: it does not matter

[@boggled007]

That was insanely interesting and, as always, so clearly explained. Best of all... no background 'music'!

[@erichbaumeister4648]

*_NO BACKGROUND MUSIC IS WONDERFUL!_*

[@colorswordsandlearning]

Second this

[@notdon245]

A quiet background music is better.

[@EVPaddy]

@@notdon245so add one for yourself

[@arrunzo]

I 100% agree! I hate so many jump cuts, background music and ads everywhere. I love videos that get right to the point! I find myself always clicking around KZbin videos because so many of them implement these irritating practices.

[@rustyredbeard]

Sir, in a platform rapidly filling with artificailly created non-content, your videos are more important than ever. I wish there was a 'real' verification mark that channels like yours could attain.

[@shmurt11]

I concur

[@stephencoles3664]

I've been on this platform since early 2007. It's always been filled with garbage. Not to discredit your point, however. I agree that Rob Words is a gem among the rough! I've found that if you're particular about what content you watch and you use the "do not recommend" button, you will eventually not receive trash. (Most of the time 😅)

[@LightIceAurora]

I feel like this comment is AI

[@stephencoles3664]

@@LightIceAurora Beep boop!

[@LightIceAurora]

@@stephencoles3664 oh you.

[@AngelaStone5678]

This video epitomises everything I love about the internet. Absolutely amazing and free to access. Brilliant!

[@ASChambers]

Rob, it was wonderful watching you completely nerd out on this one and get soooooo excited. I’m totally with you about how fascinating the whole thing is.

[@CarefulWithThatAx]

My favourite PIE root is *bhel-, "shine, flash, burn". It's the root of the English word "black", as well as the French word for "white", "blanc", and thus the English "blank". English "white" comes from PIE *kweit-, which also meant "shine". I guess the PIE-speakers liked talking about shiny things a lot.

[@SoulDelSol]

I saw video about that. Pretty cool

[@SchmulKrieger]

The French word blanc is exclusively a loan from Common Germanic into Latin because they lacked a word for it. Same as gris fro grey/gray or bleu for blue. Germanic loan words into Latin.

[@SupGaillac]

Hey! Vsauce! :)

[@CarefulWithThatAx]

​@@SchmulKrieger True! From Frankish (a Germanic language) into French, then into English, near as I could find. I'm just tickled by the fact that words for black and white have the same root.

[@squirlmy]

I like *lewk- in Old English lēoht , Latin lūceō (lūcēre) "to shine", lūx "light," and in Greek leukós. As in Lucifer; "the light bringer", the god of the evening star, son of Aurora (the Dawn). lol

[@p__vids]

Here's my favourite example showing how these languages are related: - Hindi/Punjabi: Javaan - Farsi: Javoon - Italian: Giovane - Spanish: Joven - French: Jeune - Dutch: Jong - English: Young They're all basically the same word! Pretty neat!

[@aveekbh]

Yes, that's one of my favourite things (as an Indian) when learning (non-English) IE languages - how some of the words are basically the same!

[@tobiasharstel7941]

Persian - Stan (in many countries, like KazakhSTAN) English - stay German - steh So Kazakhstan is the place were Kazakhs stay (live)

[@mahatmaniggandhi2898]

​@@tobiasharstel7941 well we dont use the word "stan" in persian anymore but we do use as a suffix for many places for example bolgharestan: bulgaria engelestan: england lehestan: poland . . .

[@shawolzen4893]

Juvenis in Latin hence the word juvenile

[@mihanich]

@@tobiasharstel7941 also "stan" means "camp" and "stature" in Russian, and "yunyi" means "juvenile"

[@malvoliosf]

You see the same phenomenon in non-PIE languages. “Medicine” is 藥 (yào) in Chinese, ยา (yaa) in Thai, and 약 (yak) in Korean. “North” and “South” in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese are 北 (běi), 북 (buk), and Bắc; and 南 (nán), 남 (nam), and Nam (Vietnam is the “the land of the Southern Viets”, the Viets being in the dominant ethnic group in the area). Interestingly, Chinese, Thai, Korean, and Vietnamese words for bread - 包 (bāo), ปัง (pang), 빵 (ppang), and bánh - are similar for a different reason: the all come from the Portuguese word pão, I guess because bread came to the East with Portuguese traders.

