Is English just badly pronounced French?
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- Опубліковано 4 тра 2024
- Enjoy this exploration of the French-ness of English. And join the Lingoda Language Sprint to let your language skills bloom this spring. Click my link and use my code ROBWORDS20 for 20€ off! try.lingoda.com/RobWords20
In this video I respond to the claim that English does not exist, but is instead merely badly pronounced French. I explain just how much the French have influenced our language, but why it is still a distinct, Germanic language.
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#english #french #etymology
==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Does English exist?
0:26 Where English comes from
1:14 England’s French kings
2:12 French words in English
4:46 Lingoda
6:01 More French words
6:49 Different dialects
8:41 After the French kings
10:42 English words in French
12:27 French grammar
13:52 H dropping
15:19 Poetry
17:12 Conclusion - Розваги
Are we speaking more French than you thought? Let me know below. And join the Lingoda Language Sprint to let your language skills bloom this spring. Click my link and use my code ROBWORDS20 for 20€ off! try.lingoda.com/RobWords20
English is Frisian baked together with Norwegian, then given a French frosting.
French does have a certain je ne c’est quoi.
Very doubleplus real!
More Lingoda less Duolingo. Spot on. I recommend it as well.
English is indeed bad German... 🙃🙃🙃
Isn't French just poorly pronounced Latin?
Ha ha! 😄
It is ! Absolutely !
(I'm French)
according to French linguists, French is actually better pronounced Latin.
ha ha! touché
French is actually Parisian that all other French people mispronounce, but I'm no linguist.
A Frenchman saying the English should be grateful to France for English's popularity is one of the most French things I have heard in a while.
Oui ^^
Too funny! You're VERY British! ...loll...
So British ! 😊
@@merc340sr And the French should be grateful for all the English words we've generously given them.
Remember how many we given to you... @@harpo345
everything is just badly pronounced caveman grunts
Caveman grunts are just poorly understood atom farts
better pronounced caveman grunts surely ;-)
😆
I also noticed that a majority of the words ending by « tion »
Are the same in English and in French
Obligation
Formation
Alliteration
Aviation
Civilisation
Transformation
Abolition
Mécanisation
Accélération
Condition
Fabrication
Fonction
Inscription
Interdiction
Invention
Innovation
Traduction
Solution
Émotion
Discrétion
…
and a lot of them seems very well known for a german native speaker as well!
Most of the words that end in -tion, -cion, sion are derived from latin. German was influenced by Latin and English is ultimately a Germanic languag. French is a descendent of Latin, and English was influenced by French vocabulary. Words ending in -tion, sion, cion are often of the same or similar meaning across the three languages and across other Indo-European languages. Take the word communication and look it up in a translator for most Indo-European languages it is nearly the same word.
Yeah 1/3 of English vocab comes from old French. Somme words are juste the same and some are 1 letter different such as hospital is hôpital in French, in old French it was like English but modern French kicked one letter to put accent on the previous letter. Cream is crème in French, etc you got the idea (we say idée in French).
More strikingly*, almost all adverbs; same word as French but ending in "ly" instead of "ment"/"ement". But as they aren't mentioned in the video, I guess they derive directly from Latin.
* : except this one, of course ^^
@@EcoAku not quite but almost, the romance suffic mente or ment comes from the latin epression claramente meaning with a clear mind and began to be used to modify the initial word into an adverb
english done this but with the word lyke or ġelīċe in OE meaning "to be alike/to have the likeness of" so when we typically use it as a suffix it takes on the meaning of for example , clearly is "with a clear likeness" but it is a pretty good analougous rule to the romance languages
French was my worst class in grade school. Now, thanks to this little piece, I can now say that I am fluent in bad French. Merci!
Maladroitly pronounced French - even better!
@@user-aero68Français prononcé maladroitement! Même meilleur! ; )
I studied German for many years through high school and college. In college, I took a semester of French, just as a change of pace. My teacher told me I spoke French like a German. I don't think it was a compliment.
@@tygrkhat4087 _"My teacher told me I spoke French like a German"_
...Like you were invading it?
@@AlbertaGeek Oh no...
“The flesh-monger” sounds like some secret boss from a fantasy game, not someone you buy your lunch meat from.
It's certainly got some more ominous connotations :)
Sounds to me like a horror movie.
If you check out some of Rob's other video's you can learn the various types of Fleisch-monger. A white fleisch-monger, which could upset vegetarians everywhere, was a seller of vegetables.
Fresh meat !
yet 'fishmonger' is certainly still in use.
Why am I not seeing this chap in his own tv series on language? Guy deserves more recognition for his informative and, most importantly, interesting style
This is his own series, who needs TV
As a frenchman, i just came across your video by chance and it was a real pleasure to learn all these stuff.
It wasn’t by “chance” it was by whatever French word “algorithm” derives from 😅😂❤
Fun fact: American Sign Language is more similar to French Sign Language than spoken English, because it was directly derived from French Sign Language. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (yes the guy Gallaudet University is named after) went to Europe to learn to teach deaf students. He actually went to a school in England first, but left because they wanted him to stay for a while. That was important, because they taught deaf people to speak and speechread and not sign. He visited other nations and eventually ended up in France. They used sign language. Eager to get back, he brought back a teacher named Laurent Clerc and they established the first permanent school for the deaf in the US. It has changed names and locations a few times, but still exists. They bought over French Sign Language, which has obviously been altered and is the basis for ASL. His son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, was the first president of what we know today as Gallaudet University.
Fun fact: French sounds like deaf English
@@nonnayobiznus573 Well. no.
And then France started to fight against FSL, because political power was uneasy with an alternative language inside the french republic. FSL was forbidden, even by doctors and specialists who claimed that Sign Language was too "animal". If you can read french, you can read "Le cri de la Mouette", an autobiography of a french actress, that shows how hard it was to be deaf in France before the 80's...
C'est incroyable d'entendre ca de la part des gens du XXe quand tu sais que le language des signes est né dans les monastères francais sous la période Carolingienne.
@@professeurjumeau8410
trivia - trust the Americans to conjure a phrase - a poor alliteration, for an accurate word!! "Fun fact" (followed by a dismissive snort)
English recently added katsu, a Japanese word to the dictionary and it refers to a cutlet (katsu curry = cutlet curry). The irony is both the word katsu AND the dish itself were given to the Japanese by the British.
