Back in 1969 when I started secondary school my Dad insisted that I take Latin as one of my languages. He thought it would be an advantage if I undertook a scientific career. It was very useful in medical school and throughout my career as a doctor. Thanks Dad!
@@stevecarter8810 it only looks intimidating if you don't speak the language. Same with German. "Umarmungsspenderautomatenhersteller". That mayhap look intimidating, but it actually (roughly) means "manufacturer of the hug giving machine".
@@veganmonter As someone who grew up in Ireland and learnt Irish, English, French and Latin at school, I would love to have had the opportunity to study German and Spanish as well. But higher level Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology had priority for my final years in secondary school. I gave up History and Geography after my Intermediate Certificate. Nowadays they are some of my favourite interests!
Earlier (don't know now) you needed to have a test in Latin to study medicine (and other subjects?) here. I learned it for 6 years and didn't use it directly. But it helps a lot with roman languages (Italian, Spanish...).
I took three years of Latin in high school...our teacher drilled this lesson in our head...Latin is everywhere....in our language, customs, law, and government...
When I was a kid in the 80s, they taught us that English was a Latin derived language. It was a shock to learn otherwise as an adult. To this day, I wonder whether they truly thought that, or if that was intentionally changed to distance us from the Germans, or something?
@@devenscience8894I was a kid in the 40s and 50s in the UK. I was never taught such nonsense. At root, English is clearly a Germanic language. A very large proportion of its educated vocabulary, however, is derived either directly, or via Norman French, from Latin.
@@nevilleharris4466 No 'might have been' about it. It was, and remains, a Germanic language with a very large Latinate vocabulary grafted on to that original base. That lexical process started when England was converted to Christianity and the Church had to import theological terms for which Old English had no equivalents. It's been going on ever since.
took greek and latin .... not so much to learn those languages but to better understand my own, have more insight into other european languages, and a better understanding of the last 3000yrs of "the west"
This channel , in my opinion, is amongst the best channels on UA-cam. It really is a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Mr. Rob, for your valuable content.
BBC report: English language: -It uses and depends on the Roman alphabet. -60% of its vocabulary comes from Latin, compared to only 26% of Germanic vocabulary. -Its grammar is not completely Germanic, it has parts of grammatical structure from Latin. For this reason, philologists consider the English language a hybrid language. The information in this video is correct. By the way, I'm English, greetings from London.
My mom - a Latin speaker- taught me all the Latin suffixes and prefixes so I could work my way through word pronunciation and meaning. Things like inter, infra, intra etc. That skill still helps me today attack long strange words I do not know. Thanks mom!
My favourite is "to negotiate". Apparently the roman high guys didn´t have much to do, so they enjoyed their leisure time (otium). Except for the case of a crisis, when they had to get up and e.g. develop a peace treaty. So that was the opposite of otium which equals to "neg-otium".
it makes sense, in spanish "negocio" means bussiness, and "ocio" means leasure coming from otium, and the english word I always supposed as I learnt it came from being busy, not on leisure. Edit: the english word apparently comes from an old english word meaning anxiety, which makes me freak out about the english word
As for anemia and cardiovascular system, in German, those medical terms do exist, but they were translated by the scholars to German terms, which can make it somewhat difficult to find the proper translation. So instead of cardiovascular system we actually say "Herz-Kreislauf-System" (lit. "heart-circleflow-system"), and instead of anemia we say "Blutarmut" (lit. "blood poverty") ... except for the physicians, of course.
As an English speaker and a German learner, why would you folks do this? In my native Polish, we will just happily say 'anemia', and now I gotta remember Blutarmut.
Yes the faqir is someone who is poor. So faqr ad-dam stands for scarcity of blood. Also ,though unrelated, I discovered the verb Fressen in German is even phonetically related to the Arabic verb "ifta-rassa' _ افترس. Used especially to describe the way animals eat their prey.
Back when I needed to ace the verbal section of the GRE so I could get into grad school, I bought a Barron’s test prep book that taught me Greek and Latin root words. It made all the difference. Not only did I ace that section, but I got full tuition remission to attend Washington University in St. Louis where I earned an MFA in fiction writing. Thank you Latin (and Greek).
It's curious how the technological terms had often made a circle : computer for example comes from Latin (that is the root of modern Italian, my language), and in Italy we adopted it from English!
The same thing has happened in English. For example, the Japanese borrowed the English words "power" and "up" to make "power-up", and used it in video games. That term was then borrowed back into English.
I'm wondering what exactly happened to cheese. The Latin word is 'caseus', the German 'Käse', and the English 'cheese' of course, but the Italian and French are 'formaggio' and 'fromage'. What happened?! :)
@@eekee6034 Nothing happened. In Italian there is also the word "cacio" (pasta cacio e pepe, caciocavallo, caciotta, etc...) and in Latin there is also the word "formaticum" which indicates the shape (forma).
Great video! I would like to see an episode of your channel dealing with words that are of multiple linguistic backgrounds (Latin + Greek, for example). Such words were invented for specific purposes and often have interesting histories. Thanks for your effort and time to bring your knowledge of the English language to us mere mortals!
Automobile is also a mixture of Greek and Latin. You can make another video for the hidden Greek words in English as well. I was quite surprised when I knew “problem” was a Greek word and also its meaning is as same as the Latin word “project” (throw forward)
I had that immediately in mind, when he spoke about the automobile and said it’s Latin. The αυτοκίνητο - the autokínito. Like automatic, autocratic, autonom etc. Greek words in other languages are my little crazy passion. To understand the sources of words helped me a lot to learn Greek, Spanisch and Italian. And of course I understood the the influence of Greek and Latin on my native language, German. I love videos like this.
As a former latin student who feels like they're losing their skills on a daily basis im excited to see if i still know most of what Rob is gonna tell us today. His videos are always so good they're worth watching even if you think you have the current video's topic mostly down! 🔥
As a former latin student, are you able to SEE THROUGH THE BS WHEN MOST PEOPLE THINK THIS IS English? Why is your surname in all caps on your DL???? #NullAndVoid #ForeignLanguage #Counterfeit #DogLatin #Glossa #Counterfeit #Coverup
I am so grateful to have learned English as my native language. So many ways to pronounce and spell the words. Any one who learns English as an adult is a genius.
It's not so much the genius of learning English, specifically, but being dedicated enough to be able to function in the U.S. requires learning it to a degree that you can not only deal with accents (and some are pretty awful) but the dialectic changes in vocabulary and usage in general. We don't always quite use the same exact forms of English, and it gets even more complicated if one simply takes the opportunity to travel to the UK or Europe. There's a pretty good one-liner delivered by Dennis Farina in "Snatch", "It's supposed to be the country that invented the f***in' language, but I've been here for days and NOBODY seems to speak any of it!" ...AND from Cockney to more popular double-speak and turns of phrase in the UK versus the U.S., he's not wrong. The internet (among other things) has led to some sharing across the pond, but it can still get pretty wonky. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I agree about the accents in the US. My daddy was from North Carolina so I have heard and understand the southern dialects. But the New England ones are just as thick and at times seem to come from Mars. I enjoy the videos because I always learn from them.
@@kathleencandelaria4106 Well, I've traveled most of the continent, though I grew up in the mountains on the border between NC and TN. It just seemed worth pointing out. Just learning English isn't have as hard as learning to negotiate how much Native Speakers mutilate it. ;o)
latin derived words are SO common in english vocabulary now that just by reaching adulthood you are basically able to understand a good chunk of latin. so much so that when learning romance languages, youll have tons of cognates to help you learn faster. thats how badly latin has invaded our germanic language
It works in reverse as well: that is, when a Romance language speaker begins to learn English. To a Romance language speaker English doesn't feel like a "terra incognita". At all.
Not just scientific words, but also fancy, poetic ones. I used to not speak Spanish, but I prided myself on having a pretty extensive vocabulary in English. When I became more proficient in Spanish, it became easy to guess what the Spanish translation of fancy English words were, like "incontrovertible" (incontrovertible), "indubitably" (indubitablemente), "circumlocution" (circunlocución), "loquacious" (locuaz), "phenomenon" (fenómeno), "catastrophe" (catástrofe), plethora (plétora), "taciturn" (taciturn@), "reticent" (reticente), miscellaneous (misceláneo), obsolescence (obsolescencia), etc.
I went to Catholic school in the pre Vatican II days and we went to Mass every day before classes. Also I sang in the choir. The Mass(aside from the sermon), was in Latin as were the hymns. We all knew what the Latin words meant as there were translations provided. I thought it was cool. Later, in high school, I took a couple of semesters of Latin, which I enjoyed.
Same here, Catholic grammar school in the early 60s, Latin Mass every school day morning, plus Sunday; choir; altar boy, then 3 years Latin in HS and two more years of Latin in college. The Latin Mass was beautiful, sometimes haunting & inspiring, especially requiem Masses. We still get a little taste of pre-Vatican II at some few points during the liturgical year... the Gloria, the Te Deum, the Sanctus, and the Angus Dei.
