Proto-Germanic Reconstruction: Some Examples

[deviationblue]

You just being you, sharing what you love, brings me such joy. Never stop being you, Simon.

[joelmattsson]

At first the bit about english 'on' being cognate with swedish 'å' really threw me, because the only swedish word 'å' i knew was the one that means 'stream / small river', which is a reflex of the same proto-indo-european word as latin 'aqua' is. Obviously not the word you were talking about, but i just couldn't think of another word that was just 'å'.

The preposition that _means_ 'on' is 'på', which I always just kinda figured was some different word entirely that we'd just adapted to mean the same.

But another, slightly archaic way of saying 'på' is 'uppå'; it's not a common way of saying it (at least it's not in most swedish dialects, i feel like it's maybe more common in norwegian), and i always just interpreted it as 'upp + på', but actually, it's 'upp + å'. 'Uppå' then got eroded down to 'på' in casual speech. And now that i'm reading up on this, i see that _this_ 'å' survives in all sorts of expressions that i use regularly but haven't ever reflected on.

'På' does not seem very similar to 'on', but 'uppå' and 'upon'? i can't believe i didn't see it. My mind is blown, good sir. I've been going around saying what is essentially " 'pon" my entire life, and i didn't know it.

[dracodistortion]

When reconstructing Proto-Germanic, Gothic is a good place to look for situations whereas there's equal evidence that the Proto-Germanic word was one thing or the other, such as with "in". In Gothic, the word is "in", and seeing as Gothic seems to be our closest written language to Proto-Germanic, that makes it seem even more likely to be "in" in Proto-Germanic.

[aenesidemus]

Could you please make a video touching upon the relationship between Germanic and Slavonic languages? I feel like more people should know about how the two groups shaped each other throughout history.

[AccidentalNinja]

9:00 Short version: that is definitely a thing German does.

Long version:
If I recall my course on German phonetics correctly, German generally pronounces voiced consonants as unvoiced ones. I don't know the English term for this, but in German it's "Auslautverhärtung" ("hardening of an end sound"?). A "d" is pronounced more like a "t", a "b" like a "p", & a "g" like a "k" (unless preceded by an "i", in which case it's the German "ch"). My professor, who was a native speaker, did note that there was an exception occurs naturally (owing to "Faulheit der Sprachorgane", or "laziness of the speech organs"?) when the consonant which would otherwise become unvoiced is immediately followed by a voice consonant.
For example: "genug" would normally be pronounced like "genuk", but would end up sounding like "genug" in "genug gegessen".

[ArkhBaegor]

I've started learning Latin after discovering Luke Ranieri and even though I recognize most words through the lens of the romance language I speak, I'm blown away by how many words have obvious Germanic cognates. Whenever I read about Proto-Germanic I'm surprised by how similar it is to Latin

[blueflameblast]

Hey Simon, great video as always. Just thought I'd let you know that your Yiddish text at 1:20 is written backwards; it should be right-to-left whereas you've written in left-to-right. Cheers.

[osten]

“In” exists in Scandinavian languages as well (written “ind” in Danish).

“Ind” in Danish is used as:
To the center or middle of something or towards somewhere central
Into the woods / in through the window / into the city
“Ind i skoven” / “in ad vinduet” / “ind til byen”

But also to apply (søge ind), to cover/wrap (indpakke), get involved (indblande), hit something (støde ind i).

Very often used with “i” as “ind i” meaning “into”

[katherinereeder]

About a plural invented by a baby --- a 2 yr old baby who lived in my building would yell "abba-day!" when he saw a cat. He would say this no matter which cat he saw. His mother figured it was related to her saying affectionate words of some sort when she petted cats. One day two of my cats were in the hall, and the baby saw them, and yelled, "Abba-dabba-day!", called his mother over and repeated, "Abba-dabba Day!" It was the first time he had seen two at the same time.

[funlover]

0:00 'My qualification is in archaeology, not linguistics, and I will still make mistakes here and there.' Who does not (make them)? It's an amazing job you're doing and it's all the prove I need. Keep it up!

[wbluetannery]

This is my absolute favorite stuff, dude. I love this kind of highly technical diachronic stuff — and it's a great conlanging resource, too!!

[sukamakanpedas]

12:50 The Gothic word for bread is attested but it's unrelated to English 'bread': hlaifs (related to English 'loaf' and Finnish 'leipä').

[deithlan]

These are my favourite kind of videos honestly.
I could watch this for hours

[two_tier_gary_rumain]

I would love to see more on voiced and unvoiced and aspirated and unaspirated. Especially how such sounds change according to discovered rules that remain consistent.

[kitstorm]

Great stuff, Simon, keep up the good work! Been following your stuff for around two years now, and I've enjoyed everything you've put out, especially anything related to regional dialects and the evolution of language over time :))

[rg_fella]

Whooo! Seeing your video in my sub box always puts a smile on my face! :D
Keep up the good work, Simon!

[stephencalder]

I think your talks are fascinating. I can't get enough of them.

[LukeRanieri]

I loved every minute of this! Brilliant work. Thanks for the shoutout!

[bridgedidge]

Love your videos Simon! Utterly fascinating and a pleasure to watch and listen to.

[jestie]

proto-germanic and your videos on it are some of my absolute faves. i hope this brings some semblance of how far reaching your passion is -- your videos have really helped me discover my own love and passion for archaeology and linguistics. saying that, i've decided to pursue my own degree in archaeology and are eagerly waiting with bated breath to hear back from the university i applied to! thank you for these videos and your passion, truly. i look forward to every upload!