Katsu, aka カツ was originally katsuretsu/ カツレツ from the English "cutlet". The curry dish itself was introduced by our sailors to the Japanese who took it and made it a local cuisine. It's no wonder katsu curry rose in popularity in the UK so fast over the last decade.
So just like the French reimporting their old words from English we have done that with Japanese once, and given how distant the two languages and places are I find it more interesting.
And "cutlet" comes from the French word "côtelette", meaning "little rib". Coming full circle!
It's amazing how curry has taken over the Japanese diet. It's now a more frequently eaten food than sushi or tempura.
We do the same with Japanese. コスプレイヤー (Cosplayer) has officially entered the English lexicon, which is based on the Japanese abbreviation for "costume player," or as we know it, "dressing up in a costume." It used to be restricted to just anime conventions as cosplaying your favorite character, but now it's reached beyond that and it can be dressing up as, say, your favorite rock star at a concert. Others include anime, drifting, karaoke ("oke" is short for orchestra), NEET, love hotel, lolicon, and salaryman.
I would have guessed cutlet would become "katoreto".
I lived in London for a month in 2004 and loved katsu curry, but I haven't found it in the States. (I've never been to Japan.)
@@nnsqutrThe word entered Japanese some time ago and for reasons I don't yet understand the words that entered longer ago ended up sounding quite different to how modern Japanese would interpret them.
As a French who lived for 3 years in Ireland and 8 years in the UK this is really interesting! Thanks for the quality content!
merci!! i love the english french relationship! A la prochaine!
It absolutely blows my mind how complex this whole tapestry of the English language is! Thank you Rob for unravelling a bit of it so we can better understand it!
My pleasure
If you want to go a bit more in depth on the journey English has taken to get to where we are, you should also give Simon Roper a look (sorry rob). He's more in to the linguistics than the etymology, but it is fascinating...
@@RobWords I think you'll find it's pronounced "plaisir"
we are all neighbours in Europe. quite a lot of the French words in English Rob attributed to the Normans, Angevins and their influence can be found in German as well. you can find Germanic words in French too. ofc, Rob has a point and English seems to be the most affected
@@embreis2257 There are so many Serbian words in english language.
Sir = cheese in Serbian
Drug = friend
So = salt
Police = shelves
Sat = clock
look ( luk ) = onion
luck ( lak ) = easy
luck at ( lakat ) = elbow
To = that
Do = to
Sun ( san ) = dream
Much ( mac ) = sword
Boss ( bos ) = barefoot
Sin = son
Go = naked
brat = brother
On = he
Sad = now
Pet = five
Most = bridge
Peu importe le langage, qu'il est plaisant d'écouter des propos lorsqu'ils sont exprimés avec autant de clarté et d'intelligence ! Félicitations
No matter the language (fr) , it's a pleasure (fr) to listen to ideas (fr) expressed (fr) with such clarity (fr) and intelligence (fr) ! Congratulations (fr / latin)
And english is romanic creole as french your founding normative father 😅😅😅😅
@@hugokana6425😂🎉
Voilà des propos tenus dans un français fort élégant, ce qui ne gâche rien.
Wow - an Irish dude speaking fluently French.
Die Präsentation war sehr informativ! Toll!🙂
You're welcome 🤗🤗💛💛 friend 😊
I’m Scottish and I vividly remember in primary school being taught to emphasise the “h” sound in ‘wh’ words, and to really accentuate it.
I remember sitting in class cross legged with the other kids and the teacher making is repeat “WH, WH, WH”, “WHat, WHat, WHat”.
They definitely overdid it.
Same with the ‘kh’ sound in loch. That even more so
Never knew 'chapman' meant 'merchant', but you can see the link to the German 'Kaufmann' there
" When chapman billies leave the street... " Burns in Tam O Shanter.
It’s köpman in swedish, exactly the same but a different vowel.
The 'chap' in 'chapman' is the origin of the modern English word 'cheap'.
As a German, I don't see the Kaufmann in Chapman. Only the man part obviously comes from Mann.
'Ch' in English is sometimes reflected by a 'k' in German, e.g. (chamber/Kammer) and 'p' is sometimes an 'f' (sleep/Schlaf) - I'm sure there are more examples. The clues are there.
As a french, I have always noticed that french people who are struggling with english very often use those english words with french origin, instead of the more english sounding words (sometimes even inventing words that in my opinion could have existed in english honhonhon 😂)
Et merci pour la vidéo ❤
😅😅😅😅strategy of trick player of celtic family 😅😅😅😅❤❤❤❤
For me i do the opposite, I use the French word similar to English (I’m learning french)
It's sex and stilish charming and elevated this technique when a french buddy wanna love and care of english they use equal or similar french word or sentence and anglicize this word and sentence in english and the result of learning is obtained.
When a english, irish, canadian, statenian buddy wanna learn french they do the inverse of frenches to love french's idiom, they take a english phrase or word, frenchified this sentence or word learn and love french for life.
The relation of french and english it's like a railway road 🛣️🛣️🛣️ with double hand.💙🫂🆒♾️💎🌄🛣️🥂🍾🔤📐🍻.
French and English are lovers and brothers in fact.
In the same sentece and word English and French shares commons phonems and graphems too between them 🌎 deep intense relation.
Tout à fait! Ce Monsieur Rob est d'une érudition époustouflante.
And mercy to pour your video too.
Very interesting video, thanks a lot. As a Frenchman trying hard to improve my English accent by emphasizing "h" it’s funny to hear that some English were trying to make English words sounds French by dropping the h sound!
Also, wanted to mention that to remember some Franch spelling rule such as using the ^ sign (the “accent circonflexe”) which often come from dropping the “s” letter between old and modern French, sometime I use the English translation that still use old French wording. For instance in French word “forêt” the ^ comes from the forgotten s that still exist in the English word “foreSt” (same for “batârd”/“bastard”, “hôpital”/”hospital”).
"Honni soit qui mal y pense"
Great show sir, as always. Nice balance of good explanations and facts with humour. The wonderful ways of words!