[@Pastor24u]

Vad roligt att du lär dig svenska. I have been following you videos for years and being a polyglot I really appriciate them! Hälsningar från Sverige!

[@BarbarosaAlexander]

Probably my favorite subject in linguistics, the origin and evolution of language. I can't even explain why I find it so fascinating. It's such a joy to, as I have in this video, learn something new. And, yes, the hundred progression was satisfying.

[@danielzhang1916]

our minds always look for patterns, it's satisfying that all indo european languages are connected

[@jasonguzik8660]

I have a fascination with languages, all thanks to Mr. JRR Tolkien and his constructed languages.

[@colorswordsandlearning]

He was very great with words and languages .

[@peztopher7297]

Me, too! I ended up studying linguistics in college and was gratified to discover that Tolkien was a philologist.

[@arrunzo]

He was always quite a "celtophile", as evidenced by a certain Celtic influence on the languages of Middle-earth. The funny thing was he actually constructed the world and stories primarily to serve the languages. In other words, his love of languages came first and everything came after.

[@ChirkunovIvan]

My favorite English Russian cognates: 1. Sit - Sidieti 2. Wit - Vidieti and Viedati 3. Nest - Gniezdo 4. Milk - Moloko 5. Stuff - Stiebieli 6. Moon - Miesiats 7. Saddle - Siedlo 8. Stand - Stati 9. Rye - Rozh 10. Leed - Liudi 11. Skul - skuly 12. is - jesti 13. That - Tot 14. Wolf - Volk 15. Folk - Polk 16. Lie 1 - Liezhati 17. Lie 2 - Lgati 18. Tooth - Diesna 19. Stool - Stool (lol) and Stol 20. Murther - Smierti

[@Kramfors1]

Va härligt att höra dig prata svenska, Rob!

[@angelcollina]

When you introduced the word “nostratic” as “countrymen” or “us” I had an AHAH!! moment! In Spanish “nosotros” which has that nos- beginning means “we”!! Which makes a lot of sense because Spanish retains much of its Latin roots. Also! Cheers 🥂 from a fellow linguist nerd!!

[@Ellie-wl3rw]

My brain leapt in at that moment too, recognising nos-. It's common across the Romantic languages for "we" and to suddenly reinterpret that as "all of us", "a country" and beyond, was a head-exploding moment.

[@angelcollina]

@@Ellie-wl3rw *high fives*

[@JimMonsanto]

That's literally where it comes from. The Russian linguists who came up with it just wanted to call it "OUR langauge" (Our referring to all of us humans), hence "Nostra (our)"+tic.

[@wraithlord9]

Not just the italic branch, in the indic branch it is used as the plural enclitic of the accusative, dative and genetive, its pronounced predictably as nas (all e and o sounds collapse to a), of the pronoun declension of 'I', the declension stem we call asmad, related to English - us.

[@glitchy9613]

And "nosotros" is related to english "us" as well! "nosotros" < latin "nos" < PIE "nsme" "us" < proto germanic "uns" < PIE "nsme"

[@mrharvest]

As a Finnish speaker, I enjoyed the discussion of Proto-Uralic. I would have also been keen to hear about Proto-Turkic and why seemingly PIE just missed that whole chunk of land.

[@jujujuju4435]

Actually a branch of the PIE was spoken in what's now modern-day Turkey. It was the Anatolian languages (Hittite, Lydian and others whose names I forgot). They were spoken during Antiquity and ended up extinct. So PIE reached this land but didn't maintain. Concerning Proto-Turkic, it was spoken somewhere in Central Asia (where exactly I have no clue, it's not the language family I'm the most interested in, but I guess hypotheses were made over time). Turkish didn't develop in what's nowadays Turkey. The turk arrived pretty recently (at the historical scale) in this region.

