Give me some more surprising country name origin stories below. And go to ground.news/robwords to see diverse perspectives and discover how language shapes narratives. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off unlimited access this month only.
You mentioned one of my two favorites, The Netherlands. The other favorite, while it's politically incorrect to call it this now, is The Ukraine. Ukraine, in its language family, connotes "the hinter land," while The Netherlands is "the lowlands." Each is, in its own way, belittling.
As a Belgian fan of yours, I was shouting: Dude, that's where the word Walloons comes from and then you confirmed it. And my day was made. Keep up the good work, love the channel.
Here in the German speaking part of Switzerland, we refer to the French speaking part as “Welschland” and to the French speaking people as “Welsch”. I never would have guessed that this has the same roots as the English referring to “Wales” and “the Welsh”. Amazing!
I mean.. If you're speaking German, you probably can anticipate the joke about the isles being a not very wide oblong and the Saxons, the original English speaking the old, but understandable by german natives to this day, middle-high German language in which "Eng" means narrow and "land" means country or land. So in Germany, "England" literally translated means "Narrow Country" or "Narrow Land". 😅
@@HG_Budde "eng" also means narrow in english. But the name "england" comes from "Engla land" = "the land of the Angles". The Angles come from the region of KIEL - FLENSBOURG.
You have a really delightful tone, pace, and way of explaining things - thankyou for the very excellent video! Subscribed, and I'm already looking forward to watching others
@@svenbartram2695 Brittany is Celtic and once, Brittany and Cornwall were very closely interlinked. Their languages are proof of that. they are Bretagne and Britain is grande Bretagne
@@svenbartram2695 this is because Brittany was established by Britons from the South West at around the same time the Anglo-Saxons were arriving in Eastern Britain. The Britons were moving to secure the Tin route into the mediterranean which was the basis for much of their wealth in the region, they also had long-established links to the region and were culturally more similar to the inhabitants of Armorica (the region) then they were their fellow Britons. There is another region in Brittany called Domonee which comes from Dumnonia. In the case of Cornouaille though the early forms of this likely come from Cerniu, the Latin word for the region which eventually transmutes into Kernow in modern Cornish.
Wow, everytime I watch Rob it's like going down a rabbit hole with an infinite amount of buroows leading away. He truly makes the language fascinating and a touch exciting when the loose ends come together.
The name for england goes even a bit deeper. The region where the angles came from is a german peninsula called anglia, which is a very narrow strip of land if you look at it on a map. Eng in german still has the same meaning as in proto-germanic - narrow or tight. So this piece of land means the narrow land, which coincidentally is still what england translates to in german, the narrow land. Angeln also means fishing in german, which is most likely named after the angles, rather than the other way around.
@@JohnyG29yes, this makes for a joke in the German translation of "Monty Python's Quest for the Grail", which does not quite stick to the original text: "Ich habe den Sachsen das Angeln beigebracht! Seitdem heißen sie Angelsachsen! Ich bin der König aller Angler! Ich bin Artus, Erfinder des Eukalyptusbonbons am Stiel!" However, the word "angeln" has nothing to do etymologically with "eng". It does have to do with the "angle" of geometry, however.
The walnut info was fun! In Polish we call it orzech włoski, so “an Italian nut”. It’s so cool to know that the origin of the word is similar, even though they sound so different.
Fun fact about the word "Welsh". In Italy we have a province called "South Tyrol" (in Italian "Alto Adige" and in German "Südtirol") where German is an official language and it's spoken even more than Italian. At the border with Trentino (basically the last fully Italian speaking province before South Tyrol) there are two towns called Nofen: one was historically German-speaking, therefore it's called *Deutschnofen* ("Deutsch" means German) and the other was historically Italian-speaking and so it's called… *Welschnofen* ! So interesting!
@@notsheramThanks for the info that's quite interesting! Although the French term for Wallis is actually "Valais" ("Vaud" being another French speaking canton).
I'm so happy you talked about my little lovely Brittany 🤩 I speak breton (brezhoneg in our language) daily and also teaching it in school. We have indeed a special link with Wales, not only linguistically speaking, many welsh people are living here and it's pretty easy to find welsh lessons. It's actually easy to learn when you're coming from breton. Thanks for the vid !
I'm Irish, Have B1 french, native English and Native Irish. Where can I find Breton resources? I have always found it a beautiful language especially in songs
For years I have been mentioning to British people how Great Britain is named in relation to our other British country Little Britain, now commonly known as Brittany. I once saw an old English dictionary, something like 1700s and they called it Little Britain Over The Sea. One of my favourite ever songs is Beaj Iskis with Nolwenn Korbel on vocals.