As an anglophone Canadian who seriously studied French as an adult I was so happy that so much of English comes from French. We had a joke in my French class that if you don’t know the French word just say it in English with a French accent and you might get it right!
Frenchman here. I do the same with English all the time. English is easy, the only difficulties are in the spelling with words of germanic origin and pronunciations in general which make me crazy sometimes. German is much easier for this reason.
When we had a French au pair who didn't understand something in English (and we couldn't think what it would be in French either), we'd just try pronouncing the English word with a French accent. Worked surprisingly well!
I was working for a haulage company and we went to Paris, so we are surrounded by French trucks.
The battery was dead after sitting for a week so the boss grabbed a pair of jump-leads and say's we'll ask someone for assistance.
'Do you speak any French?' I ask 🤔 'A bit.' he replies 👍
He knocked on the first truck we came to and when the driver opened the door my boss waved the leads at him and said 'Le jump-start?' 😂
🤣
I did the same thing with my 5 years of French when I was stuck in Panama - I just pronounced it with a Spanish accent - and things went amazingly well!
English is really just Dutch dressing up as French 😂
Edit: guys, relax. It’s just a joke
Wouldn’t that require pickles with mayonnaise & ketchup?
But then Dutch is just German. And french is just Latin.
I don't get this obsession people have with English not being a real language because it's based on other languages when every language is based on other languages.
Every European language and indian 'is just' indo-european.
Indo-european 'is just' proto-indo-european
Ad infinitum
Love that!
@@jgreen2015 Dutch is drunk German.
@@fsinjin60 You do know that 'ketchup' came to English in the late 17th century apparently from Chinese (Hokkien) kê-chiap ‘brine of pickled fish or shellfish’, perhaps partly via Malay kecap, kicap ‘soy sauce’?
this was such an interesting, informative video, thank you!
Super interesting. Thanks you.
Dammit Rob, you've done it again. Another video with nonstop information that I will try desperately to absorb and poorly retell at cocktail parties. Fact after fact. Another excellent video.
Why, thank you!
@@RobWords We understand your meaning here Rob, but could you unpack the "why!" before the "thank you". ? Thank you.
You sound fun
@@SierraNovemberKiloI'll skim the surface of your question by suggesting that the "why" here indicates modest surprise at an extravagant compliment - almost like asking why it's deserved.
Do cocktail parties actually exist?
I like how enthusiastic he is. Clearly loves language. Can't fake it.
What a lovely video. Such smooth transitions and interesting facts. Your passion is palpable and the scene is majestic ✨
Here's another French word that became two English words: hôtel. The circumflex indicates it used to be spelled _hostel._ English took "hostel" from the old word, and "hotel" from the new word.
Chief and chef are similar. One from before the great shift in French pronunciation and the other from after.
We also got the word "host" and "hostile" from the same french root. "Hostile" literally used to mean, basically: to interact with someone, but to do so with suspicion and a business-like emotional distance, as you would if you were hosting a complete stranger in your house
There is also:
Forêt Forest
Hôpital Hospital
And many others 😊
@@pierremassines4981 💯
Bâtard>Bastard 😂
I tell my Francophone friends and relatives when they are unsure of the English vocabulary just use the French word & pronounce it like it was German. There is always an English cognate but sometimes we surprise them by pronouncing it like the French.
Changed (Germanized) pronunciation:
Quarter - quartier
Niece - niece
People - peuple
Meme Exactement (en mode de XVIIIe siècle):
Banking terms - banque, cheque
Hors d’ouvres, (American) filet of beef, …
When I was still current with French (four or five decades ago), I used to use it to spell English words, especially the ones with troublesome suffixes like -ble or -nce. English pronunciation always reduces the preceding vowel to an indistinct "uh", whereas French kept the vowel's distinct sound. Therefore, by saying the word to myself in French, I knew how to write it in English.
i only thing i disliked about this video was that while not the focus, the main argument to disband the romance language accusations is that old norse didn't just influence english, it changed *it's sentence structure*. old norse is the reason we say things in the order we do today.
@@rhysastewart796 What I feel Rob should have implied that English swallowed the French tongue whole. There are few words in French that are not understood by English speakers with a large vocabulary. By the same token, there are few German words that are not understood by English speakers. English adds words, does not discriminate against bad declension and conjugation and welcomes the borrowings.
The cowboys lassoed the cattle from the veranda.
American English, American Spanish, Old Germanic, and Hindi/Malayalam words in an understandable 'Western' movie
Super astuce, merci beaucoup !
That's a nice trick, thank you very much!
And “change” as well ?
I find your videos fascinating. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for this very interesting video.
You didn't fall into the partial trap and just shared great knowledge with us. I'm happy to stumble upon your video and I'll watch others from you. Great job!
I don't comment on the main topic. Just want to say how good is this video. This is by far one of the best short video you regulary watch on UA-cam to learn something not getting bored.
Congratulations from France to you sir. C'est rythmé, riche, intéressant, bien monté et votre voix est très agréable.
I wish the french UA-camrs take exemple from you.
Et moi aussi.
More than frenches all world anglophone and non anglophone will follow this energy and truth❤❤❤❤
Yes excellent video. Strait to the point, entertaining and you learn things.
Yes. We take this for granted but we are getting extremely well conceived, beautifully produced, extensively researched content for free. This guy is great and his channel is the gold standard for informative UA-cam content. Thanks so much Rob.
True my bros and sis I agree with all of you.❤
I'm astounded. I knew French was about 30% of English, but I was nowhere near considering all the ramifications that it meant.
But never mind the proposition 'English might just badly pronounced French?'
Think of it this way .....Chunks of it were conveniently available
*AND ENGLISH SORTED THE PRONOUNCIATION PROPERLY FOR THEM* 😋
@@babboon5764😂
Its more than 30% it's the double 60% only French.
@@Lampchuanungang Unlikely. 30% French, 30%Latin, 30% the rest including anglo-saxon.
@@babboon5764 Considering English isn't even using the proper alphabet (sources can be found on this very channel), English just just did what it could, with what it had.
This linguistic coming and going across the Channel is magnifique. I love English from UK.
That's why the seduction of english and engfrapansormandish it's the beauty mix max Mish Mash of many idioms from many continents from all the world.
A true genuine powerful mixing that why the experts called it global pidgin creole and leader of the linguistics of today.