[@ryanpangilinan5803]

To my understanding, they did there at one point. The Anatolian languages used to be spoken there, such as Hittite!

[@gunnasintern]

Anatolia had a lot of indo-european speakers like Hittite and Lydian they went extinct over time, would have been cool if they survived to help connect the PIE bridge

[@niall_sanderson]

@@jujujuju4435Luwian is the third Anatolian language you’re thinking of I believe

[@niall_sanderson]

@@gunnasinternThose Anatolian speakers got Hellenized after Alexander the Great’s conquest, and the descendants of those Hellenized Anatolian spoke Greek in those regions until the 1920s. Or rather, the ones who stayed Christian kept speaking it, since modern Turks are descended from both the Turkic nomads who arrived in the Middle Ages and the people who were living there beforehand. And since Greek was closely associated with Orthodox Christianity and Turkish was closely associated with Islam, people living there who converted to Islam generally started speaking Turkish and raising their children with Turkish as their first language.

[@sandrafaith]

This is _so_ interesting! You really make it so fun, so thank you. Always enjoy the videos and your newsletter.

[@XL-5117]

Absolutely fascinating Rob, I love how you make this channel not just about word meanings but go further and further to explain earlier explanations of language. It’s really interesting that other people from non English speaking countries are finding this fascinating and engaging with their languages. I look forward to seeing a new video release from you, they make my day! 🎉

[@sera_kath]

The Sanskrit "ashta" and the German "acht" are astonishingly similar.

[@aLadNamedNathan]

How about Sanskrit "atman" and German "Atem"?

[@thorstenjaspert9394]

English night, German Nacht. All nights are starting with n.

[@gabor6259]

Where English has a silent gh, German has a ch. eight - acht light - Licht daughter - Tochter

[@thorstenjaspert9394]

@@gabor6259 when was the gh voiced? The gh in Dutch is similar to the German ch attached with a r sound.

[@CoolGuy-th7bl]

@@thorstenjaspert9394 the 'gh' sound in English words was still spoken recently enough to appear in books made in printing presses, hence why they still appear in written English

[@TheCorgilorian]

RobWords has become one of my favorite channels on KZbin. You make learning about English and language interesting!

[@ggmtv1394]

Your best yet! The enthusiasm was clear, and the whole thing flowed.

[@jonathanbrett-warren2031]

Another fascinating video, Rob!

[@MrFearDubh]

At 12:15, the Irish "athair" for father is actually pronounced more like ah-her (th and sh are pronounced like an English h) so its pronunciation is even closer to the other words for father.

[@authentiekaziatisch5949]

If I remember correctly in PIE there were two roots for father: ‘pter’ and ‘atta’. Seems like the Irish took ‘atta’ (compare ‘atetz’ in Russian)

[@MrFearDubh]

@@authentiekaziatisch5949 I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for that info!

[@MrFearDubh]

That makes sense since in the Semitic languages, father is based on Aba/Abu so atta is close to those.

[@rommelrivera6131]

No, actually, in Proto-Celtic, the Proto-Indo-European p sound became somewhat of an f sound, which then disappeared in all daughter languages. Modern f in Celtic languages comes from different sources @@authentiekaziatisch5949

[@rommelrivera6131]

So *phter > *fater > *ather > athair Keep in mind that that's not the exact way the word evolved, but it's accurate enough to show that it did in fact come from the same word as father and pater

[@robinm1331]

There are some stunning cognates in Sanskrit that surprise English speakers. Matri for mother, Patri for father, datri for daughter.

[@stevemayes8799]

I like 'meera naama", my name is...