@@niall7597There's plenty of them on the net but most of them are websites / courses made in french first. I can suggest you the breton radios (Radio Breizh.bzh), the online tv channel Brezhoweb (there's subtitles with most of the vids), and also the web portal of the OPAB (Public Agency of Breton) which collect almost everything that exist in breton on the net. Hope it'll help !
In Greek we have the word Vlahos (Βλάχος singl. male) for the Vlach populations in Greece. I didn't know the origin of the word up until now nor the origins of the Vlach people. Wow!
That was amazing, I learned so much in 17.40 minutes!! Thank you ! In Spanish, Wales is País de Gales, and the Welsh language is Galés (with an accent on the e).
There's a great Billy Connolly skit where he references the Scotti coming to Scotland from Ireland and exclaiming "We've found somewhere colder and wetter than home, COME ON!!!"
I clicked on this video out of genuine curiosity for the topic, expecting a monotone and boring presentation. Was I wrong! This was fantastic! Immediately subscribed for more!
I'm actually a co-author of a book on etymology for learners of Eng language, but I learn so much from this channel. Should be made a mandatory watch for schoolkids in Britain.
@@Steveinthailand UK Fact Time: 1. Anglo Saxon King of Mercia, Offa Rex, minted coins (756 ad) with the following Arabic inscriptions 'la ilaha ill lall lah, Muhammad rasool Allah' meaning there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger. Coin is in the British Museum. 2. British army armoured vehicle named after Salah Ad Din, the great Muslim Sultan of Egypt, the liberator of Jerusalem. 3. Pirate Jack Sparrow's real name, John Ward, born in Kent, 1553, converted to Islam in 1610, settled in Tunis and changed his name to Yusuf Reis. 2. Around 4 Million Muslim soldiers, travelled to Europe and fought for the British Empire, during the World War I. 500,000 in WW2. 3. King John of England (1199-1216) sent an embassy to the Almohad caliph al-Nāsir (1199-1213) in which John offered to convert to Islam and to hold the kingdom of England as a tributary of the Muslim caliph. 3. Top 10 new born baby names in England is Muhammad (No 1). 4. According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Most of the classical literature that spurred the European Renaissance was obtained from translations of Arabic manuscripts in Muslim libraries.” (1984), Vol. 15, p. 646 5. English aristocrat, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (daughter of Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull), in 1721 introduced smallpox innoculation to England, learned in the Ottoman Empire, way before Edward Jenner. 5. Did you know, in the 12th century, furious with the archbishop of Canterbury, England's King Henry II threatened to forsake Christianity for Islam. 6. "Sir Winston Churchill’s family begged him not to convert to Islam, letter reveals. He might have been a staunch protector of the British Empire, but the British Prime Minister had a love of the Orient and Islam" Independent, Sunday 28 December 2014 11:30 7. England’s greatest architect, Sir Christopher Wren, wrote that what we call “the Gothic style should more rightly be called the Saracen (Muslim) style.” 7. Largly unknown, rarely seen: In the Thomas Jefferson Building inside the library of Congress, around the dome of the reading room is an important mural, meant to represent the nations and ideas contributed most to American civilisation and it might come as a surprise to many that amongst the ideas represent here is Islam: Physics. 8. There is also a freeze, in the room where the chief Justices seats and dispense justice. This is freeze pays homage to ideas and principles that have inspired the American legal system and one of the foundation documents represented in this freeze is the Glorious Qur'an. 9. Marmaduke Pickthall, friend of Winston Churchill, converted to Islam, translated the Qur'an in to English and a scholar in Arabic. 9. English words from Arabic: Zero - sifr, admiral - amir al bahr (ruler of the sea), arsenal - dar as Sinaah (warehouse), Algebra - al-jabr (reunion of broken parts), Algorithm - Al-Khawarizmi (Muslim scholar), Adobe - the brick, Safari - safar (journey), Sofa - Suffa, Mattress - matrah, Sugar - Sukkar, Candy - qand, Syrap - sharab, cotton - qutn, alcohol - al-khul, Coffee - Qahwah, magazine - makhzin, Tariff......
As a french speaker of Switzerland, we got the nickname of "die Welsche" from the german speakers. The meaning here is closer to "the others". We prefer to call ourselves "La Romandie" 😊 Love your work !
There's also Rotwelsch, the language of the less-law-abiding non-citizens of former times, used specifically as a private means of communication, if you didn't want the authorities to listen in.