You must be my mom’s age. I remember her saying she went to church everyday even in college. Catholic girls school. When that song Kryie Eleison by Mister Mister came out she got a big kick out of it
It’s hard enough learning to read and write English as a junior in school, as my grandkids are just doing now. We don’t think of where the words come from until much later. They have been speaking English for many years now, which is amazing and are constantly asking questions about their world, all using usually one word ‘why’? We take so much granted and language is so important and how we use it. Your videos are very informative and help to understand the mishmash of influences that has made English the language it is. I wouldn’t like to learn it as a second language!
What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, for one thing, they made it harder to spell simple words. But that's not really their fault. As Rob points out, it was actually a lot of English snobs who screwed up our spelling.
@@alfresco8442 interstingly, that q is actually a different sound from k... the difference is subtle and English doesn't actually Care (never actually Contrasting the two) but the way the 'k' sound is formed before a 'u' in most English dialects is actually... not a 'k', at least in IPA terms. it's formed further back in the mouth. So, qu isn't quite the same as kw, it's more like, well, qw, to be honest. Again, not actually Relevant in English, but interesting.
I'm an old man with a passion for words. Have read many, many thousands. Etymology I find fascinating. I always strive to pronounce a word from a foreign language correctly, so as to respect the language. I just "discovered" your channel and it's a keeper. It's more than the educational aspect, with clarity, it's also that you are a very personable sort. Regards from N. Carolina.
When i arrived in Italy, i didn't know Italian but with a bit of logic i used those Latin words in the English language to help me learn Italian, i also had a bonus language that helped me, Swahili which is half Arabic and Bantu, this gave me the correct vowel use for writing and some words to. Thanks for the information. 😊
Congratulations on the publication of yet another fascinating tour of our English language. By the way, I just want to commend you on your recent evolution in your production quality. I am not saying your previous videos lacked any quality, but rather the overall calibre of presentation is looking good. Keep up the strong performance, for what you are doing right now is working!
I love that 'Computer' used to mean a person who 'computed' and now it's a digital device. LOL. Love digging into the origin of words and language. Thank you for this channel and commentary. ❤
The best part about latin words is that anyone who speaks a romance language can understand them. After learning English I'm trying to learn Dutch and there are many words I still can't understand nor can I remember because they're Germanic whereas the English words come from Latin or French. The worst part is that if you know English learning another Germanic language is somewhat easier but when you get to know more intermediate and specially advanced words, English won't help you anymore.
Yet... English is part of the Germanic language family tree in terms of its syntax and many of its words. We've absorbed Romance language words, but our sentences follow the Germanic structure. English truly is a mongrel, but thanks to that, it's also the most widely used and ever-expanding language in the world.
Having some familiarity with basic Latin and Chemistry was quite literally a lifesaver. Wound up in a German ER, nauseous and dehydrated. The doctors/nurses failed to give me an IV. [German Healthcare is terrible.] On the verge of passing out, I asked for Saline. The nurse shook her head. I repeated myself, and followed with, "Wasser und Sodium Chloride." Again, she shook her head in confusion. At that moment, I had a faint recollection from a past honors course, " *Natrium* Chloride!" The nurse finally understood, "Ah, ja, o-kay." I breathed a sigh of relief, and everything went dark. Woke up later with an IV and a Saline drip. The doctors weren't able to identify the illness which had plagued me [no surprise], but I was alive. You never know when some arcane knowledge will come in handy.
@redslate An interesting story, I really enjoyed your post. Hope you are well, safe and happy now? I appreciated your remarks about distant, arcane knowledge suddenly being useful ! I've also found it useful in a different context. I know how to use analog and non digital items and equipment. The young ones are impressed!! I don't know which country you're from, but Greetings from Auckland New Zealand!
More on medicine: Pulmonary - to do with lungs (Spanish: pulmones = lungs) Renal - to do with kidneys (Spanish: rinones = kidneys) Vaccination - cure coming from the cow (Spanish: vacas = cows or French: vaches) The interconnectedness of the languages of Europe is beautiful.
I had 2 years of Spanish and one of Latin in high school. And when I was in college, we had to read a book that had one chapter written in French. I was surprised that I could get the gest of things in that chapter just from Latin and Spanish. But they are called the Romance languages for a reason.
Dear Rob. Long time watcher first time commenter. I have enjoyed every one of your offerings since discovering your channel some years back. I'm a native english speaker from New Zealand. In this episode in particular I found you spoke too fast for my ear and I really wanted to hear all you said. I used the YT feature of adjustable playback speed for the first time..and man! It is a credit to your admiration of language that at .75 normal speed your enunciation is impeccable! A real pleasure for me to listen to you and absorb at my own pace. Keep up the great work and may your offerings stand the test of time! 🙏
Great video! I'd just like to add that *another* English monk was also partially responsible for the spread of Latin throughout Western Europe. By the early 9th Century, paper and ink had grown so prohibitively expensive that even the few literate people could no longer afford to properly write the language in the *Roman majuscule* (what we today call "capital letters"). Instead, they used sigla, runes, and other local variations. Thus, learned men couldn't read one another's literature, and the Dark Ages ensued. So as to reverse this, Charlemagne appointed an Englisman named "Alcuin of York" to devise a new, universal script. One that would be *the best possible compromise* of all the ones then being used, made up as much as possible of *balls, sticks, and easily learned shapes* , and critically *as tiny as possible* so as to save on stationery. After much trial-and-error, Alcuin gave the world the *Carlovingian minuscule* (what we today call "small letters").
I had to have a qualification in Latin to study history at university in the UK in the 1960s. I was glad to get my A Level out of the way. Latin? - useless subject I thought. 5 years later I met and subsequently married an Italian. As I now speak Italian as my second language without ever having studied it I can see that in the end Latin was actually very useful for me.
Many etyma that are counted as Latin are actually themselves loans from many other languages like Punic, Celtic, Semitic, Etruscan and Greek and many etyma counted as French are actually Celtic and Germanic.
One little side node: Proto-Germanic and early Latin Languages were extremely related, they are on the same branch of Western Indo-European languages after all. Since Latin is much better recorded in written sources there are many words that might look of Latin origin in you go by that alone. Many Latin-like modern English words are Anglo-Saxon words that are just cognates from the same shared origin and written sources might not tell you which they are.
This so fills me with joy! As a child, I had the opportunity to study Latin for a year. I learned about declension and conjugation, little vocabulary, and great discussions about the relationship between Latin words and English. I was HOOKED! To this day, I hear the Latin pop out, and it just tickles me. Thank you!
I took 2 years of Latin in high school and found it really helped me in my English classes, as well as medical terminology, when I worked at a hospital for a few years!
I knew that English is very influenced by Latin and French (I watched your video on Anglish, and the large amount of "outlandish inmingling" in our language is made clear once these words are stripped away), but I learned even more from this! It is because of these borrowings-the Roman military and elite terms borrowed by the _Germani,_ the Christian words of late-Roman Britain, William of Normandy's French borrowings, and the "inkhorn terms" of the Renaissance-that, as you said in the video on Anglish, almost 2/3rds of our terms come from. This fact came in quite handy when I was learning Spanish in high school! Thanks for the information!
English language shares some linguistic characterisitics with my mother tongue, Thai. The Thai language has many borrowed words from mainly Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali and some Prakrit, Khmer, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, Arabic (in particular many Islamic terms) and English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).
Absolutely love these videos. Thanks, Rob! I am one of those who took Latin in Junior High back in the day. Three years of Latin crammed into two. I was encouraged to take it so my English grammar would be improved upon. Having not used actual Latin since, here is what I have retained; what a gerund is, the Latin word for “pool”, and to conjugate the verb “to be”. In 8th grade we translated Caesar. Veni, vidi, vici anyone? Et tu, Brute? Ides of March? That’s about the current extent of my Latin, except for two sing-songy: “Cui, cui, cui. ,cuius cuius, cuius; and maybe another with quod at the end! The one thing it did absolutely help me with, is word definitions. My understanding of English, and my use of the language were greatly enhanced. Such an advantage with my college papers
When a classmate of mine went to Italy, he didn't know any Italian, of course, so, having been to a slightly better school than I had gone to, he used classic Latin instead. To his vast surprise, the Italians, after they realised he spoke a very ancient form of Italian, understood him. When I went to Spain, remembering what my friend had told me, I took the Latin words that I knew from English, re-Spanified them and to my surprise, I could make myself understood! It was the one time that I appreciated my History of the English Language course as part of my English study. I had always found the course acronym, HEL, very apt, but this time it came in handy.
I watch every video of yours with my mum (she loves to read and has the best vocabulary of anyone I know). She has no idea how to use UA-cam and it's something we do almost every week and it's special to us. Thanks Rob. Im also a fan of you on DW (one of my preferred news channels).