[@chanterellecryptid]

Matri and patri could have just been coincidental, to be fair. I mean, in this specific case they definitely aren't! But baby language acquisition follows a pretty set pattern no matter where they are, and babbling sounds get incorporated into parent terms all over the world. E.g. English and Arabic are not related, but English's 'mommy' sounds similar to Arabic's 'ummi'.

[@andrewtheworldcitizen]

It's not matri, patri, and datri... The correct Sanskrit transcription and pronunciation are as follows: मातृ (mātṛ) - mother पितृ (pitṛ) - father दुहितृ (duhitṛ) - daughter भ्रातृ (bhrātṛ) - brother It is amazing to see how an ancient Indo-Aryan language can be so extremely close to even modern English..... Many Indians, unfortunately, are Hindu nationalists, and they confuse the political propaganda and pseudo-history/mythology that they're taught since early childhood for real history and science.... Therefore, they usually deny the fact that the speakers of Proto-Indo-European originally came from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, c. 3,200 BCE, although it has been proven by science, i.e., a combination of archaeological data/physical remains, linguistic data, and genetic data.....

[@robinm1331]

@@andrewtheworldcitizen thank you! It's been a few years for me, so I appreciate the correction.

[@andrewtheworldcitizen]

​@stevemayes8799 That's Hindi/Urdu, which certainly descends from Sanskrit.... Sanskrit is like Ancient Greek or Latin, albeit even older..... The correct pronunciation is "merā nām" (meh-rah nahm) I'm a fluent speaker of Hindi/Urdu.... I've studied it for over 20 years... Here are a few simple sentences you'll find interesting: यह मेरा भाई है . - This is my brother. (yeh merā bhāī hai.) मेरे तीन भाई हैं . - I have three brothers. (mere tīn bhāī hain) आपका नाम क्या है? - (āpkā nām kyā hai) मेरा नाम अर्जुन है . (merā nām arjun hai)

[@fobobo563]

Super video! I've been eagerly awaiting this.

[@franciscocarpio256]

Congratulations! This vídeo is (like the ones you’ve posted before…) fascinating and inspiring. 👏🏻👏🏻🥰🥰

[@gameking501]

Great video as always, Rob! Another interesting historical observer on Proto-Indo-European was the Ottoman traveler, Evliya Çelebi (1611 - 1682). He ventured across much of the Mediterranean basin, and his familiarity with Persian allowed him to draw comparisons between German and Persian in the 17th century, suggesting a potential root between them! Alongside this, Evliya Çelebi was something of an amateur linguist and etymologist, and he gave us very detailed notes on the pronunciation of early-modern languages across much of Western Eurasia!

[@aLadNamedNathan]

There was also a Dutch professor named Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn (1612-1653) who noticed the similarity between many IE languages and proposed a relationship, but his ideas just didn't catch on among the academic community.

[@danielzhang1916]

@@aLadNamedNathan PIE wasn't really accepted until recently, same thing with plate tectonics that was proven much later on, a lot of people thought it was nonsense

[@amelinix]

I'm from Sweden and is learning german and I'm acutally thankfull that I know both Swedish and English cause now I can find a word in either the languages which sounds closest and go of that. Like for example Nervous is German is Nervös which is exacly like swedish Nervös.

[@aLadNamedNathan]

Watch out for false friends! The German word "Öl" means "oil," not "beer"!

[@ControlledChaos-rk5tk]

English is much more influenced by latin and French, which is also explained because British people are much more mixed bunch.. native britons, picts, gaels, romans, normans, anglo-saxons, and even some viking influence too.

[@tux_duh]

I learned a little swedish, I liked how it felt like French and English combined in a way Also Glass and glass are my favorite swedish words haha

[@aLadNamedNathan]

@@tux_duh I've never studied Swedish, but I was watching some Swedish video once that was tailored for beginning speakers. I was surprised how much of it I could understand without any study whatsoever. One think that threw me off was that the teacher was talking about "glass," while she was showing a video of children eating ice cream out of glass bowls. I wondered why she was focusing so much on the bowls, when I realized that the Swedish word for ice cream is a borrowing of the French word "glace"!