I just discovered this channel as I started to realise I am actually interested in such topics! Rob’s narrative and choice of topic has become just delightful and so interesting to watch and listen for me; everyday before I sleep I have a great and informative time, thank you ❤
I did during school on my school issued Chromebook weirdly and after watching a few videos there, I realize this topic is really interesting to me so I had to subscribe on my phone
As someone living in northern Germany I knew about the origin of the word "England" (btw there is still a small region called "Angeln" here in Schleswig-Holstein) but the way you explained this plus all the additional info was spot on and entertaining as always. 🤩 Thank you!
It's a funny old world, I've seen various comments on forums lamenting why the land of England isn't called Saxonland or something similar, however the Northumbrians and the Mercians (both Angle Kingdoms) burned their mark so deeply into the medieval conscious that it became imprinted. Unluckily for them, especially Northumbria, they were the nearest part of Angleterre to those pesky Scandinavians and were where the full fury of the Northmen hit first - before anyone managed to work out a way to deal with them. I've read a book about the early Northumbrian kings and it seems that the seeds for the downfall were sown at the height of their power - Oswald (who kicked everybodies ass) gifted the Church (obviously to save his eternal soul) too many 'hides' (a measure of land that could support a fighting man and his retinue) and when push came to shove there wasn't enough geezers who were handy with a sword (as opposed to parchment) to take on the invaders. Even Bede - who was a monk - complains about this. Northumbriam
@@systemai Oh, you thought I was a telepath and because of that, I know of what ethnicity you are and if that was self-deprecating... You presume too much.
I'm so happy that I found this channel. I'm what you call a word-nerd. I'm Flemish from Belgium, and I'm a linguist and Orientalist specialised in Indian languages. But I love all languages, so this is gold for me. Thank you, Rob.
If you haven't already done so, you should study Anglo-Saxon, which became Old English. Being Vlaams, you will find it easy to understand than most native English speakers do. I always think of the Flemish and Frisians as the English who stayed home instead of migrating to Britain.
I was disappointed that you didn't go more into the origin of the name 'Angle'. It's related to the word 'angler', another word for fisherman, ultimately meaning 'fishhook'. The Angles lived in a coastal region and would therefore have been somewhat maritime and done a lot of fishing. It's alternatively thought that they may have been named, effectively 'the fishhook people' because the coast of the area where they lived was shaped like a fishhook.
This question got me in trouble in high school. My teacher thought I was being an ass. I really wanted to know why England was named so. Decades later, I now know. 🙏
@@Broockle Both, English "angel" and German "Engel" come from Latin "angelus", which comes from Greek "angelos", both literally meaning "messenger". The tribe of the "Angles" on the other hand comes from the Latin "Angli". Just an accidental similarity, it would seem.
@@filipieja6997 Viel’ on kuin lapsi Saksanmaa, jot’ aurinkoinen hoivaa, imettäin sille lämpöään ja tulta kapinoivaa. Ravinto moinen kasvattaa ja veren vimmaa äkin. Te elkää kiistaa nostako, varokaa naapurväki. Se jättilaps’ on kömpelö, mi tammen maasta kiskoo ja sillä selkää, päätänne armotta ruhjoo, viskoo. Se on kuin Siegfried saduissa, mi nous’ ja miekan takoi ja alasimen iskullaan kahtia sitten jakoi. - Sä lohikäärmeen ruhjoat, kohoat sankariksi. - Hei kuinka äitis aurinko ylpeillen nauraa siksi. - Sen tapat, otat aartehet ja kalleudet kohta. Hei kuinka kruunu kultainen sun silloin päässäs hohtaa!
❤thank you so so much！because I just got this question a few days ago and today I open youtube,your video shows up!!! Subscribed.and I found language evolution is so interesting!
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. "On the basis of a Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blend together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason. "The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen... This dogma was twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words. "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?" Tribute by a French NON-Muslim poet, statesman, historian: Alphonse de LaMartaine in 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854.
@@nononsensegamesI was born and raised in Paris France but Mom is half Kentish half Welsh. Still have relatives in the UK, an old aunt and many cousins 😀
@@nononsensegamesWhat I'm saying is with this video I understood why Saxon country (Kent was part of it) or the history of Wales being invaded, and France with Brittany being part of the influence, I have quite a mixed heritage. I'm not making a point, what a weird idea. Are you American?
@@nononsensegamesYou seem very confused. I said a Welsh GRANDPA and a Kentish GRANDMA many times, and as the video shows, the Saxon settlements included Kent. Kent is now part of England of course (my family is from Tenterden). Nothing to do with being part of Wales or France. Perhaps you should watch it again and stop arguing where there's no argument to be made
Also note that the most westerly point of Cornwall is Lands End. The most westerly department in France, in Brittany, is called Finisterre (end of land), and the most westerly part of Spain, Gallicia (just like Pays de Galles) has Cape Finisterre. All Celtic parts of Europe.