Top notch as always. I was thinking just yesterday that I hadn't noticed much new content from you since the start of the summer. I was worried married life had gotten the better of you (congratulations, by the way). Regardless I'm glad to see you're still at it. Keep up the great work for the ongoing studies of this amateur linguistics student.
I'm just spilling over with happiness! I knew this already That's also the fun part of knowing some parts of language, you get joy from knowing tiny details :-)
It would be nice to have a grammar ⛓📜 influence video. You hear a lot abut where vocab comes from, but not a lot about grammar changes. They mostly come from variants within the language spreading, but still.
As a Greek the more I find myself poking into English the better I discover the similarities of words translated back into Greek after the digital revolution!
@@Kartoffelsuppe_m_Wursteinlage One of the things he failed to mention is that many words that we get from classical Latin are themselves derived from words in classical Greek. This is because Greek was the "prestige language" in the ancient Roman period, and many of their teachers were brought to Rome from Greece. They needed words for new concepts, so it was natural that there would be many words borrowed from Greek, just as the Gauls adopted "vulgar" Latin once it became _their_ prestige language following the conquest of Gaul, and the English did the same once Norman French became the prestige language on that island following the Norman conquest. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes!
VIDEO SUGGESTION, that goes 1 level deeper: the German language tendency to take Latin compound words and translate the components into German words, so as to _avoid_ using a Latin or French loanword. (.. related to the "if English were a purely Germanic language" theme - exactly what the Germans did: this was a conscious "linguistic purity" effort.) [[ probable example: "entwickeln" - probably a deconstruction of the neighbouring French(or Latin) DE+VELOPER in German ENT(=DE) + WICKELN(=VELOPER ]] These are usually the more "technical" terms, not of everyday usage.
As someone who is currently learning Classical Latin, I appreciate the breves and macrons in your Latin words. Many folks omit these when writing Latin. Also, since I am learning Latin, I find this rather fascinating.
Duuuuude, what an amazing video, thank you, LOVE IT! I just found your channel, so subscribed. Englishman Saint Beda is an amazing reference not only to Old English but to ANYTHING really. That man wrote about ALL EXISTING KNOWLEDGE in his day, that's why we know so much about the time. If I remember correctly the Church was in some sort of a crisis due to constant and gruesome barbarian attacks and monasteries couldn't write that much because well, vikings were destroying everything and killing everyone, but Saint Beda basically came to rescue all knowledge of an era, literature, history, law, med school, you name it, he's got it. Btw he's a Saint Doctor of the Church. Also, there's just one little inconsistency: the Greek and Latin classics such as Plato, Aristotle, Virgil etc had already been translated by Catholic monks in monasteries; Arabs merely translated to their language the Catholic translations before them. Catholic monks were truly truly awesome. Those men managed to LITERALLY BUILD EUROPE sleeping and eating almost nothing every day and praying the entire work time. Spectacular. This can only be explained by the direct action of Our Lord's grace. May Our Lord Jesus Christ bless you and Our Lady His Holy Mother keep you.
"Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health ... what have the Romans ever done for us?"
One of the advantages of learning Latin is that it provides a key to learning any of the Latin-derived languages. Knowing some Latin, another Latin-based language (French) and a Germanic language (English), I can usually get the general meaning of written texts in most Western European languages.
And that's the reason why English-speaking jews get super angry when you call their holiday "Jewish Easter", when Brazilian Jews are perfectly okay with celebrating the "Páscoa Judaica", given Portuguese "Páscoa" itself comes from Pessach.
@@sohopedeco 'easter' being basically 'passover with christian heresy* stapled to it and then a coat of pseudo-pagan paint slapped on top'. *say whatever else you like about Christianity one way or the other, when it was starting out it was technically a heretical sect of judeism.
That's because Passover is not Jewish Easter, heck You spoke of ''Pascoa'', last I recall Easter (the Goddess) had nothing to do with Hebrews or the Exodus. @@sohopedeco
I always understood that Easter was a Pagan festival celebrating Spring (goddess Eostre). This and a good deal of other Pagan rituals were probably fused with Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great in order to bring harmonious relations between those who remained Pagan and those that embraced Christianity. Can't understand why "Passover" is referred to as "Jewish Easter". Passover is completely different as it celebrates the protection of Jewish babies from the Angel of Death and the subsequent Jewish liberation and flight from Egypt. Could be the timing of both festivals that's causing a labelling issue.
19When I was at school, part of our curriculum was to learn Latin as a subject. I started off well but by the end on the year, I got lost but one word I did learn was that the word destruction was derived from the Latin word destructum. I hope I got the spelling right after all of this time. This was back in 1970. The next year, that subject was replaced with French as that was when the international language changed from Latin to French.
Doubt and debt. How should we write theses words ? In French, we write "doute" and "dette". The English words are far easier to understand : "indubitable" et "débiteur" with a "b" students don't know where it can come from. Latin has helped me in English, and vice versa. I'm sorry, but Latin is not a dead language. There's an old man in white robe who still writes in Latin and represents something like a billion people, perhaps more. The red robes around him use it too. La Città del Vaticano. I teach Latin. This is an ancient language, not a dead one. Look at the resurgence of Hebrew in the mate 1940s. Who knows ? 1there are Greek people who still speak in καθαρεύουσα. An excellent video. Interesting and somewhat humorous. Thank you.
Truly, a fantastic video -- Intelligent, extremely well presented and to the point. A native of Portugal, I began learning French and English around the age of four. Even before learning to read. Amazing, How a small child is able to retain and reproduce words in other Languages. Resorting to Comic Books (Donald Duck and Superman, in English, Tinttin and Asterix in French and the Portuguese Cavaleiro Andante).my vocabulary was becoming knitted together. Being able to read became relatively easy -- I was always eager to seat down looking at the magazines while one of my parents went over the stories. Having the same Story in two different idioms was particularly important. Later on in Life I became aware of the direct impact of Latin while the Islands were psrt of the Roman Empire. Also realizing the significance of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - French became the idiom of the Court, nobility, etc. Neverthless, I didn't know the degree of romanization of the Gernanic tribes in the Continent, prior to moving into the Islands And never grasped Christian Missionaries' influence as well. Thank you for this extremely well reaserched and delivered Production.
@redwaldcuthberting7195 Makes ya wonder if the Romans had that phrase about themselves (with a Roman word for "road" - not "strasse" that's German also -- another word that's in the video) RobWords reminded me though, that I said that when I was 15 or 16 in the 70s. When I learned "All roads lead to Rome" was a phrase (someone probably saying it) and I knew the Romans built them, I said, "Yeah, because the Romans *built* them." RobWords reminded me (that's why he made me laugh). He said it nice all together. 😂 When/where did that phrase originate though? Thanks 😂
@@stevesebzda570 In the video he mentions that "Straße" (and all the equivalents in other germanic languages) stems from Latin. Also using a word with certain origin in a sentence does not hint that the sentence has the same origin?!
When we Italians study Latin in high school and university, we consider most medical and scientific terms as deriving from ancient Greek, not Latin. It so happens that, from the middle ages until the beginning of the 20th century, Latin was the lingua franca of the academic world. All papers published borrowed profusely from the ancient Greek lexical arsenal, sometimes adding some Latin touches, like the "ae" diphthong. Saying that "anaemia" is a Latin word is technically correct, yet it's a compound word from Greek "haima", blood. I think we should give full credit to ancient Greek, a language we mercilessly draw from to accurately define our thought and our reality.
Wow! Another great vid. You always pack so much knowledge into every video and I love it. I enjoy the fast paced fact after fact delivery. As a nerd/geek, I appreciated the end words very much. I find it fascinating how words we know to describe tech in the recent past, present, and in the future were established many years ago but sound so modern. Kinda hard to describe my exact feeling but because we link those words to our mundane ubiquitous devices/tasks, we can't fathom an ancient Latin person using words like cursor, calculator, etc. But when you break them down like 'television', that's exactly why we have those words now to describe those objects. As a child you grow up watching your magic picture box and know it as a TV, that's it. But until someone watches your video or questions life, the normal person won't stop to think TV = "far sight". Just amazing sir.
At 0:16, it's a mixture of Latin and Greek words - in fact, MOST of them are Greek (I counted only 4 Latin words plus one "latinized" Greek case). "Cardiovascular system" (at 10:52) is not entirely Latin: a heart in Latin is "cor" (hence the English "cordial"), while "kardia" is of Greek rather than Latin origin - and so is "system" (as indicated by "y" ("i grec" ("Greek i") in French) in spelling, which is absent in Latin). "Vascular" IS Latin, but it does not mean "vein" (it's "vena" in Latin) - it comes from "vasculum", a diminutive of "vas", and hence the English word "vessel". The "terrible lizzard" is also Greek, not Latin. Fun fact: the terms "digital" (from "digitus" - "finger") and "calculate" (from "calculus" - "a small stone") seem to originate from the practice of counting on fingers or using small stones, thus not really hi-tech.