You deliver the lecture so well spoken ... I love that. ❤
14:59 I'm an American from the deep south, from an area settled predominantly by the Scots-Irish, and I also pronounce the 'h' in 'what' and 'where,' albeit not as strongly as in the video here. But it is especially pronounced if I'm saying the word with extra emphasis, or asking with a sense of incredulity, like, "She said _what_ ?!"
as long as u dont pull a Stewie and say 'Whhhip'
'ello I'm English and I dropped the 'H' when I was a nipper.
I just pronounce it "Wot".
You say whhhhhat?
@@nicholasvinen It's just sort of an aspirated version of w. Say the word "what." Now act like you're going to say "what" again, but this time stop while your lips are rounded for the "w." Now just before you start to say the "w" sound, breathe out through your lips and immediately finish saying the word.
Actually modern French is just badly pronounced French.
Actually english is just badly pronounced english that is actually badly pronounced french that is actyally badly pronounced latin that is actually badly pronounced ooga booga
Your mispelling ooga booga (and im mispellin the next language)
Haha i'm french and i confirm
Frightful to see ignorance in action!
C'est malheureusement vraie 🫡
Wonderful! Very good presentation, excellent open-mindedness, and very well researched. My first experience with your videos will not be my last!
Watching from Montenegro and this blew my mind..Very cool dive into history here and top notch content,very rare I watch an entire video but this had me glued!!Keep em coming!!
As a member of the peoples of Acadianna, i would like to invite yall to listen to the Cajun language, an archaic remnant of 1700s rural French.
It might be fun to compare "proper" French, Cajun and Acadian. The Acadians use words like "face" (French pronunciation "fahs") for the proper "visage". They both mean "face" (English). Not sure what it is in Cajun. It might help to mention that Acadian is a corruption of proper French, and that Cajun is a corruption of Acadian French, with corrupt Spanish thrown in for more confusion. I've always loved the phrase "Fait do-do" (wait til the kids are asleep before we start the party).My credentials? I am a French speaking Acadian/American.
Thats BS.. Gracias...
You just proved that you *are* your handle.@@craphead9842
Or go to Quebec...
@@craphead9842what is?
The great Terry Pratchett observed that English didn't so much borrow from other languages as it followed them down dark alleys, knocked them over the head, and rifled through their pockets looking for loose grammar.
The source seems to be disputed, but I remember seeing it in one of his works.
It was used in a modified form on a t-shirt after Pratchett died and incorrectly attributed to him. Several sources on the internet say it originated with James D. Nicoll.
So getting conquered and ruled by Normans is "knocking them over the head and rifling through their pockets"?
What a weird worldview.
Sounds very Adamsish to me (as in Douglas).
I saw and copied theat great line in a comment, uncredited:"English does not borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys whacks other languages over their heads goes through their pockets for loose words and phrases usually to misuse them."
Sounds like you guys are getting me closer to the origin.
@@robertmatch6550 yeah, well maybe in the name of self-defence you should learn kung fu, or karate, or other mangled words from Asia!
This was great! Never knew this. Thank you very much!
There are a lot of words you presented as French origin we use here in Germany, too. Just made me realize that we may have adapted much more words from French or Latin than I thought.
If I am not mistaken, French (and Latin before that) were both lingua franca in Europe for a very long time. Some people for the high nobility used a bit of French during the middle age, and many went fluent in french during 17th/18th century, especially with the enlightenment.
I think the french Revolution and the Napoleonic wars weakened the influence of French on the continent by destroying the old feudal system, and waking up nationalism. France beneficiated from the early centralization of its power. It was easier for them to influence a lot of smaller principalities as those in the HRE. And I don't think war between France and the whole European continent is the reason, because Louis XIV had multiple wars (and even very brutal wars with the German princes), and still french was very influential during and after that.
But maybe I am wrong, I am not German after all, so I am not 100% sure of the influence of other countries on the German's culture.
So words like importieren, exportieren, etc you mean are French not English imports?
@@neilritson7445yea, a big percent of German directly from French or Latin. About 25-40% I’m pretty sure
@@joanxsky2971
A big percent of French directly from Latin.
A big percent of Latin directly from Greek... :)
German did borrow from French, but at a different time and in a different historical context. England was conquered by French speakers who also settled there. English words of French origin are throughout the language. In German it's more superficial.
Hi ! french person here, i'll pass by to tell you a bit of the french media talk about the infamous "English doesn't exist", while i can't talk for Clemenceau, i can talk about Cerquiglini, as his books made a short buzz due its title here. And the truth is that, as sad as it is, the title is very much clickbait for its own sake, he explained in numerous interviews (all in french so i doubt fellow english speaker would see it pass) that all were smalltime stuff, that he didn't do it for any other reason than because in this day and age, the onyl way to sell a book here is to have a provocative title.
This is something of a problem we share today with America apparently, as per "The Psychosis of Whiteness by Kehinde Andrews" has proven by Andrews own word.
Great video too, learning how much cultural switcheroo happened in languages is always a fun thing.
Something to note too, the William the Conqueror/ Guillaume le Conquérant debate between English and French is apparently moot, as the rare drawings of his banners found spelt it like "Will.E.M" which is really funny to me.
Cerquilini's book makes quite clear he doesn't agree with the statement in the title. It's a gloriously tongue-in-cheek exploration of French influence on English. I can see why he took the approach he did.
Theses infame movements english don't exist or french don't exists it's only angry politics denialists groups who never wins the unity between french and english.
People forget yet very before Germanics and Romanics invasions in UK and France theses lands are and were very brothers they together were and is celtics that's the deep why of the unity between english and french, spiritually is a celtic union again only changes the linguistical clothes yesterday and today.
All world should respects this marriage.
If you use words such as Whiteness, you're immediately inaudible!
I'm curious; we were taught in the US that all French words had to be approved by some government entity before they could 'officially' join the French language. It this still true?
Maybe some people take Mr Cerquilini's provocative settlement too seriously. A bit of humour in these depressing times won't kill anyone. Thanks for all your info anyway.
I think this video taught me more about the english / french langauges than everything else i ever learned. Thank you!
Grew up english in montreal so have a fair bit of perspective.