I was hoping Sagres in Portugal would also have a tie-in with "the End of the World" as it is referred, but alas, that name has more to do with "sacred".
@@georgiewalker5826 It may not be now (can someone from Espania clarify that for us?), but it was named for the Celtiberians who lived in the area. Look up 'Celtiberians' in Wikipedia. As a side-note, part of Turkey is also named after the Celts (Gauls). The central region around Ankara was called Galatia.
There's also Pembroke in south west Wales, which is the anglicised version of Penfro (pen + bro) in Welsh. This means 'end of the country', or approximately, Land's End.
Quote “Penn an Wlas” Land's End (Cornish Standard Written Form: Penn an Wlas or Pedn an Wlas) is a headland. Another source for the original Cornish name states the following : The many names for Land’s End are centuries old. The earliest name for the site seems to ‘Penwith Steort’ recorded in 997. Penwith is Cornish for ‘extreme end’ and Steort is Old English for ‘tail’ or ‘end.’ The Middle English name ‘Londeseynde’ appears in 1337 and ‘Penn an Wlas’, Cornish for ‘end of the land’, is first recorded in 1500.
Love it! We have a term in Germany, Kauderwelsch. It refers to the italian dialects spoken by impoverished wandering tradesmen, mostly kettle / cauldron menders, "Kauderer". I guess it's related to cauldron. So Cauldron Welsh means "unintelligible speech" and is nowadays used to describe either gibberish or technobabble.
In fact, when the Romans expanded into the barbarian lands, they found populations characterized by unthinkable cultures, languages equipped with complex vocabularies that could perfectly describe the hundred different ways of building a hut. But why be surprised, if the same German spoken by the high-ranking German officers who discuss the umpteenth aggression against Russia (probably the German national sport), does not seem to be properly courtly, but, rather, a real Kauderwelsch, as when the employee of the Air Operations Center, Florstedt, declares that "im Grunde genommen ist es doable (!!!), und wie bringt man den Ukrainern die TTPs bei, um das Ding zu schießen? (!!!)".
May I just tell you how much I “nerd out” on your videos? Thanks to a primary grade teacher and two secondary level English teachers I LOVE etymology! (Reading the dictionary is a favorite pastime!) You bring the English language to life.
I am so glad I stumbled across your channel - I've been interested in etymology since I was young and used dictionaries to help me solve crosswords, noting the words' origins. I sometimes amazed myself with my ability to formulate correct answers purely from my growing knowledge of the roots of our words. Keep up the great work, I always look forward to your next notification... word-nerds of the world, unite! 😂 Cheers from Oz. 👍🇦🇺
I spent my childhood in Brittany. My English friend came one summer with his Welsh grandfather… This 60+ man didn’t speak French, but could recognize and have very basic conversations with the Bretons locals.
I fell awake wondering about this very subject just t'other morning. Serendipitously I stumbled on your cracking video. Look forward to watching more of 'em. Thank you 😁
A friend from Bretagne FR told me that Cornish people fled from the Anglosaxons over the channel. After all time there are now 2 different dialects of sam celtic language.
I'm from Wales. My Grandmother told us of the Sionni Onion Men, Breton onion sellers who came over on bikes to sell their wares. They could make themselves understood by speaking Breton to Welsh speakers. This would have been in the early to mid 20th century.
So weird... I find myself listening to this man, totally focused on what he says, enjoying every word, without any other interest in languages, history or other stuff around the subject.... It just proves that EVERYTHING can be interesting as long as the "teacher" is good enough. Very well done!
I can give you an example of a group of people living in the Italian dolomites. They call themselves "Latini" because after the Roman occupation their language became "latinised". When Germanic tribes moved from the north these Germanic speakers called the Latini "Welsch" meaning foreigners. Also called another group of people "Windisch", meaning slaves. German speakers started to use "Ladinisch" in 18th century.
Yes, but much later. Wenden was a Germanic tribe in the East as we know called the Vandal people as Wenden from the West, but when Salvic settlers moved westwards the West Germanic speakers simply used that term still, so that in the High Middle Ages the term got reused to mean Slav. And yes, also Windischgrätz in Czechia.
So now, the question ⁉️, why Brexit ?! They want to denounce & repudiate their European connections & origins ? Maybe they don't like their history ? 😮 They're European no ?🤔
Love this video! Although being Swedish, in Sweden, I'm very interested in both history and languageand how everything is connected. Especially in northern Europe. Cheers!
@@RobWords it gets even better, because apparently Polish name for Italy ("Włochy") is actually derived from the same Germanic root as that whole "weahl" thing, which we Poles simply borrowed from the Germans :) I didn't know that earlier, found out just now, when I started to look for some information on why we actually don't use some derivative of "Italia" to name that country like pretty much the rest of the world does.