Fascinating video, especially for an Englishman (like me) living on the Italian island of Sardinia. Although Italian is the official language here, the Sardinian language (or Sardo) is also widely spoken and, structurally, is said to be the closest living living language to Latin. On the other hand, Italian is said to be the language with the most vocabulary taken from Latin (maybe not such a great surprise).
The American spelling of the word "color" is, ironically, more correct via Latin than the "colour" variant, for Latin has no "U", but does have "V" which sounds like a "U". Hence why a "W" is two "V"s, but is named "double U".
So sad to see the ‘adult entertainment’ bots polluting this comment section. I guess it’s a sign of success that RobWords has enough subs they have targeted him
Latin was a required course in my 8th grade Catholic boys' school. This was a good video. We can thank the Roman Empire and the Latin language for a lot of words we speak today. Especially for the devices we use in the 21st century.
I find it funny that even in the times of Latin and Greek there was a debate of using "too much" of such words. In Germany there, too, is such a debate right now with English. But that is the lingua franca and it wont be it forever. Some words will go into the language, in part to the level you don't recognize the root anymore. Some word just will disappear again. As long, I can understand what is said, I don't care much.
@@idraote also, to my understanding, it didn't refer to any one european language, but something of a hybrid used by medeterainian merchants, sailors, dock workers, and the like to communicate among themselves as a common trade language.
Lingua franca means free language that allows you to travel and commerce with more freedom because it doesn’t belong to a specific nation Basically the Franks meant free men. You talk frankly when you feel free to express your opinion French has kept this signification in expression like port franc or zone franche : a harbor or an industrial zone with tax exemptions
When I was in 9th and 10th grades, Latin was a requirement for college entry. My public school also added about 6 months of Greek plus four years of either French or Spanish. The entrance exams for Penn State at the time, not to mention the P-SAT and SAT, had sections on syllogisms among other aspects of English. Decades later, when transitioning careers from engineering and the US Navy to teaching, a little test called the C-BEST was required. There were grown men and women who had never taken Latin (or even the little bit of Greek that my generation had) were breaking down into tears over what was essentially an 8th grade level exam. Bless you, teachers of my youth!! And many thanks.
it also facilitates 'autumnal' rather than 'fall like'. Sometimes it's less a latin obsession and more a desire to find a word that'll actually fit the meter etc. in a poem or song or play.
'Summer' and 'winter' are super old words going back to Indo-European. Millennia ago they reckoned the year in terms of hot and cold. The in-between seasons having specific names is newer, within the last millennium, and in Middle English these were described as 'spring of the leaf' and 'fall of the leaf', which produces 'spring' and 'fall'. It wasn't until the mid 19th Century, long after American independence, that the Latin word 'autumn' caught on in the UK, and from there it spread throughout their Empire. This produces the irony that Americans are still using the original English word for the season after summer, but most of the rest of the English-speaking world, especially the English uses Latin. #eyeroll
Thanks very much for your work. You make things really exciting for those with an interest in languages. By the way, as you may already know, television is not the only hybrid Latin-Greek word you've mentioned ; so is automobile. A few others are Greek words which had been borrowed by Latin scholars even before the demise of the Roman empire (for it was cool to speak Greek when you were a Roman).
Cardiovascular is actually Greek (kardio/καρδιο) + Latin (vascular.) Coronary is from Latin: cor is heart in Latin. Spanish for heart is corázon but French has cœur where the English word "courage" derives from.
7 місяців тому+6
It's kind of ironic that we use roman words well after so much effort was done by our ancestors to become free of the Romans. 😂
Just yesterday I saw you on a DW story online and thought "That's the etymology guy I watch on UA-cam." Thanks for finding the time to make these videos, I really enjoy them.
Just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed your channel. Etymology fascinates me as well as history and people in general. And as far as the English language you’re as informative as they get. Thanks so much for giving us amateur etymologists such great info and entertainment.
Solder is an interesting example where the etymologically introduced silent letter "l" started to be pronounced over 200 years ago in Britain yet in North America it remains unpronounced.
For a very good number of years, learning English as a second language, I finally realized that the simplicity of this way of communication comes from the fact that there are a lot of Latin rooted words in it, easily recognized by a Spanish speaker like myself. There are even modern French and Italian words in the everyday English and the funny part is that a lot of people just don't realize that. A "latte" is a kind of overpriced coffee that contains milk, which in italian means exactly that: milk. Cappuccino is another variety of a coffee beverage which name comes from the Latin word (or Italian if you wish) "cappuccio" (which is pronounced "capoochio"), that means hood referring to the gown (dyed brown) worn by the cappuccino monks, which included such a head protecting part. The influence of Latin and Greek in many languages, not only English, is just amazing. My very limited knowledge of the Greek language only allows me to bring this one, commonly used in English: ""Alpha", which means number one or most important and it is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Let alone the huge number of medical terms used universally and the many more in engineering and physics. As always, a very educative and amazing video, keep them coming amigo. Greetings from Toronto.
Back in 1969 when I started secondary school my Dad insisted that I take Latin as one of my languages. He thought it would be an advantage if I undertook a scientific career. It was very useful in medical school and throughout my career as a doctor. Thanks Dad!
At med school when you don't speak Latin: I have to learn the difference between a æπ§§∆¢¥√ and a &&?°©✓•.
At med school when you speak Latin: "this is called the lumpy bone"
@@stevecarter8810 it only looks intimidating if you don't speak the language. Same with German. "Umarmungsspenderautomatenhersteller". That mayhap look intimidating, but it actually (roughly) means "manufacturer of the hug giving machine".
As someone from the US and who grew up in a rural area, it still blows my mind that High/Secondary schools teach languages other than Spanish.
@@veganmonter As someone who grew up in Ireland and learnt Irish, English, French and Latin at school, I would love to have had the opportunity to study German and Spanish as well. But higher level Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Biology had priority for my final years in secondary school. I gave up History and Geography after my Intermediate Certificate. Nowadays they are some of my favourite interests!
Earlier (don't know now) you needed to have a test in Latin to study medicine (and other subjects?) here. I learned it for 6 years and didn't use it directly. But it helps a lot with roman languages (Italian, Spanish...).
I took three years of Latin in high school...our teacher drilled this lesson in our head...Latin is everywhere....in our language, customs, law, and government...
When I was a kid in the 80s, they taught us that English was a Latin derived language. It was a shock to learn otherwise as an adult. To this day, I wonder whether they truly thought that, or if that was intentionally changed to distance us from the Germans, or something?
@@devenscience8894I was a kid in the 40s and 50s in the UK. I was never taught such nonsense. At root, English is clearly a Germanic language. A very large proportion of its educated vocabulary, however, is derived either directly, or via Norman French, from Latin.
English might have been derived from Germanic language, but around 60% of its vocabulary is derived from Latin.
@@nevilleharris4466 No 'might have been' about it. It was, and remains, a Germanic language with a very large Latinate vocabulary grafted on to that original base. That lexical process started when England was converted to Christianity and the Church had to import theological terms for which Old English had no equivalents. It's been going on ever since.
took greek and latin .... not so much to learn those languages but to better understand my own, have more insight into other european languages, and a better understanding of the last 3000yrs of "the west"
This channel , in my opinion, is amongst the best channels on UA-cam. It really is a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Mr. Rob, for your valuable content.
I agree. Each video goes by so quickly.
I used to hate these videos, when I discovered the channel a while ago, but it all really grew on me.
I concur.
Mr. Rob is a likeable fellow which makes listening to his videos an easy task.
Hear hear!
@@juanjoperez7537 oyez oyez oyez
BBC report:
English language:
-It uses and depends on the Roman alphabet.
-60% of its vocabulary comes from Latin, compared to only 26% of Germanic vocabulary.
-Its grammar is not completely Germanic, it has parts of grammatical structure from Latin.
For this reason, philologists consider the English language a hybrid language. The information in this video is correct.
By the way, I'm English, greetings from London.
My Latin teacher was right; I do use the Latin she tried to teach me 60 years ago.
The amount of work you put into this content deserves so much respect. As always, very enjoyable.
My mom - a Latin speaker- taught me all the Latin suffixes and prefixes so I could work my way through word pronunciation and meaning. Things like inter, infra, intra etc. That skill still helps me today attack long strange words I do not know. Thanks mom!
My favourite is "to negotiate". Apparently the roman high guys didn´t have much to do, so they enjoyed their leisure time (otium). Except for the case of a crisis, when they had to get up and e.g. develop a peace treaty. So that was the opposite of otium which equals to "neg-otium".
Absolutely. Roman negotiations were mostly well thought out, swiftly agreed and backed by overwhelming military force. 🤣
❤
it makes sense, in spanish "negocio" means bussiness, and "ocio" means leasure coming from otium, and the english word I always supposed as I learnt it came from being busy, not on leisure.