Bravo! Great videos! You sir, may very well be the most interesting man on the internet! Do keep up the excellent work. Regards from Cape Town
I am Dutch and I started learning French at the age of 10 and English 3 years later. Reading Morte d'Arthur and Canterbury Tales in early English was an eye opener to discover both the French and Germanic roots of English.
"They smote each other full sore" would roughly translate to "Two (or more) people threw blows at others to cause the most harm "
To be accurate, "at the others" or "at one another". Just "at others" is too general for "each other".
It's so deep talk about translation the folk(s) should have deep experience and intimacy with all idioms involved in the book in the situation.
First time I see a Dutch guy learned French first and English after
@@chrisdel2564 Sign of the times I guess. I started with French in primary school when I was 10 years old in 1961. French was considered an elite but 'difficult' (Roman) language at the time so you'd best learn it ASAP.
Later I learned English and German. But in terms of complexity I rate them (low tot high) English, French, German.
You might wonder about German because it also a Germanic language. The thing is that it's a lot like Dutch but much more complicated. It looks and sounds the same but in a lot of cases a totally different meaning.
But at the end of the day I can make myself understood and avoid make a fool of myself when ordering ""ashtrays in spicy rubber sauce"
That was fabulous!! I'm from Montreal and I'm fluent in both languages, French being my mother tongue.
I knew about the 30% content of French in the English language, but you blew my mind with all your examples!! Just stunning the complexity and the way it all evolves throughout the centuries. Will sent that video to a few friends for sure!! And you gained a subscriber! Very very well done my friend!!!!
Merci beaucoup!!!!
As an English speaker learning French, it's super helpful that there are so many French words in English.
It's a linguistical reunion ever ❤
Then, can you explain why, when we visited Montréal a few years ago, no one would speak to me in French? I'm proficient but not fluent. It turned out that a friend was their at the same time. He is from France, and he told us he received the same treatment. No matter who I spoke to, they looked at me like I was from Venus, but would not answer my questions. Oh, And I love your attitude toward stop signs; I didn't realize they are mere suggestions!
@@cheriem432
First, let me thank you for your response!!
I heard you speak French on the video, and you are easy to be understood, even with your English accent. I'll try my best to answer you. I think there is two factors. One is cultural, and the other is functional.
On the cultural front, there is still a language hang over from the 70's over the political and linguistic place Quebecers take in their society. So ( and it has NOTHING to do with you ) you are perceived as a threat. So therefore the Venus look they made you feel, and it has nothing to do with Love I acquiesce that much!!
Functional. I'm guilty on that one. I will choose the quality of exchange over having
someone speak slowly. I"m really bad on that front. Just express that you want the exchange in French, and people will kindly oblige.
For your French friend, if you are interested to know my opinion, let me know!
I get a kick out of this, it's very fun comme ça!!
Thanks for making my day!
Cheers!!!
@@daddythomas1389 Are you telling me that, when I, for example, walked into a store, smiled and said "Bonjour" before anything else, I was still perceived as a threat? A threat to what? we happened to get there on St-Jean Baptiste's feast day, too. And yes, I would like your opinion on what happened to my French friend. It is fun! De rien.
Very interesting vid, many thanks for making and uploading !!
What amazes me with the English language is that you guys have a specific word for everything under the sun! The English vocabulary is ginormous. Thanks for this instructive video by the way.
🎉❤💋🥂 That's t'he reason we call cudlely english the Little leader dragon of idioms t'he global pidgin creole, english have a word for this dimensions and out of this dimension cos It uses any words from every cultures no matters what culture.
That's the timeless inventivity and astuce of english.
@@Lampchuanungang For us Spaniards, a typical example of how much more precise English define things or concepts are the words "sky" and "heaven". For us the word "Cielo" defines both the celestial heaven and the astronomical sky, however in English you have two words.
@@SebastianDemaria Ah this is true if I remember english had a word that unified the words sky and heavens but they abandoned this word.
Today the norm of english is physical highs: sky.
Quantic, Luminous,celestial, holographics highs: heavens.
I will try find the word that unfit both meanings that english don't wanna use today.
I find Bro the word that unifies the meaning of sky and heavens it's dome, dome means both sky and heavens.
It's a latin word that world anglophony forgot and abandon but really exists for globalize all meanings of highs, be heaven or sky. It's ever Dome that rhymes with Rome and english is normand romanic english forever.
Hugs 🤗🫂🫂🤗🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷
@Lampchuanungang I think the word you're thinking of might be 'firmament' which can mean the same as both sky and heaven.
@@Furyconcept The word Dome is very old than "firmament", in a historic comparison, firmament seems a anglicization of the Occitan word Firmament, only changes the pronunciation. It's a beautiful word and a hodiern, contemporary word of current english. Sounds 😊🕊️♾️🥂🫂😊🪙
I am a Frenchman and I enjoyed your video a lot ! Thank you for all this useful pieces of information. I guess most of the people watching this video understood that the title of the Professor's book is indeed humourously provocative ! Very good job, and now I really want to read the book !
I love the extra details beyond the meat/food things that people often bring up. What a fascinating and entertaining video full of information!
It happens in French too. For instance, a « morue » becomes a « cabillaud » when it reaches your plate. Don’t ask me why!
That was so interesting. Absolutely wonderful. Subscribed.
I truly enjoyed this video. Thank you.
As a "Berber" who speaks arabic, french and doing my best to learn the so beloved english language.. I enjoyed your video. 😊😊
❤❤❤❤❤🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂
Please stop using "Berber". You're amazigh. The former is an awful and supermacist word equating us to savages.
Peace from TN !
@@sacha2294 I mean, I can't speak for you but not everyone feels that way about the word. I don't love it. But in Libya for example, where people were forbid to even call themselves "Berber" I can imagine someone reclaiming the word with pride. There is some debate about the origin of the word "Berber" but I'm well aware it shares roots with the Greco-Roman/European word Barbarian. Which is a crappy word to refer to a people. Amazigh means noble, and is therefore a noble name.
French has a lot of Arabic loan words
English have arabic words borrowed too , taken from arabic or from other idioms too.
Being French Canadian, this video explains perfectly why I've always thought English was much more malleable than French. You can basically got at it using both languages' perspectives lol. Very interesting video!