The old English word for wales comes from the proto Germanic Walhez, which is also why the Polish name for Italy is Wlochy - same early Germanic root meaning Latin/Romance language speakers
Donegal was invaded by the Vikings and they're believed to have established a settlement at the end of Donegal Bay, possibly on the site of where Donegal Castle is today - that could explain the origin of the name - the Vikings being the 'foreigner' in this instance.
@@Pfth The Nordic people didn't call themselves Gál-Gaelic-Gaul so wouldn't name a village Don-Dom Gál either a home of Gál-Gaelic-Gaul. If this what Irish belief is for the word Gál-Gaelic-Gaul then Irish are not Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk.
@@MAKDavid-1Maybe Dún na nGall was the name the Irish used to describe the place and it stuck. I agree that the Vikings wouldn't have called it that. How do you define Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk? Only asking as I genuinely don't know. I know that Irish ancestry, like all ancestries, is very complex - contains Gaelic as well as Scandinavian, French, English, Welsh and Scottish elements - but no one alive today can reasonably claim to be "pure Gael" - and even the Gaels would have had some pre-Gaelic DNA in their genetic makeup. At least, this is as far as I can make out.
@@Pfth Gál-Gál-Gaelic-Gaul moved between Portugal,BenGal and Mongolia and have connected Iberian Peninsula with Caucasian Iberian Kingdom and Siberia throughout the times like other regions which is why R1B and R1A haplogroups are so worldwide spread. This why Irish-Scottish genetics appears amongst native Afghan Pashtun population just as Iran,Middle East ...and entire Scythian lands for Gál-Gaelic-Gaul where a established tribal alliance in bronze age that had they global influence. This why some native Irish that can trace they origins in Ireland for many centuries have been scoring a more central Uralic genetic connection since arguably they had a connection or derived from a Udmurts whose known feature is that they all Ginger and they claim that every person that have Ginger hair in modern Russia are of Udmurt origins. From my Hungarian-Macar-Scythian point of view by looking at my own archeo-genetic data and general culture that is our and have no connection to Mediterranean people I have a different view on the topic. Gál is a common Hungarian surname that is associated to be the same as Gaul-Gael which have connection many other Hungarian-Macar-Scythian surname like Gálvölgyi whicb means Valley of Gál and its a surname that indicates that Árpádian basin known as Carpathian basin was known as Valley of Gál-Gaelic-Gaul to Hungarians. This why when we look up Scythians archeo-genetic data the Western Scythians are a Ugro-Finnic alliance meaning Hungarian-Finnish from which Hungarian part is Gál-Gaelic-Gaul while Eastern Scythians appears to be more Turkic. This explains many things like why Hungarian pig breed Mangalica is called as such since Hungarian called themselves ManGál or Gálic people and it's from ManGál that the word Mongol have derived from. As to what what Gál means from a Hungarian part it's the root word for Galamb meaning Dove 🕊 which appears in more English form in Moldavia but more importantly it's a animal associated with so called Turan-Turul bird from which Hungarian-Macar-Scythian traced they origins which can be found in Etruscan Turan related sources just as Mongolian to this very day. The Turan-Turul bird in some traditions is more a hybrid animal depicted as a Griffin or so called Phonics even some sources. Hence arguably we Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk where a group of people that had a Mother Goddess as part of they cultural-religious centre hence the role of male and female where different compared to other more male centred societies where females didn't play a significant role in society. This why arguably in modern English language Gal is also a word used for female since today we have a more Phalic Mediterranean culture that dominates the continent which is not native in this land and whose narrative are inserted compared to more native Mother Nature centric culture that was native in the land.
Oh! man this video contains A LOT of bizarre, informative, exquisite, lovely, reasonable, unreasonable ....... information thanks, man this is such a help
@@kacperwoch4368 I think Slavs inherited the diverse meaning directly from the Germanics, they were already using the term to describe citizens of Rome
That was always what I thought when I learned about the Angles and the Saxons. And also, when I learned French in school, we learned that the French name is Angleterre. And terre means land. So Angle land.
As a language student and teacher this was truly fascinating. Your other video on Proto Indo-European was equally wonderful and reminded me of a study project I did during the Pandemic 💜
I have only just discovered your channel and am delighted. Your videos are informative and you present them quite well. Thank you for the hard work and education!
Thank you Rob, this was a clear, and entertaining piece of content. I am English and learned more from this than 4 years of history lessons at school (a long time ago).
I made my first trip to the USA last month. I was very impressed by the friendliness and generosity of everyone we met. Driving especially was a great experience, very polite. The only negative was the surprisingly terrible coffee!