[@proosee]

They all or Germanic languages, so this is a much tighter connection than one presented in the video.

[@R0KURU]

I have always been so fascinated by this. Thank you for the video, Rob!

[@oldplucker1]

When I retired I decided, as a challenge ,to study my father’s Oxford Dictionary and see if I could work out the patterns in words and sure enough because there are so many variations I managed to work out that there was a common language from the past. And I then started buying books on Etymology and sure enough I was correct with all my findings. I also have a very neat way to determine if words from different languages are related. Spending lots of time in Spain reaffirmed the links. And visiting Wales! One annoying English word is Cupboard. But that is an open shelf for cups! Cupboards are closed off! Then I found an old Spanish word for Cupboard which related to Cubierta (Covered) So we actually should call a Cupboard a ‘Covered’. Because that is what it is! I found out all what is in this video and way more. I even worked out our original Proto Language from at least a hundred thousand years ago. And it is basic and understandable but very simple so not suitable for complex conversation. I think a lot of body language was used to impart meaning. Also words are actually ‘Recordings of speech’ in the same way musical notation is a recording of music. We still use the phrase ‘Keeping a Record’ when meaning to write it down. There is so much more to languages. I only speak English and a bit of basic Spanish and French but the patterns are there and electronic translators can find lots of words in many languages as can translator apps! So you do not need to have a second language to work all this out. 👍

[@renerpho]

One of the best KZbin channels to follow if you want to stay in the loop about P-I-E is Jackson Crawford. He looks at new discoveries and theories -- from the recent archeological find of a newly attested language that's closely related to Hittite, to attempts to link the Indo-European languages with Basque. Crawford discusses them with colleagues, shares his criticism and questions, etc.

[@arrunzo]

Thanks for the recommendation! If I'm not mistaken, he was on an Ecolinguist video about Old Norse. I didn't know he talked about Proto-Indo-European.

[@Lulugu]

10:34 Swedish does this in words like Kök and Keramik (Kitchen and Ceramics) which is prounced more like Shök and Sherameek

[@user-fo6oe9ec4j]

The 'sh' sound in 'kök'/'keramik' is a modern development. Before 20-30 years ago it was a sound like german 'ch' in 'Mädchen' (but not like in 'ach'). The same 'replacement' has happened in many Norwegian dialects. The younger generations often don't hear the difference.

[@cognomen9142]

@@user-fo6oe9ec4j And in the 1800's it was typically more like English 'ch' with a "t" sound at the beginning. This is still the standard in Fenno-Swedish.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

This is called lenition (in general) and satemisation (when related to K sounds turning soft)

[@rexmyers991]

As always - SO VERY interesting. Thanks, Rob.

[@michaelmiller641]

Absolutely fascinating! Rob. Thanks for that

[@EvaldasBuinauskas]

No surprise that Lithuanian was mentioned plenty of times. Was really interesting to hear numbers sounding almost native

[@stevenjlovelace]

I've heard that the Baltic languages are sometimes considered to be closest to PIE.

[@ANCalias]

@@stevenjlovelace yeah especially old prussian

[@kelisurfs247]

I love watching your videos because you show how much you love what you know. It’s a pleasure to watch 😊

[@Ellie-wl3rw]

Rob's delight is infectious, isn't it? 😍

[@GsGeorg]

Rob, it's embarrassing, please fix, this at 4:55, "proto" is a Greek prefix, not a Latin one.

[@ramsn1971]

we love your channel! great job explaining historical linguistics. thank you

[@e.gonnermann4646]

On my travels, every nation I came accross sang the song Frere Jacques in their own language. Loved it.

[@jeffmendolo]

I’ve been watching your videos for a couple of years now, this is the best! Wonderful job.

[@msaligned]

This was wonderful, and so interesting! Thank you so much for compiling it. It really makes me want to learn more. I like (and "like") all of your videos, but I gave this one a super thanks.