It's like a vinil disc, french is the side A english is the side B normand is the vitreous.
❤
On one side is Robert Smith, and the other a random French Goth Rock band. But overall a good time.
This is the real footprint bro of all 3 idioms forever.
❤❤❤❤❤.
It's old this truth since central media age, very old and only now teached, an absurd.
But thanks Providence, the truth returned again to stay forever and win again.
❤❤❤❤❤
Canadian fitlh
i believe French Canadian street slang might be so funny playing with both world words :)
Fascinating. Thank you for making such a high quality video!
Wow, thanks Enzo! And thanks for watching.
That is something I didn't knew before, or at least very partially ! Thank you so much from France, for such an insightful video ! I adored your format, and wish to see more of it later :) Keep the good work :)
❤
Those mixes of root languages give English three main characteristics:
1. A very varied thesaurus
2. Removal of a lot of the complex grammar rules from the root languages.
3. A huge amount of irregular verbs…
But mainly, English is a very flexible language. You can be understood even if you speak it very badly…
Imagine a Germanic language where an entire spelling reform was just about the spelling of French words. It happened in Sweden in 1802. Swedish has about 20% French/Latin loanwords. French was spoken at the royal courts not only in London but also in Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, St Petersburg and Moscow.
In some Swedish dialects, "h" is also missing at the beginning of a word, but that has nothing to do with French. Even some runestones lack "h" at the beginning of the words. It comes from some dialects in Old Eastern Norse and is probably the source of why some Northern English dialects also lack "h" at the beginning of words.
This comment of yours is profound and troubling, because the Swedish nowadays does not take this 20% French loan and divide it into 10% Frankish and another 10% Swiss German, it would be more logical and within the Germanic culture, it is a significant loss of words Swedish natives, it is a loss of culture.
This should even be reviewed because it is in the context of now unnecessary and out of use.
😘😘😘😘💕 Love to swedishes and Sweden, save our culture it's a dangerous situation for yall ever, scape and cut this assimilation for yesterday ❤️.
Fun fact: the Swedish term "lånord" for a borrowed word, like its English counterparts "loan" + "word", is entirely of Germanic descent. No French to see here in either languages. ✨
@@Lampchuanungang Du har rätt. Men tyvärr måste Sverige kämpa mot ett annat, sydligare hot nuförtiden. Finns mycket att bli av med.
@LiminallyYours You are very sensitive and intelligent I loved, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Luxembourg Germany, Iceland etc etc have to unite more and rescue the Germanic languages lost and assimilated in the middle of romance, Celtic and Slavic languages with education. Germanic culture needs to be resurrected in Europe is dying and assimilating I have papyrus of Germanic Gaelic know do sounds absurd but what about the truth. As much Germanic language to be revived as the ostrigothic Gothic Visigothic Vandalic, Burgundian, suebic, frankish, langobard, Saxon trasyllvanian, the common Germanic. Swedish can be used in these languages, the same goes for Luxembourgish and other Germanic languages. Hugs.
🫂💙🥂
@@LiminallyYoursPuss och kärlek från hela Sverige och kramar från dig, min söta, snälla och intelligenta svenska bror. För att återgå till vårt samtal och avsluta, låt inte Sverige och alla germanska länder förstöra alla germanska språk och låta sig assimileras. Återställ de förlorade germanska språken, återställ all din förlorade kultur, ja faktiskt, ingen mer assimilering, försvinn aldrig, det gör mig kall ❄️🥶 och rädd att tro att de försvinner och assimilerar för mycket.
🫂💙⭐🍷⛄☃️❄️🏔️🌊🌊🌬️💙💙?🥂🥂🥂🥂?
I just saw your content today and I am hooked!! Good stuff
Very enjoyable. Your writing and delivery are great. I guess that shouldn't be surprising considering that this is your metier. You have a new subscriber.
I wrote a whole sketch in English in my one-woman musical "London-Paris-Roam!" that was just written using French words. I did it as challenge to myself and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the show!
Creative and great 💡❤💋💋💋💋
Thanks for show to all anglophone and non anglophone world , for the art global world that english is True engfranormadish and Creole Pidgin Neohellenic Romanic Global.
Love to you and to all UK and Ireland.
Hot good fluffy souls forever ❤❤❤❤💯💯💯💯🌹🌹🌹🌹😘😘😘😘🇬🇧🏴🏴🇨🇮🇮🇲🇯🇪🇬🇬🇫🇷❤❤❤❤❤❤😘😘😘😘😘😘😘🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Saw you at the Essaïon théâtre (quite) a few years ago :) I hope you're still blessing people with your singing !
Is there somewhere we can hear or read it?
As a frenchmen this makes my moustache shivers with pride
Bonjour de Lille ! 😊
🎉❤🍷🕊️🕊️
Je viens de Lomme ! (Lille)
The French lost their native Celtic language (Gaulish) because of the Roman empire French is also badly pronounced Latin it is dialect of Latin that evolved from Roman occupation and Germanic invasions, French now use badly pronounced Latin words, Greek words, Iatlian words, Dutch words, other Germanic words, Eastern words (Persian, Aramaic, Arabic)
@@Wow-iw5vh We're still proud to have an official language.
Thank you Rob, i really like how you learn things. I'm french i'm learning a lot ! Cause you there.
Merci Rob, j'aime vraiment la façon dont tu apprends les choses. Je suis français, j'apprends beaucoup ! Parce que tu es là.
💙❤️💜🌷🌹🌌🥂🍷🌯
Great video! Thanks for sharing
Maybe la meilleure video I've seen so far qui parle de ce sujet !
One of my favourite videos on your channel, Rob... and not because I am French... LOL
always informative and entertaining. Thank you!
My mother is French/Acadian. She moved from Nova Scotia, Canada to Boston for the last 60 years of her life. Her kids all developed Boston accents, and she developed a French/Boston accent. It was so cute!
👍🌹🎸🎂💋💙🎶🎶🥂for her.
@@Hrng270 Cheers!
@@cheriem432 Cheers 🥂
Sounds like the history of the Louisiana -Cajun-French people..word Cajun is a derivative of the word Acadian
Cajuns came to Louisiana over 300 years ago from New Brunswick & Novoscotia Canada, my grandmother spoke the same French as spoken from this region although the last generation has not picked up the language.