I love that etymology moment around the 'wal' morpheme, it's like a whole load of random doors opening far away down the hall. But also I couldn't help notice you neglected the island of Lundy, it was on your animated map all sad and unhighlighted
This is one of those videos that one expects to listen to but then leave soon after. I stayed till the end because it is fun and very interesting! Happy Trails from Florida
The etymology of the Welsh word for England, as you said, is 'Lloegr', which derives from old Welsh for.. 'The Lost Lands' or a variation of, which harks back to the Britons being pushed to the western fringes by the Anglo-Saxons. While the word for English 'Saesneg', Englishman 'Saes', and English people 'Season', resembles the other Celtic languages in referencing the Saxons
My only source is a lecturer telling me over a pint mind! There is a fair bit of Latin in Welsh, where it doesn't appear in English ("Pont", "Ffenestr", "Eglwys" etc), most likely loaned from the Romans I imagine. I wonder if the Anglo-Saxons picked up on that too@@RobWords
@@danieljones4754there were also a few early borrowings into Old English from Latin either before or after the invasion of Britain. For example 'butter' comes from Latin 'butrum', etc.
Love this video. I am Dutch, Netherlands and also Hollands. Why am I so many names? The humour and knowledge you gave me was really great. Will watch your other vids too!
Thanks! Coincidentally, I came across your video, and I find it very very interesting. Not being British (i live in Chile), but having ancestry, I have always been curious to know more about Great Britain (history, native peoples and why the names of the states that make it up). Thank you again! Loved your channel
also, despite england being created by a saxon (aethelstan technically, but his grandfather, alfred the great king of the west saxons (aka wessex), was the one that created the stepping stones towards the angles and saxons becoming one and created the name 'england') he decided to name it after the angles rather than his own people because he already had the support of the saxons, but the angles werent really on board and didnt like the idea of being ruled over by the saxons, so he wanted to convince them by naming the country after them instead
I moved to the UK not so long ago and your such videos are very interesting, curious and exiting. whey help to know history and origin of words, names, and places of the country. I like to know that's in depth and your video help to do that. thank you!! very fundamental and curious information
Best video to date! As a norwegian speaker, it's so fun to see some of the old pronunciations, as the kind of sounds like the pronunciations we use today. "Yrrland" for Ireland, or as we write it: "Irland" (pronounced Irrland, with "rolling" R).
I took Medieval Lit during my final semester as an English major. Learning about the evolution of the language and hearing how English originally sounded, pre Chaucer and Shakespeare, was one of those moments from lectures that really stuck with me. We had to memorize Cædmon's hymn and I still know it 8 years later. It's my "party trick," as well as being a fun way to engage my students. Everyone always says it sounds like Norwegian or Elvish 😁
In nordern Germany (Niedersachsen) some people can speak "Plattdeutsch" what is near "old englisch. A few words of plattdeutsch sound like english, until today.
Yup, Low German (called so because of altitude, not related to class) is the oldest German there is, with no vowel and consonant shifts (unlike High German spoken in Austria, southern Germany and Switzerland) and is thus closest to English. At some point, all the dialects between German, Dutch and English were on a Dialektkontinuum, but over the centuries, that broke apart.
@@Schiffsfahrer I think the dialect continuum over the netherlands and germany is still there, because to me as a Dutch person, I can understand low german so much more than high german. To me low german looks like dutch with some german sprinkled in. Then again dutch also did not undergo the sound shifts that high german did.
having lived in the UK my whole life, I love that there's so much I didn't know about the history of my country. Very informative and well delivered. Excellent job my friend.
As a Coconut seller in Africa,I really admire Your video,You do very serious research.Keep the job on so that our view of present things will change!!!
Incase some of you didn't know ,sax from saxon changed to sex in place names ,Essex is East Saxony ,West Saxony is Wessex,,guess what Middle Saxony is and South Saxony ,3 points for each 😊 Norfolk is North Folk ,Suffolk is ...
Very informative , thank you. However you did not mention the there still is an Anglia in Germany on the border with Denmark- - Anglia (German and Low German: Angeln; Danish and South Jutlandic: Angel; Old English: Engel) is a small peninsula in northern Germany, on the Baltic coast of Jutland.
May I hint to the fact that the anglian peninsula actually is not part of today‘s Denmark - you find it in the northernmost part of Germany, southeast of the point where German and Danish land borders close to the city of Flensburg. A lovely region with a rich history.
Very interesting video for an admirer of the British Empire, like me. I visited England and Scotland and was very surprised by these cultures. Especially peaceful rivalry, so to speak. I ended up buying two bagpipes in Edinburgh. Which I never learned to play (LOL). I have English friends, even living here in Brazil. Here we call Inglaterra to England. Wales (País de Gales), Scotland (Escócia), Northern Ireland (Irlanda do Norte) and Ireland (Irlanda). Hugs from Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. Rubens Leffer De Liz Santos.