Edit: the english word apparently comes from an old english word meaning anxiety, which makes me freak out about the english word
Half of the examples you gave were Greek 😂
As for anemia and cardiovascular system, in German, those medical terms do exist, but they were translated by the scholars to German terms, which can make it somewhat difficult to find the proper translation.
So instead of cardiovascular system we actually say "Herz-Kreislauf-System" (lit. "heart-circleflow-system"), and instead of anemia we say "Blutarmut" (lit. "blood poverty") ... except for the physicians, of course.
As an English speaker and a German learner, why would you folks do this? In my native Polish, we will just happily say 'anemia', and now I gotta remember Blutarmut.
IN CLASSICAL ARABIC WE SAY فقر الدم WHICH LITTERALLY MEANS BLOOD POVERTY.😅
@@ingmarburgman8163Faqr ad-dam, if I read correctly. So the "fakir" is actually a poor man.
Yes the faqir is someone who is poor. So faqr ad-dam stands for scarcity of blood. Also ,though unrelated, I discovered the verb Fressen in German is even phonetically related to the Arabic verb "ifta-rassa' _ افترس. Used especially to describe the way animals eat their prey.
Blutarmut now goes in the column with Auspoof. Strange sounding German words with interesting translations.
Back when I needed to ace the verbal section of the GRE so I could get into grad school, I bought a Barron’s test prep book that taught me Greek and Latin root words. It made all the difference. Not only did I ace that section, but I got full tuition remission to attend Washington University in St. Louis where I earned an MFA in fiction writing. Thank you Latin (and Greek).
How does this channel not have millions of subscribers?! Brilliant channel, thanks for your hard work.
All of us watching can spread the word. (Get it?? GET IT???)
People today barely speak English so they tend not to care about where our language comes from 😢
@@samanthab1923Whatchu Talkin bout Willis?
It's curious how the technological terms had often made a circle : computer for example comes from Latin (that is the root of modern Italian, my language), and in Italy we adopted it from English!
The same thing has happened in English. For example, the Japanese borrowed the English words "power" and "up" to make "power-up", and used it in video games. That term was then borrowed back into English.
I'm wondering what exactly happened to cheese. The Latin word is 'caseus', the German 'Käse', and the English 'cheese' of course, but the Italian and French are 'formaggio' and 'fromage'. What happened?! :)
And yet in french they call it ordinateur 😀
Video-worthy topic right here
@@eekee6034 Nothing happened. In Italian there is also the word "cacio" (pasta cacio e pepe, caciocavallo, caciotta, etc...) and in Latin there is also the word "formaticum" which indicates the shape (forma).
Great video! I would like to see an episode of your channel dealing with words that are of multiple linguistic backgrounds (Latin + Greek, for example). Such words were invented for specific purposes and often have interesting histories. Thanks for your effort and time to bring your knowledge of the English language to us mere mortals!
Automobile is also a mixture of Greek and Latin.
You can make another video for the hidden Greek words in English as well. I was quite surprised when I knew “problem” was a Greek word and also its meaning is as same as the Latin word “project” (throw forward)
Great idea, thanks!
I had that immediately in mind, when he spoke about the automobile and said it’s Latin. The αυτοκίνητο - the autokínito. Like automatic, autocratic, autonom etc. Greek words in other languages are my little crazy passion. To understand the sources of words helped me a lot to learn Greek, Spanisch and Italian. And of course I understood the the influence of Greek and Latin on my native language, German. I love videos like this.
A number of the words discussed here were originally imported from Greek, like schola.
rather than "project" I would say "propose" (put in front [of someone])
Polyamory is another word mixing Greek and Latin.
A video on mixed-origin words (not just Greek/Latin) would be interesting.
As a former latin student who feels like they're losing their skills on a daily basis im excited to see if i still know most of what Rob is gonna tell us today. His videos are always so good they're worth watching even if you think you have the current video's topic mostly down! 🔥
As a former latin student, are you able to SEE THROUGH THE BS WHEN MOST PEOPLE THINK THIS IS English? Why is your surname in all caps on your DL???? #NullAndVoid #ForeignLanguage #Counterfeit #DogLatin #Glossa #Counterfeit #Coverup
wow man you're so handsome i love your profile pic! *winks in hammer and sickle
@@kkoyaanisqatisfy1432 😂😉❤️❤️❤️🫡
☭☭☭
Thank you, comrade, for admiring what is very much a picture of me irl.
very handsome cousin Joe vibes c;
I am so grateful to have learned English as my native language. So many ways to pronounce and spell the words. Any one who learns English as an adult is a genius.
Thanks for the compliment!😅
I agree.
It's not so much the genius of learning English, specifically, but being dedicated enough to be able to function in the U.S. requires learning it to a degree that you can not only deal with accents (and some are pretty awful) but the dialectic changes in vocabulary and usage in general. We don't always quite use the same exact forms of English, and it gets even more complicated if one simply takes the opportunity to travel to the UK or Europe.
There's a pretty good one-liner delivered by Dennis Farina in "Snatch", "It's supposed to be the country that invented the f***in' language, but I've been here for days and NOBODY seems to speak any of it!"
...AND from Cockney to more popular double-speak and turns of phrase in the UK versus the U.S., he's not wrong. The internet (among other things) has led to some sharing across the pond, but it can still get pretty wonky. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I agree about the accents in the US. My daddy was from North Carolina so I have heard and understand the southern dialects. But the New England ones are just as thick and at times seem to come from Mars. I enjoy the videos because I always learn from them.
@@kathleencandelaria4106 Well, I've traveled most of the continent, though I grew up in the mountains on the border between NC and TN. It just seemed worth pointing out. Just learning English isn't have as hard as learning to negotiate how much Native Speakers mutilate it. ;o)
latin derived words are SO common in english vocabulary now that just by reaching adulthood you are basically able to understand a good chunk of latin.
so much so that when learning romance languages, youll have tons of cognates to help you learn faster. thats how badly latin has invaded our germanic language
It works in reverse as well: that is, when a Romance language speaker begins to learn English. To a Romance language speaker English doesn't feel like a "terra incognita". At all.
I may just be misunderstanding history but how did Latin invade English if the Roman's were gone by the time the Anglo saxons got there?
I always tell my students that thankfully for us Spanish people, most scientific English words come from Latin! 😊
As an ESL teacher I also tell my advanced students that they are very lucky as they get to learn many English words that they already use in Spanish.
And in legal documents , law ect. Like if you become a lawyer you’ll end up learning a large handful of Latin
and Arabic?
@@griffydz1789 No. Most scientific English words come from Latin and Greek.
Not just scientific words, but also fancy, poetic ones. I used to not speak Spanish, but I prided myself on having a pretty extensive vocabulary in English. When I became more proficient in Spanish, it became easy to guess what the Spanish translation of fancy English words were, like "incontrovertible" (incontrovertible), "indubitably" (indubitablemente), "circumlocution" (circunlocución), "loquacious" (locuaz), "phenomenon" (fenómeno), "catastrophe" (catástrofe), plethora (plétora), "taciturn" (taciturn@), "reticent" (reticente), miscellaneous (misceláneo), obsolescence (obsolescencia), etc.
I went to Catholic school in the pre Vatican II days and we went to Mass every day before classes. Also I sang in the choir. The Mass(aside from the sermon), was in Latin as were the hymns. We all knew what the Latin words meant as there were translations provided. I thought it was cool. Later, in high school, I took a couple of semesters of Latin, which I enjoyed.
Wish it was still done this way!
Same here, Catholic grammar school in the early 60s, Latin Mass every school day morning, plus Sunday; choir; altar boy, then 3 years Latin in HS and two more years of Latin in college. The Latin Mass was beautiful, sometimes haunting & inspiring, especially requiem Masses. We still get a little taste of pre-Vatican II at some few points during the liturgical year... the Gloria, the Te Deum, the Sanctus, and the Angus Dei.
You can still, go to an sspx mass
You must be my mom’s age. I remember her saying she went to church everyday even in college. Catholic girls school. When that song Kryie Eleison by Mister Mister came out she got a big kick out of it
@@samanthab1923 Yeah, I was born in '56.
RobWords is arguably one of the best channels on UA-cam.
Always a joy to watch your videos. No matter how long they are, they always seem too short.
In danish, sewer is kloak, and newspaper is Avis. both latin words
Cloaca in latin as in the main sewer in rome the cloaca maximus, interesting
Why didn't you just take Swedish *tidning* ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In Spanish sewer is cloaca or desagüe, cloaca in Spanish is also the last portion of the chicken's intestine.
It’s hard enough learning to read and write English as a junior in school, as my grandkids are just doing now. We don’t think of where the words come from until much later. They have been speaking English for many years now, which is amazing and are constantly asking questions about their world, all using usually one word ‘why’? We take so much granted and language is so important and how we use it. Your videos are very informative and help to understand the mishmash of influences that has made English the language it is. I wouldn’t like to learn it as a second language!