@@creolecajun9988 In medium and high level quebequian and cajun are the same talk and both are very close to normand many times reproduced it and resembles it cos take many frenches and normanda words from english and regalicizes again.🥂
Well isn't that one of the most satisfaying videos ever made. From a corner of my head I guess my subconscient knew it all along, with all the french sounding words I encountered during that english journey. Thank you Sir, for clarifying the fascinating matter
Deep truthfull video that restore the global truth, english belongs to Latinophony our loved 😍😍🤩 linguistic romanic neogreek chameleon ❤🎉
I would love to see you and Judy Dent have a conversation about whatever. Thank you so much for making language so interesting!
Rob and my fellow thieves, you reminded me of a lovely German woman I knew when I worked at a Public Library in New Jersey. We almost always spoke German and she worked in Administrative Jobs Wahrend Des Krieges. Her Husband was Jewish and died in the Holocaust (they had a son who she kept with her). She Mentioned that Before the war French was the international language and after, English but During the war it was GERMAN. This was something I'd never thought about but it makes sense, since Germany had most of Europe under it's control.
I love learning about language and it's shady alleys and cul-de-sacs . All the best Jim Mexico retired
That war is the turning point. Except English is the language that replaces French.
@@RobWords this would make an interesting video in of itself, which languages were international at different times, for which fields they were (e.g. one for medicine, one for science, one for philosophy, one for trade), and at which corners of the globe.
I wouldn't doubt that during the war German became the language of administration across Europe, but given how short the period of occupation by Germany was, did they have enough time to make it the common language of Europe? I'm not saying it wasn't but it would require a lot of effort and they expended a lot of effort in other areas that were, unfortunately, far more memorable than the influence upon languages.
@@jaidee9570 My husband's grandmother was born in Poland in 1889 and arrived in the US in 1899 at about 10 years old. She had been forced to speak German in school way back then.
French was the international language only in diplomacy. In SCIENCE it was German.
Thanks for the not falling into the English vs French old theme... If anything, it tells us how much we're cousins more than adversaries.
Congrats from France for another excellent video!
How can it not be adversarial given that England imported French vocabulary and grammar only after conquest?
@@headlibrarian1996Because the invader are part of English history. They are the descendant of both conqueror and conquered.
Great video! Learned a lot and enjoyed it.
Best one yet Rob!
As a native french speaker, I would never have guessed some of those words as french.
As a french student in french uni, the best tip we got from our English teacher (who was British) was "nearly all words of 3 syllables or more are basically the same in French". And it checks out!
Construction, establishment, advantage, possibility, temperature... I could go on
He could have added that many one syllable or two syllables English looking words are French as well: pure, poor, power, chair, cream, lamp, troop, ticket, table, abound, aboard, abuse, apart, accent, jail, join, joint, jaw, jaunt, jasper, rock, rouse, rout, joy, juice, jewel, judge, rut, rent, just, lash, very, lard, list, logde, loyal, league, lawn, race, rank, rape, rate, rage, rave, grand...and thousands more. One can easily check that in the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. It's increbible! So the French vocab in English is not restricted to French looking words (soubrette, maisonnette, garage, parade...) as is often believed by English native speakers, but is so ingrained in the very fabric of the everyday common speech that they are considered in the whole anglosphere as Anglo-Saxon as it is possible to be, while being in fact French. The history of languages is full of surprises. 😀
Consider that nearly every -tion word, which there are hundreds, are the same in French and English.
Theses words: parisines an normands, nations like or not affects til today all english structure, if you remove 🤗 🫂 💙 🌎 🍻 🍻 normand grammar, parisine grammar, english grammar from english, if you remove all rules of latin and greek etimology, and remove all world glossary and Only left english with a germanic glossary you cant speak english without romanic, latin and greek rules, you're gonna cause a global cultural anarchy and destruction, Only do this test and see with your the real chaos you can cause if you do this test with english.
@@Hrng270 You can write and speak without using Latin words, but not without Germanic words
everything is native
It is so intresting, I learn so much about the two languages that I speak the most (not perfectly but still) Thank you very much !
Thank you for this very interesting video. I'm French (half American) and this is the first time I've come across this information.
As a norwegian native speaker (who spends a lot of time studying languages, it's what i love) it is deeply fascinating to me to hear that the word for merchant was "ceapmann"!
The way it is pronounced and written is clearly similar to the norwegian word for merchant, "kjøpmann", and in some dialects, espeically western dialects like the Ålesund and other Møre dialects, it would be pronounced kinda like "chupmann".
It is just a word I didn't expect to see in old English! I was pleasantly surprised, it didn't feel foreign to me at all.
Old english doesn't really sound all that foreign to me!
"Kaufmann" in German.
Koopman in Dutch,
Ah yes Anglo Saxon is half anglo Frisian it's Germanic yes.
In reverse this english from now full of galicisms in grammar and in linguistics is romanic forever ♾️.
The old shetlandic orkneic it's faroese half Norwegian.
Makes me think about "shop man" which is basically what a merchant is
Chapman still survives in English as a common surname. Most people who have this name probably don't know what it means
As a Frenchman, I find this story absolutely fascinating.
As an Australian that didn’t take a lot in during French lessons in school this is interesting but our French teacher was a good sort so maybe I wasn’t studying the language, so that would be a French thing to do haha
In fact, you are suffering from cultural orphanhood because you have been naughty and truant in French classes.
Study French and Norman and you will discover the rules that give rise to the rules of speaking and writing English, Australian or not.
😅😅😅😅
As a mexican, I have no idea what I’m doing here
As anyone would.
@@justchillin1087it’s okay, I’m French and I’m not sure either. I cooked up some nachos though. Want some ?
This is an amazing video. More like this please!
Hello ! C'était super, merci!
When i started learning Norwegian i realized how close English is to Norse languages. The word order between English and Norwegian is almost identical whereas it is radically different from French and German both. Also the tendency to simplify conjugations across tenses is common with Norwegian whereas French and German remain complex. Some phrases like "yeah i can hop over that" is completely mutually intelligible with "ja, jeg kan hopp over det" (jeg is pronounced yai).