If you knew anything about the British Empire you could not admire it. If you knew of the systematic brutality employed by British colonial forces to suppress unfortunate peoples of the colonies you could not admire it. If you knew of the detention camps, where torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings were rampant you could not admire it. If you knew of the British legal system's complicity in sanctioning state-sponsored violence in the colonies you could not admire it. If you knew of the dehumanising effects of torture and trauma experienced by peoples of the colonies and the moral dissonance of British officials tasked with implementing these oppressive policies you could not admire it. If you knew how British mercantilist policies prioritised the export of raw materials from colonies to fuel industrialisation in Britain, leading to deindustrialisation, impoverishment, and dependency in the colonies' economies you could not admire it. If you knew that British benevolence and civilizing mission in the colonies is pure myth you could not admire it. If you knew that popular narratives that portray British colonialism as a force for modernisation and progress are just whitewash for the atrocities, human rights abuses, and exploitation perpetrated by the British Empire, you could not admire it. Noone can admire what is shameful.
@@kevinnolan1339I'm going to assume you're Irish because of your name? I'm English but I agree, nothing to admire about the British empire by modern standards. We cannot change the past or choose where we are born, but there has been little to no recognition of the atrocities carried out in the name of the empire by our governments past and present and our monarchy. This is shameful when countries like Germany teach their history warts and all and do not try to put a positive spin on it.
Kia ora from New Zealand. At 1:23 Rob says that England (plus derivatives) is the only word where the "ENG" combination of letters makes that sound. I found this statement very ENGaging. What do other folk think, please?
@@liamloxley1222 Ah. Thank you. I have a strong Kiwi accent and the difference between those two sounds, for me, is very minor. I appreciate your help. Cheers!!!
Super stuff, Britain's history never ceases to fascinate. i also thought the word eng in German translates to narrow. i see now from the map that angles before migration inhabited a narrow strip(eng land) between mainland Germany and its Jutland peninsular. I just needed to go back to the origin of the Angles. Thanks !!!
Eng translates to "closely" in German. I read somewhere that it's a nice coincidence that the Angles naming it "land of the Angles" also means "close land" as in land close to their original home.
@@dmc6262 - nice, thats another angle to their origin story. Though i think 'nah' might be a more appropriate for location. eng for description of the actual(narrow) land. eng could also used describe relationships between people.
I was born in Germany, with a German mother and an American father. My DNA test was a big surprise for me. Scottish/Irish/French/German (my mother’s family is coming from Saxon 😂), my father from Scotland/Ireland and France.. thank you for the explanation!
@@IncaMcCarter all DNA tests are flawed. I wouldn't suggest any of those. We know today's spreading of all the DNA markers, but not the spread from centuries ago. Everything is just an assumption. Having a certain marker in Scandinavia today doesn't mean it existed in the Vikings. Sure there are some that are a given, but enough aren't, making this way to speculative.
Fascinating Robwords, as ever! Thanks :-) And congratulations on one of the smoothest narrative-to-ad-to-narrative transitions! Usually, I skip any ads not blocked by my numerous intruder-blockers; but the in-narrative style is far more palatable to this fussy, selective viewer. And yours was buttery smooth! BTW: I've been using Ground News for a couple of years now - it's part of my suite of news fact-checkers and the like. I back up your promotion of it, finding it an invaluable source of journalistic balance among the barrage of bullshit reportage. (I'm a retired print-media editor.)
Lloegr - the Welsh word for England means ‘the lost land’. An eloquent word that says it all about the fate of the Native Britons (of which only the Welsh remain as a significant linguistic and cultural group) of the island of Britain.
I suppose the Celtic Britons did speak Latin by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived due to the lasting influence of Rome, so calling them Romance language speakers makes sense.
A little trivia to the 'Welsh' bit. I am Swiss and the German speaking part refers to the French speaking part as 'welsch' with the same connotation of 'stranger' or 'speaker of a strange (as in 'alien' or 'unknown') language'. So the German speaking part of Switzerland was in the Roman times (or around then) settled by the Alemanni a German tribe, where as the area around the lake of Geneva was settled by Celts. And hence the colloquial expression of 'welsch' for anything/anyone coming from the French speaking part of Switzerland.
@@proudsussexerScotts invaded from ireland, the welsh just stayed in wales as much as they could, the lands known as England were a melting pot of all sorts of crap invasions. The Cornish, well, never mind. The Anglo Saxons rose triumphant. But the Britons were everywhere.