[@mykonomen]

Really good work on the Swedish letter Å! Hard for many English speaking people I’ve noticed. Love you channel! / Håkan.

[@OlaHime]

I honestly didn't expect "Welcome to another RobWords" to be earliest english ancestor! :3

[@toddscott6899]

This was the best episode yet! Mind blown!

[@hcolcombet]

Wow... probably the most interesting video I have seen in a very loooooong time. Merci!

[@lewisgiles8855]

Thanks for your persistence Rob! Your vids are the best

[@seajaytea9340]

Great video (as always)!! Thank you!

[@gingerfreak01]

I always love your videos Rob, but this is your best. Utterly fascinating and so well presented as usual. Brilliant.

[@ricksherman34]

This was super cool. I had no idea all these languages were related. Very cool. Great video!

[@marshaprice8226]

Fascinating and informative, as always! Thanks!

[@bobthemagicmoose]

I’m really interested in patterns shared between unrelated languages. Like “hi” “nihao” “aloha” “hola” “marhaba “ all have the aspirated “h” sound; perhaps because it’s a word you need to shout a bit more? I’m sure even mentioning this exposes my ignorance… which is exactly why such a video would be awesome!

[@bobthemagicmoose]

In other words: are sounds arbitrary or do they have meaning?

[@vacuumdiagram]

@@bobthemagicmoose It was very interesting that "m" was usually the beginning of "me", across so many languages. i assume because its such an easy sound to make - don't even have to open your mouth, hah! Having the same level of knowledge/ignorance, the shouting part seems reasonable - works for Halt! too!

[@inyobill]

Segue into the final topic of the video ... . I believe you got where he was leading.

[@inyobill]

@@bobthemagicmoose I would hazard that the sounds are mostly arbitrary, but not all. See "buzz", "hiss", "bellow", the list goes on, even "piss".

[@Markone99]

Marhaba is a stretch, the h there is a semitic sound found in Arabic and Hebrew and almost no other language (which is why Arabs sometimes put numbers in their words, cuz they resemble the original letter; Marhaba would be written as Mar7aba, and that's cuz 7 resembles ح in مرحبا). A closer word would be Hala or Ahlan, which are Arabic words, and resemble the ones you mentioned much more!

[@aleksandrawielka2687]

I just found your channel and I LOVE IT! the work you do is incredible! I’m waiting and wishing for an episode with more polish in it! It’s super unique! ❤

[@LearningSpanishwithDrL]

Great video!

[@jaded_gerManic]

Love your content! 🌻

[@andeeanko7079]

Fascinating stuff, Rob! ❤

[@reriuqne0-ny1er]

Brilliant and enlightening.

[@tragedician]

Another great video for language fanatics. Keep up the great content!

[@DavidHamster88]

Such a well crafted video!

[@mizapf]

15:04 And the related word to "caput" in German is "Haupt" (c→h), while the German "Kopf" is related to English "cup" (from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz, "round object, bowl").

[@ivanskyttejrgensen7464]

Thanks for that. I was wondering about the Haupt->Kopf change in German. It's interesting that it means a small container because something similar happened in Italian Capo->Testa (testa roughly means "small jar"). Now I wonder why both languages had such a similar change to the word for head...

[@julius9055]

@@ivanskyttejrgensen7464 Maybe from people using them like slang? In English too, 'noggin' is a slang word for head that comes from a word meaning a small drinking cup.

[@ivanskyttejrgensen7464]

@@julius9055 I doubt it. I think the change in Italian and German happened much too early for that, and slang rarely crosses languages.

[@julius9055]

@@ivanskyttejrgensen7464 I'm saying the fact that it happened in English too, further suggests it's a common transition of meaning.

[@foolcat23]

The German word for “hood” (that which covers the head) is “Kapuze” [kaˈpuːt͡sə]. And fitting into that as well is the word for “cap” (another head ornament), “Haube” [ˈhaʊ̯bə].