We borrowed a bunch of *words* from French but the bones of the language is entirely Germanic and is an admixture of Norse and Low German. We could choose to use only the germanic words and though we might sound weird to folks we could be understood without the French. A German wearing French clothes is still a German with his clothes off.
Thank you for sharing that it adds so much substance to our understanding of the language history.
Some linguists feel that English is actually old Norse in that the grammar is not Germanic but Norse
@@bchapman1234 I would say the grammar of old English is Low German but Modern English is definitely almost the same ad Norse languages. There was more borrowing from the Danes than most recognize
I really like how the phrase "A German wearing French clothes is still a German with his clothes off" implies that "wearing French clothes" is a euphemism for nudity. I might start using this.
Having been brought up in the North Yorkshire Moors, where the old boys still spoke Yorkshire dialect which carried a very old strain of English what with its "thee's" and "thou's" and arl t'rest u't lark... and some particular peculiarities like 'Rigwelter' ~ a sheep on its back, and 'Mowdy-warp' ~ a mole (no idea if there even is a conventional spelling for that)... both of which come from the Danish/Danelaw according to a Dane I spoke to about it (whilst our axes were sheathed). Aye, so, I would say thar's nat far wrang there auld lad, nat far wrang.
Regarding your closing sentence, a German wearing French clothes really should know better.
Mind blown. J'apprends avec Duolingo, but this session on the relationship between English and French has just enriched my learning experience about tenfold. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
J'apprends takes an s because it's the first person
@@chloe9500 thanks!
I really enjoyed that. Thank you. 😊
Awesome review that is very inspiring and enjoyable. No wonder there are so many views. 18 minutes well worth it!
Sometimes our English friends kept the poetic version of French words. The flower we call « pissenlit » (« pees in bed », due to the diuretic properties of the plant), you call « dandelion », or « lion’s teeth » in French : »dents de lion ».
Super interesting video, as an english speaker who moved to France and learnt french over the past few years it's fascinating to understand some of the history behind why there are so many similarities. My favourite is the adverbs, take the English version drop the LY and replace it with MENT and you have the french adverb in most cases. You basically don't need to learn most of the french adverbs as they are the same. Just watch out for the faux amis!
The integibility between English and French inside of grammar,history and linguistic ❤
fantastic , keep it coming!
Excellent! C'est très intéressant. A la prochaine!
Another fun example of both multiple borrowings from french AND the "poshness" of french-derived words over germanic ones is found in the buildings in which we live (German, or abide, french...)
The common folk live in a House (german/norse, before 1000), but the nobility may live in a manor (french, 1300s), or even in a mansion (french, 1500s).
By the industrial revolution it was becoming fashionable to live in cities, perhaps in a flat (scots/germanic), but nicer in an apartment (french, 1800s in that context), or even a maisonette (french, 1800s).
The sheer volume of words English has for very similar concepts, largely due to repeated borrowing from multiple different European language families, is perhaps its most distinguishing feature.
Another great video. Funny that old Cockney English, "In ‘ertford, ‘ereford, and ‘ampshire, ‘urricanes ‘ardly ever ‘appen,” is actually quite continental. 😊
Ah, the exception of the 'h' aspiré in French (think Le Havre, le hibou, le homard), otherwise, like Spanish, the 'h' in a word usually isn't pronounced in French. Also note how few words in French contain the letter 'k', if they do, they're usually from another language (le parking, le weekend?)
I know where you found that example.
Am I the only one??!
My ancestors along with lots of other French Protestants escaped to Bethnal Green and Whitechapel in the 1680s. I'd be surprised if all those French settling in what became the East End didn't have a big influence on cockney pronunciation.
@@hugh_ghennaux Huguenot influence on pronunciation? Interesting idea
J'ai adoré la vidéo ! Merci
i'm discovering your channel, and this video is very intersting! Merci beaucoup!
The H is dropped in French, but still ghostly present, like how we say "des haches" (axes) and not "des zaches" preventing the liaison when it was a Germanic H (IIRC), but we say "des zumans" (humans).
A hachet is a small axe
Ah so is that the reason why some aitches aren't treated as silent in French? (ie no liaison) Because they're originally borrowed from a Germanic language?
I've been learning French, and I still find it difficult to know which ones are silent which ones aren't. Especially as none of them are actually pronounced!!! I've learnt for example that it's "l'hôtel" (silent) but "le hall" (not silent, but which is pronounced "le 'all.").
Perhaps this could be a way for me to try to remember which is which? I remember better if I understand something about it, rather than just rote-learning.
@@Katcycle yes, "hall" is from English and "hache" is from old Germanic "happa" while "human" (humanis) and "hotel" (hospitale) are from Latin. but unfortunately, you'll have to remember them by heart, there are no easy way to know when an H is aspirated (i.e. prevents the liaison) or not.
And there are strange cases where it changed, hence "le héros" but "l'héroïne".
@@zetectic7968 presumably from (old) french again, le hatchette or something like that, I imagine...
Fascinating. I'm from Hertfordshire, a county (🇫🇷) full of town names beginning with an 'H' & almost always its dropped. We're immediately north of London & full of people who migrated from the capital after the 2nd World War. Also on the 'H' thing, Lord Peter Wimsey always drops it as a sign of social status
I think the dropped 'h' is a French import from French settlers after the nornan conquest. I remember some years ago the jockey Frankie Dettori dropping his 'h's to my amusement when he spoke - he sounded like a cockney!
All I can 'ear in my 'ead is Eliza Doolittle, now!
@@EricaGametI 'ate you 'enry 'iggins, yes I do.
@ianport2185 From fairly recent reading of a Wimsey, he appears to drop the "g" from "ing" words more than "h". He also says "ain't" fairly frequently but I haven't seen words like "hunt" or "hunting" reduced to " 'unt" or " 'untin'. If you can find a good example, I am "hall hears".
As a Stevenage resident I'm not qualified to talk about posh but I thought the done thing was actually to drop the t to make har-ford-shuh
Bravo pour cette très intéressante vidéo. Vous maîtrisez votre sujet et le rendez passionnant. J'ai beaucoup appris !
I've enjoyed all your videos, Rob, but this one was fab - while aware of the double borrowing of the w/g words, I'd never thought about the variation in accents between the Normans and Angevins before and what this meant in practical terms for the English language.