I'm obsessed with this channel.
I watch it with my 8yr old. He loves it too.
What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, for one thing, they made it harder to spell simple words. But that's not really their fault. As Rob points out, it was actually a lot of English snobs who screwed up our spelling.
Yes, cwic and cwene now quick and queen. Who thought that was a good idea?
@@alfresco8442 interstingly, that q is actually a different sound from k... the difference is subtle and English doesn't actually Care (never actually Contrasting the two) but the way the 'k' sound is formed before a 'u' in most English dialects is actually... not a 'k', at least in IPA terms. it's formed further back in the mouth.
So, qu isn't quite the same as kw, it's more like, well, qw, to be honest.
Again, not actually Relevant in English, but interesting.
@@laurencefraser
yeah i always found that odd. In german, you can tell the Qu vs. Kw difference. In English, not so much.
@@alfresco8442 Blame the French. Latin c is k, but not in French. Kwik to kween.
I'm an old man with a passion for words. Have read many, many thousands. Etymology I find fascinating. I always strive to pronounce a word from a foreign language correctly, so as to respect the language.
I just "discovered" your channel and it's a keeper. It's more than the educational aspect, with clarity, it's also that you are a very personable sort.
Regards from N. Carolina.
Me too. I try to teach it to my son. Ave, ciao.
Very interesting video for me. I am Italian band I studied Latin many many years. Latin is very difficult for us.
When i arrived in Italy, i didn't know Italian but with a bit of logic i used those Latin words in the English language to help me learn Italian, i also had a bonus language that helped me, Swahili which is half Arabic and Bantu, this gave me the correct vowel use for writing and some words to. Thanks for the information. 😊
Your posts are always highly educational, Rob! You've managed to take what could be a dry subject and have infused it with humour and wit! Well done!
I agree 😊
Congratulations on the publication of yet another fascinating tour of our English language. By the way, I just want to commend you on your recent evolution in your production quality. I am not saying your previous videos lacked any quality, but rather the overall calibre of presentation is looking good. Keep up the strong performance, for what you are doing right now is working!
I love that 'Computer' used to mean a person who 'computed' and now it's a digital device. LOL. Love digging into the origin of words and language. Thank you for this channel and commentary. ❤
"Digital" incidently means of the fingers, i.e. to use ones fingers
The best part about latin words is that anyone who speaks a romance language can understand them. After learning English I'm trying to learn Dutch and there are many words I still can't understand nor can I remember because they're Germanic whereas the English words come from Latin or French.
The worst part is that if you know English learning another Germanic language is somewhat easier but when you get to know more intermediate and specially advanced words, English won't help you anymore.
I never studied Dutch, but as a native English speaker who took German I can almost always "decode" it, at least written Dutch.
Yet... English is part of the Germanic language family tree in terms of its syntax and many of its words. We've absorbed Romance language words, but our sentences follow the Germanic structure. English truly is a mongrel, but thanks to that, it's also the most widely used and ever-expanding language in the world.
Romance language
Having some familiarity with basic Latin and Chemistry was quite literally a lifesaver.
Wound up in a German ER, nauseous and dehydrated. The doctors/nurses failed to give me an IV. [German Healthcare is terrible.]
On the verge of passing out, I asked for Saline. The nurse shook her head. I repeated myself, and followed with, "Wasser und Sodium Chloride." Again, she shook her head in confusion. At that moment, I had a faint recollection from a past honors course, " *Natrium* Chloride!" The nurse finally understood, "Ah, ja, o-kay." I breathed a sigh of relief, and everything went dark.
Woke up later with an IV and a Saline drip. The doctors weren't able to identify the illness which had plagued me [no surprise], but I was alive. You never know when some arcane knowledge will come in handy.
@redslate An interesting story, I really enjoyed your post.
Hope you are well, safe and happy now?
I appreciated your remarks about distant, arcane knowledge suddenly being useful !
I've also found it useful in a different context. I know how to use analog and non digital items and equipment. The young ones are impressed!!
I don't know which country you're from, but Greetings from Auckland New Zealand!
Intéressant comme toujours MERCI
5:05 5:13
More on medicine:
Pulmonary - to do with lungs (Spanish: pulmones = lungs)
Renal - to do with kidneys (Spanish: rinones = kidneys)
Vaccination - cure coming from the cow (Spanish: vacas = cows or French: vaches)
The interconnectedness of the languages of Europe is beautiful.
That was fun. It is alway interesting to see how many words we have incorporated into English.
I had 2 years of Spanish and one of Latin in high school. And when I was in college, we had to read a book that had one chapter written in French. I was surprised that I could get the gest of things in that chapter just from Latin and Spanish. But they are called the Romance languages for a reason.
I love all of his episodes but this one is truly… EXTRAORDINARIUS! 😊
Thank you for your STUPENDUS work, Rob.
Dear Rob. Long time watcher first time commenter.
I have enjoyed every one of your offerings since discovering your channel some years back. I'm a native english speaker from New Zealand. In this episode in particular I found you spoke too fast for my ear and I really wanted to hear all you said. I used the YT feature of adjustable playback speed for the first time..and man! It is a credit to your admiration of language that at .75 normal speed your enunciation is impeccable! A real pleasure for me to listen to you and absorb at my own pace.
Keep up the great work and may your offerings stand the test of time! 🙏
Great video!
I'd just like to add that *another* English monk was also partially responsible for the spread of Latin throughout Western Europe.
By the early 9th Century, paper and ink had grown so prohibitively expensive that even the few literate people could no longer afford to properly write the language in the *Roman majuscule* (what we today call "capital letters"). Instead, they used sigla, runes, and other local variations. Thus, learned men couldn't read one another's literature, and the Dark Ages ensued.
So as to reverse this, Charlemagne appointed an Englisman named "Alcuin of York" to devise a new, universal script. One that would be *the best possible compromise* of all the ones then being used, made up as much as possible of *balls, sticks, and easily learned shapes* , and critically *as tiny as possible* so as to save on stationery.
After much trial-and-error, Alcuin gave the world the *Carlovingian minuscule* (what we today call "small letters").
Love it!
I had to have a qualification in Latin to study history at university in the UK in the 1960s. I was glad to get my A Level out of the way. Latin? - useless subject I thought. 5 years later I met and subsequently married an Italian. As I now speak Italian as my second language without ever having studied it I can see that in the end Latin was actually very useful for me.
Many etyma that are counted as Latin are actually themselves loans from many other languages like Punic, Celtic, Semitic, Etruscan and Greek and many etyma counted as French are actually Celtic and Germanic.
Thanks. Rob mixed it up.
exactly, I was searching for this exact comment haha
5:26
Latin words originating from Celtic?
@@user-ff4tw8uf4b Of course. Like carrum or currus.
One little side node: Proto-Germanic and early Latin Languages were extremely related, they are on the same branch of Western Indo-European languages after all. Since Latin is much better recorded in written sources there are many words that might look of Latin origin in you go by that alone.
Many Latin-like modern English words are Anglo-Saxon words that are just cognates from the same shared origin and written sources might not tell you which they are.
As a fellow teacher, I salute your depth of knowledge, video quality and editing! Fantastic video 👍
This so fills me with joy! As a child, I had the opportunity to study Latin for a year. I learned about declension and conjugation, little vocabulary, and great discussions about the relationship between Latin words and English. I was HOOKED! To this day, I hear the Latin pop out, and it just tickles me. Thank you!
In 1970 my boarding school locker had this graffiti "Latin is dead, Latin is dead, it killed the old Romans, its going to kill me."
I took 2 years of Latin in high school and found it really helped me in my English classes, as well as medical terminology, when I worked at a hospital for a few years!
I knew that English is very influenced by Latin and French (I watched your video on Anglish, and the large amount of "outlandish inmingling" in our language is made clear once these words are stripped away), but I learned even more from this! It is because of these borrowings-the Roman military and elite terms borrowed by the _Germani,_ the Christian words of late-Roman Britain, William of Normandy's French borrowings, and the "inkhorn terms" of the Renaissance-that, as you said in the video on Anglish, almost 2/3rds of our terms come from. This fact came in quite handy when I was learning Spanish in high school!
Thanks for the information!
English language shares some linguistic characterisitics with my mother tongue, Thai. The Thai language has many borrowed words from mainly Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali and some Prakrit, Khmer, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, Arabic (in particular many Islamic terms) and English (in particular many scientific and technological terms).
Another fantastic inspiring video by RobWords! Thanks a lot!