[@Karen-ul9hd]

So cool, this. Very satisfying! Getting together with you and all those people from all over the world in your German forest. Nostalgic Nostra-humans. Thank you from a Dutch immigrant to New Zealand :)

[@charliesandoval9277]

I’m a linguist dork, too. Love this great video and the many examples. Thank you, Rob!

[@maxkim7937]

in korea, we have gyeon or gae for dog. many linguists in korea believe we also owe our language to sanskrit. dola (not exactly sure how it's spelled...) has a meaning similar to turning (which by the way, turn and dola both having t/d and r/l is remarkable) in sanskrit. in korean, we have dor-a (it's how i would spell it to be more accurate) which also means to turn. it wasn't a borrowed word from hanja (chinese characters). makes me confident that we have sanskrit baked-in in our language. the word for tower in sanskrit is atta, udarka, attaka. in old chinese and cantonese it's taap, in korean it's tab (탑), in mandarin it's tǎ, and in japanese it's to-. i can easily see how we go from atta to taab/tab/tǎ/to- and tower. remove the "a" at the beginning, and you can see that they all kept the sound "t + vowel" and evolved from there. there really should be a europe/asia/north africa proto language. but i'm guessing it's too archaic to find the link (edit) just thought about this while reading comments. this might be a stretch, but i thought it was interesting so i'm sharing my opinion on it. in korean, we have two words for fire. one is borrowed from hanja and the other is just korean. we have hwa, which if we replace hw to f, it's fa. although, it's spelled fire, it still kinda sounds like fa (not that it needs to have the same exact vowel sound but it works in this case). the other word is bul (yes, like the buldak noodles) which sounds similar to what happens when there is a fire, things burn. we then have a word to ride, to be on, or to take "tada" or just "ta" so to take flame or to burn is bultada or bul e tada (e is just a preposition for in/on). tocar in spanish means to touch. which is similar to taking something. fuego is fire. so in a very stretched way (i told you, this is an opinion of mine that could just be a stretch from my adhd mind) tocar+fuego, in a very bad barely making sense way, is the same as to take flame and therefor bul e tada. glad i got that out of my system. now i can move on with my life 😅🤣 (edit) okay yeah, i should stop where i was. but my mind says otherwise... e is a preposition for in or on like i mentioned before. but we also have the literal word for "in" which is "an" this is very similar to "en" in spanish. in korean, "an e" is "inside" what is happening to my mind... hopefuly this is the last "edit" i make to this... but i don't know anymore 😅🙃. it's still fun to let my mind go wild with languages i guess...

[@garnedmatser]

Wow, can you share something more that Korean is originated from Sanskrit. Very surprised.

[@garnedmatser]

The word you share about fire is Agni(Sanskrit) & Igni(Latin). How similar is still surprises me (Igni = Agni). The English word Ignition comes from there, if you noticed you will see it written near key switch, I dont know in korea whether it written in English or not, you can confirm me.

[@VORASTRA]

​​@@garnedmatser russian word огонь reads something like "agon" with softened n sound which is like there was 'i' in the end [agon(i)]. The connection is everywhere.

[@TioDeive]

What an outstanding job! Thank you.

[@aliAhmed-zq1tg]

Detailed, simple yet profound and interesting as usual.

[@InfernalPasquale]

Absolutely fascinating and enlightening. I had never truly appreciated the history of language until watching this.

[@EngineerLewis]

Thanks for opening my eyes to the history of English and other associated languages! A great and fascinating presentation.👍

[@Zedd7]

This was really interesting, Rob, thank you.

[@xubluetree86]

This was great. I was always fascinated by the word ‚mother’. It’s literally the same pattern all around the world.

[@AmvC]

i love our ability to travel through time

[@Looey]

Man, this vid is so good !

[@niros9667]

This was so so fascinating. Really enjoyable video, thanks.

[@prof113]

Phenomenal presentations as always!

[@robertkimber822]

Really fascinating - thank you!

[@gaufrid1956]

Having studied French, Latin and Sanskrit in my youth, I really appreciate your video about *P-I-E, Rob. On the Asian side of things, I think that there was probably a Proto-Austronesian language, which gave rise to the Taiwanese tribal languages, the many Filipino languages, and Proto-Malay (which was the Lingua Franca of South East Asia for a long time), and Bahasa Indonesia. It's easy to see how many similarities there are between many languages throughout South East Asia.

[@aLadNamedNathan]

There was a proto language for every language family that exists.

[@heffo67]

Excellent stuff Rob, Very interesting. It makes perfect sense that many languages have come from similar roots and roots can go deep!

[@StrangeHistoricalThings]

Very cool. Really enjoyable and education video! Thanks!

[@TheGlebeLaird]

As for the odd use of “the” I suspect the author was using “language” as understood, as in “the Celtic (language)”. Thoughts?

[@skipmcilvaine]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[@AAArend]

In Dutch (related to English) you can actually use an article before a language name (i.e. "Ik haat (het) Frans" = "I hate French") so maybe English dropped it somewhere between now and when the author used it

[@lucaslourenco8918]

He didn't use it for the other languages, though. I cam only guess that back then, "Old Persian" was not viewed as one syntactic element, and was more like "the old version of Persian", and maybe he felt that using the article was more natural

[@grampa6682]

My personal favorite is the word for Mom being the first thing any baby pronounce, just by sticking togheter the lips and then open them quickly. Is very similar in every language because of that. The mother would be the first person that the baby "spoke" that "word" for, so that sound just mean that: mother

[@SchmulKrieger]

It's actually what a lot of people here when a baby cries, ah, ah, ah, to mah, mah, mah. Like people are laughing like hahaha, or muha, muha muhaha. But that's actually absurd, because pa + -ter (blood relative marker) changes to fa + -ter. So does ma changes sometimes to la or ra.

[@runnynose8341]

My Daughters first words were Ipad and tiktok.

[@siryogiwan]

It's a myth that it's the 1st word spoken, it all depends on what you teach them, a lot of kids don't say either mum or dad

[@sophiejones3554]

That's a myth. Babies make "baba" and "dada" before "mama" and the first sound every baby makes is "gaga" which is not even a word in many languages let alone a term for a parent. It is true though that "mama" is practically universal, but it doesn't have to do with how babies talk. Irish mothers are mamas, and Chinese mothers are mamas, Maori mothers are mamas, and Russian mothers are mamas... but you know who isn't? Chippewa mothers, Maya mothers, Cherokee mothers, etc. everyone south of the Arctic Circle in the Americas. Same for the indigenous people in Papua New Guinea and Australia. The cultures who have been in their current locations for more than 10,000 years, when the Bering land bridge as last exposed.

[@user-lm8ou6rw9e]

My son's first words were mim mee. I was calling the dog and he joined in. Her name was Minnie.

[@dudermcdudeface3674]

This video is a lot of fun. Well done!

[@Picasso_Picante92]

You are truly a super nerd. Great video!

[@6099x]

Rob, linguistics was my field of interest I never pursued - I did something very unrelated instead in the end. It is so very exciting to be exposed to linguistics through your channel! Thank you very much 🎉

[@Reubentheimitator6572]

O Rob, I had learned most of this information already, but I really liked your way of saying it, thank you.

[@sombrachibi]

Rob you are a wonderful teacher, I love watching your videos more than once too :) Thanks for doing all that you do

[@misterwhyte]

Great video as always Rob! I'd love another one exploring the other major historical family groups. That'd be super interesting. :)

[@jorgelotr3752]

Quite interesting for you to use the word for "hundred", because that's what's commonly used to divide Indo-European (not Proto) into two main families: "satem" and "centum". PS. I believe that, apart from the "reconstruction from reconstructions" issue, the Nostratic hypothesis has to deal with the fact that those peoples lived close to one another and cross-contamination during millenia is bound to happen.