Absolutely love these videos. Thanks, Rob! I am one of those who took Latin in Junior High back in the day. Three years of Latin crammed into two. I was encouraged to take it so my English grammar would be improved upon. Having not used actual Latin since, here is what I have retained; what a gerund is, the Latin word for “pool”, and to conjugate the verb “to be”. In 8th grade we translated Caesar. Veni, vidi, vici anyone? Et tu, Brute? Ides of March? That’s about the current extent of my Latin, except for two sing-songy: “Cui, cui, cui. ,cuius cuius, cuius; and maybe another with quod at the end! The one thing it did absolutely help me with, is word definitions. My understanding of English, and my use of the language were greatly enhanced. Such an advantage with my college papers
When a classmate of mine went to Italy, he didn't know any Italian, of course, so, having been to a slightly better school than I had gone to, he used classic Latin instead. To his vast surprise, the Italians, after they realised he spoke a very ancient form of Italian, understood him. When I went to Spain, remembering what my friend had told me, I took the Latin words that I knew from English, re-Spanified them and to my surprise, I could make myself understood! It was the one time that I appreciated my History of the English Language course as part of my English study. I had always found the course acronym, HEL, very apt, but this time it came in handy.
I watch every video of yours with my mum (she loves to read and has the best vocabulary of anyone I know). She has no idea how to use UA-cam and it's something we do almost every week and it's special to us. Thanks Rob. Im also a fan of you on DW (one of my preferred news channels).
Top notch as always. I was thinking just yesterday that I hadn't noticed much new content from you since the start of the summer. I was worried married life had gotten the better of you (congratulations, by the way). Regardless I'm glad to see you're still at it. Keep up the great work for the ongoing studies of this amateur linguistics student.
I'm just spilling over with happiness! I knew this already That's also the fun part of knowing some parts of language, you get joy from knowing tiny details :-)
Thank you for your video! Will share with my medical students studying Latin.
It would be nice to have a grammar ⛓📜 influence video.
You hear a lot abut where vocab comes from, but not a lot about grammar changes.
They mostly come from variants within the language spreading, but still.
That's a good idea. English is such a basket-case among the germanic languages.
@@RobWordsthe whole regional dialect dilemma as well.
IMHO, you've returned with this film at your best, and I appreciate it.
Informative and entertaining. Thankyou Rob... keep up the good work.
I really like the backdrop you chose. It's sort of appropriate to the topic, too - an old structure with modern adornments.
As a Greek the more I find myself poking into English the better I discover the similarities of words translated back into Greek after the digital revolution!
Yes, but Ichthys and Thorax are ancient greek words, not roman.
@@Kartoffelsuppe_m_Wursteinlage One of the things he failed to mention is that many words that we get from classical Latin are themselves derived from words in classical Greek. This is because Greek was the "prestige language" in the ancient Roman period, and many of their teachers were brought to Rome from Greece. They needed words for new concepts, so it was natural that there would be many words borrowed from Greek, just as the Gauls adopted "vulgar" Latin once it became _their_ prestige language following the conquest of Gaul, and the English did the same once Norman French became the prestige language on that island following the Norman conquest. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes!
VIDEO SUGGESTION, that goes 1 level deeper:
the German language tendency to take Latin compound words and translate the components into German words, so as to _avoid_ using a Latin or French loanword. (.. related to the "if English were a purely Germanic language" theme - exactly what the Germans did: this was a conscious "linguistic purity" effort.)
[[ probable example: "entwickeln" - probably a deconstruction of the neighbouring French(or Latin) DE+VELOPER in German ENT(=DE) + WICKELN(=VELOPER ]] These are usually the more "technical" terms, not of everyday usage.
As someone who is currently learning Classical Latin, I appreciate the breves and macrons in your Latin words. Many folks omit these when writing Latin. Also, since I am learning Latin, I find this rather fascinating.
Duuuuude, what an amazing video, thank you, LOVE IT! I just found your channel, so subscribed. Englishman Saint Beda is an amazing reference not only to Old English but to ANYTHING really. That man wrote about ALL EXISTING KNOWLEDGE in his day, that's why we know so much about the time. If I remember correctly the Church was in some sort of a crisis due to constant and gruesome barbarian attacks and monasteries couldn't write that much because well, vikings were destroying everything and killing everyone, but Saint Beda basically came to rescue all knowledge of an era, literature, history, law, med school, you name it, he's got it. Btw he's a Saint Doctor of the Church. Also, there's just one little inconsistency: the Greek and Latin classics such as Plato, Aristotle, Virgil etc had already been translated by Catholic monks in monasteries; Arabs merely translated to their language the Catholic translations before them. Catholic monks were truly truly awesome. Those men managed to LITERALLY BUILD EUROPE sleeping and eating almost nothing every day and praying the entire work time. Spectacular. This can only be explained by the direct action of Our Lord's grace. May Our Lord Jesus Christ bless you and Our Lady His Holy Mother keep you.
"Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health ... what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Super reply! (totally Latin, too)
@3:02 Constantine was proclaimed emperor in York. He was baptised elsewhere. IIRC he was baptised on his deathbed.
One of the advantages of learning Latin is that it provides a key to learning any of the Latin-derived languages. Knowing some Latin, another Latin-based language (French) and a Germanic language (English), I can usually get the general meaning of written texts in most Western European languages.
Do a deep dive into Easter, or Eostar. What I've found is that it's essentially modern folklore that it refers to a Germanic spring goddess.
And that's the reason why English-speaking jews get super angry when you call their holiday "Jewish Easter", when Brazilian Jews are perfectly okay with celebrating the "Páscoa Judaica", given Portuguese "Páscoa" itself comes from Pessach.
@@sohopedeco 'easter' being basically 'passover with christian heresy* stapled to it and then a coat of pseudo-pagan paint slapped on top'.
*say whatever else you like about Christianity one way or the other, when it was starting out it was technically a heretical sect of judeism.
That's because Passover is not Jewish Easter, heck You spoke of ''Pascoa'', last I recall Easter (the Goddess) had nothing to do with Hebrews or the Exodus. @@sohopedeco
French is "pasque"
I always understood that Easter was a Pagan festival celebrating Spring (goddess Eostre). This and a good deal of other Pagan rituals were probably fused with Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great in order to bring harmonious relations between those who remained Pagan and those that embraced Christianity.
Can't understand why "Passover" is referred to as "Jewish Easter". Passover is completely different as it celebrates the protection of Jewish babies from the Angel of Death and the subsequent Jewish liberation and flight from Egypt.
Could be the timing of both festivals that's causing a labelling issue.
19When I was at school, part of our curriculum was to learn Latin as a subject. I started off well but by the end on the year, I got lost but one word I did learn was that the word destruction was derived from the Latin word destructum. I hope I got the spelling right after all of this time. This was back in 1970. The next year, that subject was replaced with French as that was when the international language changed from Latin to French.
The word sincere means "without wax" or in modern terms "without Bondo" a nice back story on this.
Doubt and debt.
How should we write theses words ? In French, we write "doute" and "dette". The English words are far easier to understand : "indubitable" et "débiteur" with a "b" students don't know where it can come from.
Latin has helped me in English, and vice versa.
I'm sorry, but Latin is not a dead language. There's an old man in white robe who still writes in Latin and represents something like a billion people, perhaps more. The red robes around him use it too. La Città del Vaticano.
I teach Latin. This is an ancient language, not a dead one. Look at the resurgence of Hebrew in the mate 1940s. Who knows ? 1there are Greek people who still speak in καθαρεύουσα.
An excellent video. Interesting and somewhat humorous. Thank you.
Excellent work!
Truly, a fantastic video -- Intelligent, extremely well presented and to the point.
A native of Portugal, I began learning French and English around the age of four.
Even before learning to read.
Amazing, How a small child is able to retain and reproduce words in other Languages.
Resorting to Comic Books (Donald Duck and Superman, in English, Tinttin and Asterix in French and the Portuguese Cavaleiro Andante).my vocabulary was becoming knitted together.
Being able to read became relatively easy -- I was always eager to seat down looking at the magazines while one of my parents went over the stories.
Having the same Story in two different idioms was particularly important.
Later on in Life I became aware of the direct impact of Latin while the Islands were psrt of the Roman Empire.
Also realizing the significance of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - French became the idiom of the Court, nobility, etc.
Neverthless, I didn't know the degree of romanization of the Gernanic tribes in the Continent, prior to moving into the Islands
And never grasped Christian Missionaries' influence as well.
Thank you for this extremely well reaserched and delivered Production.
You made me laugh here, Rob.
"All Roads Lead To Rome (because the Romans *built* them)."
Lol.
Funny, RobWords. 😂
OH, @1:48 .
Funny 😂
Road is a Germanic word though.
@redwaldcuthberting7195 Makes ya wonder if the Romans had that phrase about themselves (with a Roman word for "road" - not "strasse" that's German also -- another word that's in the video)
RobWords reminded me though, that I said that when I was 15 or 16 in the 70s.
When I learned "All roads lead to Rome" was a phrase (someone probably saying it) and I knew the Romans built them,
I said, "Yeah, because the Romans *built* them."
RobWords reminded me (that's why he made me laugh).
He said it nice all together. 😂
When/where did that phrase originate though?
Thanks 😂
@@redwaldcuthberting7195
"Road" (and "strasse") being Germanic, that phrase may have originated in Germany.
Hmm..
🤔😂☕️☕️
@@stevesebzda570 In the video he mentions that "Straße" (and all the equivalents in other germanic languages) stems from Latin.
Also using a word with certain origin in a sentence does not hint that the sentence has the same origin?!
Rob I love your channel. I always learn something new. Your newsletter is spiffy too!
Wonderful! I so look forward to your videos..thank you!
Very very very good to see you back
When we Italians study Latin in high school and university, we consider most medical and scientific terms as deriving from ancient Greek, not Latin. It so happens that, from the middle ages until the beginning of the 20th century, Latin was the lingua franca of the academic world. All papers published borrowed profusely from the ancient Greek lexical arsenal, sometimes adding some Latin touches, like the "ae" diphthong. Saying that "anaemia" is a Latin word is technically correct, yet it's a compound word from Greek "haima", blood. I think we should give full credit to ancient Greek, a language we mercilessly draw from to accurately define our thought and our reality.
This channel brings me so much joy. How is this so calming and peaceful to my chaotic brain?
Wow! Another great vid. You always pack so much knowledge into every video and I love it. I enjoy the fast paced fact after fact delivery. As a nerd/geek, I appreciated the end words very much. I find it fascinating how words we know to describe tech in the recent past, present, and in the future were established many years ago but sound so modern. Kinda hard to describe my exact feeling but because we link those words to our mundane ubiquitous devices/tasks, we can't fathom an ancient Latin person using words like cursor, calculator, etc. But when you break them down like 'television', that's exactly why we have those words now to describe those objects. As a child you grow up watching your magic picture box and know it as a TV, that's it. But until someone watches your video or questions life, the normal person won't stop to think TV = "far sight". Just amazing sir.
Thank you for conducting us on yet another etymological exploration, I do SO enjoy them!
At 0:16, it's a mixture of Latin and Greek words - in fact, MOST of them are Greek (I counted only 4 Latin words plus one "latinized" Greek case). "Cardiovascular system" (at 10:52) is not entirely Latin: a heart in Latin is "cor" (hence the English "cordial"), while "kardia" is of Greek rather than Latin origin - and so is "system" (as indicated by "y" ("i grec" ("Greek i") in French) in spelling, which is absent in Latin). "Vascular" IS Latin, but it does not mean "vein" (it's "vena" in Latin) - it comes from "vasculum", a diminutive of "vas", and hence the English word "vessel". The "terrible lizzard" is also Greek, not Latin. Fun fact: the terms "digital" (from "digitus" - "finger") and "calculate" (from "calculus" - "a small stone") seem to originate from the practice of counting on fingers or using small stones, thus not really hi-tech.
What absolute nonsense. Greek has had virtually no influence on English. Go back to school and stop making up rubbish.
Fascinating video, especially for an Englishman (like me) living on the Italian island of Sardinia. Although Italian is the official language here, the Sardinian language (or Sardo) is also widely spoken and, structurally, is said to be the closest living living language to Latin. On the other hand, Italian is said to be the language with the most vocabulary taken from Latin (maybe not such a great surprise).
0:54 Germanic languages mixed with existing Celt, you mean :)
The American spelling of the word "color" is, ironically, more correct via Latin than the "colour" variant, for Latin has no "U", but does have "V" which sounds like a "U". Hence why a "W" is two "V"s, but is named "double U".
So sad to see the ‘adult entertainment’ bots polluting this comment section. I guess it’s a sign of success that RobWords has enough subs they have targeted him
Latin was a required course in my 8th grade Catholic boys' school. This was a good video. We can thank the Roman Empire and the Latin language for a lot of words we speak today. Especially for the devices we use in the 21st century.
I find it funny that even in the times of Latin and Greek there was a debate of using "too much" of such words. In Germany there, too, is such a debate right now with English. But that is the lingua franca and it wont be it forever. Some words will go into the language, in part to the level you don't recognize the root anymore. Some word just will disappear again.
As long, I can understand what is said, I don't care much.
I love how lingua Franca is literally Latin for French.
@@stevecarter8810 not entirely true. lingua franca il a calque from Arabic. At the time "franco" was used for "European", not specifically French.
@@idraote also, to my understanding, it didn't refer to any one european language, but something of a hybrid used by medeterainian merchants, sailors, dock workers, and the like to communicate among themselves as a common trade language.
@@laurencefraser exactly
Lingua franca means free language that allows you to travel and commerce with more freedom because it doesn’t belong to a specific nation
Basically the Franks meant free men. You talk frankly when you feel free to express your opinion
French has kept this signification in expression like port franc or zone franche : a harbor or an industrial zone with tax exemptions
When I was in 9th and 10th grades, Latin was a requirement for college entry. My public school also added about 6 months of Greek plus four years of either French or Spanish. The entrance exams for Penn State at the time, not to mention the P-SAT and SAT, had sections on syllogisms among other aspects of English. Decades later, when transitioning careers from engineering and the US Navy to teaching, a little test called the C-BEST was required. There were grown men and women who had never taken Latin (or even the little bit of Greek that my generation had) were breaking down into tears over what was essentially an 8th grade level exam. Bless you, teachers of my youth!! And many thanks.
I believe the English name for the season "Fall" was changed to "Autumn" in Britain due to this mania for Latinate terms.
The earliest term in English was what now would be harvest, as is the case in most Germanic languages.
it also facilitates 'autumnal' rather than 'fall like'.
Sometimes it's less a latin obsession and more a desire to find a word that'll actually fit the meter etc. in a poem or song or play.
Autumn =otoño in Spanish 😂
'Summer' and 'winter' are super old words going back to Indo-European. Millennia ago they reckoned the year in terms of hot and cold. The in-between seasons having specific names is newer, within the last millennium, and in Middle English these were described as 'spring of the leaf' and 'fall of the leaf', which produces 'spring' and 'fall'. It wasn't until the mid 19th Century, long after American independence, that the Latin word 'autumn' caught on in the UK, and from there it spread throughout their Empire. This produces the irony that Americans are still using the original English word for the season after summer, but most of the rest of the English-speaking world, especially the English uses Latin. #eyeroll
Wasn't _Harvest_ the name of the season as well? (Compare #Herbst German)
Thanks very much for your work. You make things really exciting for those with an interest in languages.
By the way, as you may already know, television is not the only hybrid Latin-Greek word you've mentioned ; so is automobile. A few others are Greek words which had been borrowed by Latin scholars even before the demise of the Roman empire (for it was cool to speak Greek when you were a Roman).
There was no year "0AD", Rob.
Cardiovascular is actually Greek (kardio/καρδιο) + Latin (vascular.) Coronary is from Latin: cor is heart in Latin. Spanish for heart is corázon but French has cœur where the English word "courage" derives from.
It's kind of ironic that we use roman words well after so much effort was done by our ancestors to become free of the Romans. 😂
The topic of this video was the driving force behind my drive to study Latin. It's nice to not feel alone!
Never thought that the evolution of language could be so fascinating. Greetings from Brazil!
Just yesterday I saw you on a DW story online and thought "That's the etymology guy I watch on UA-cam." Thanks for finding the time to make these videos, I really enjoy them.
let's make English a little difficult. Just add quiet letters here and there where no one expects them.
Just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed your channel. Etymology fascinates me as well as history and people in general. And as far as the English language you’re as informative as they get. Thanks so much for giving us amateur etymologists such great info and entertainment.
Solder is an interesting example where the etymologically introduced silent letter "l" started to be pronounced over 200 years ago in Britain yet in North America it remains unpronounced.
I could never figure out why Americans pronounce it "sauder" since we always pronounce the l.
Buoy is similar but the other way around.
There are the same number of Fs in lieutenant as there are Rs in colonel.
I counted them twice.
For a very good number of years, learning English as a second language, I finally realized that the simplicity of this way of communication comes from the fact that there are a lot of Latin rooted words in it, easily recognized by a Spanish speaker like myself.
There are even modern French and Italian words in the everyday English and the funny part is that a lot of people just don't realize that.
A "latte" is a kind of overpriced coffee that contains milk, which in italian means exactly that: milk.
Cappuccino is another variety of a coffee beverage which name comes from the Latin word (or Italian if you wish) "cappuccio" (which is pronounced "capoochio"), that means hood referring to the gown (dyed brown) worn by the cappuccino monks, which included such a head protecting part.
The influence of Latin and Greek in many languages, not only English, is just amazing.
My very limited knowledge of the Greek language only allows me to bring this one, commonly used in English: ""Alpha", which means number one or most important and it is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
Let alone the huge number of medical terms used universally and the many more in engineering and physics.
As always, a very educative and amazing video, keep them coming amigo.
Greetings from Toronto.