Hi Rob, thanks for these very interesting videos. Whenever I'm in Europe, I love to read the signs, and being sure to do the correct local pronunciations, I've found that it's possible to connect many words with other similar words in other languages. Cesar and Czar is a favorite one, but certainly not the only one. The morphology of languages is so interesting! Please keep the videos coming!
It explains the Albion bit, but not "la perfide". It comes from one of the many 18th Century wars - War of Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War??? - one of them anyway, but I can't remember which one offhand and I'm too lazy to look it up. England was being perfidious once more - not for the first time and, sans aucune doute, not for the last time either!!
Give me some more surprising country name origin stories below. And go to ground.news/robwords to see diverse perspectives and discover how language shapes narratives. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off unlimited access this month only.
Los Angeles was founded by the Angles as well. "Los" means "Let's go" in case you didn't know.
You mentioned one of my two favorites, The Netherlands. The other favorite, while it's politically incorrect to call it this now, is The Ukraine. Ukraine, in its language family, connotes "the hinter land," while The Netherlands is "the lowlands." Each is, in its own way, belittling.
Patently untrue, Los Angeles just means "the angels" in Spanish.
@@Esteareal You are a truly patent girl!
Is the word "Alp" connected to the word "Alba"?
As a Belgian fan of yours, I was shouting: Dude, that's where the word Walloons comes from and then you confirmed it. And my day was made. Keep up the good work, love the channel.
Somehow I'm disproportionately amused by the notion of someone Belgian shouting "dude"...😁
Writing a song need some rhymes. Walloon, balloon,maroon, Quadroon, buffoon Macaroon.. Help me out guys, I have limited capacity
@@stevetournay6103 90% of my media consumption is in English. All our media is/was subtitled not dubbed, so my use of dude is not that surprising. 😉
as a swiss, i was sad he didn't mention that francophone swiss people are literally called welsch lol
@@stevetournay6103 It has been rumored that there is a healthy burgeoning Belgian North Sea Surf Scene. Cowabunga!
Here in the German speaking part of Switzerland, we refer to the French speaking part as “Welschland” and to the French speaking people as “Welsch”. I never would have guessed that this has the same roots as the English referring to “Wales” and “the Welsh”. Amazing!
Welsch = Gaulois.
I mean.. If you're speaking German, you probably can anticipate the joke about the isles being a not very wide oblong and the Saxons, the original English speaking the old, but understandable by german natives to this day, middle-high German language in which "Eng" means narrow and "land" means country or land.
So in Germany, "England" literally translated means "Narrow Country" or "Narrow Land". 😅
@@HG_Budde "eng" also means narrow in english.
But the name "england" comes from "Engla land" = "the land of the Angles". The Angles come from the region of KIEL - FLENSBOURG.
Die Wallachei in Rumänien hat ihren Namen auch vom Wort welsch meine ich. Und Wallonien in belgien ??
@@hbecker123 ja genau
Not only is this video informative, but your wit makes it fun to watch.
You have a really delightful tone, pace, and way of explaining things - thankyou for the very excellent video! Subscribed, and I'm already looking forward to watching others
The "wall" in Cornwall being related to Wales is one of those things that's completely obscure before, but then ridiculously obvious in hindsight.
And one that wasn't mentioned - Cumbria.
There's also a Cornouaille in Brittany, France, which looks suspiciously similar.
@@svenbartram2695 Brittany is Celtic and once, Brittany and Cornwall were very closely interlinked. Their languages are proof of that. they are Bretagne and Britain is grande Bretagne
@@ianw7898 The Cumbrian Celtic has the closest link to Welsh but Cumbrian doesn't exist anymore
@@svenbartram2695 this is because Brittany was established by Britons from the South West at around the same time the Anglo-Saxons were arriving in Eastern Britain. The Britons were moving to secure the Tin route into the mediterranean which was the basis for much of their wealth in the region, they also had long-established links to the region and were culturally more similar to the inhabitants of Armorica (the region) then they were their fellow Britons.
There is another region in Brittany called Domonee which comes from Dumnonia. In the case of Cornouaille though the early forms of this likely come from Cerniu, the Latin word for the region which eventually transmutes into Kernow in modern Cornish.
Wow, everytime I watch Rob it's like going down a rabbit hole with an infinite amount of buroows leading away. He truly makes the language fascinating and a touch exciting when the loose ends come together.
"A touch" 😂
The name for england goes even a bit deeper. The region where the angles came from is a german peninsula called anglia, which is a very narrow strip of land if you look at it on a map. Eng in german still has the same meaning as in proto-germanic - narrow or tight. So this piece of land means the narrow land, which coincidentally is still what england translates to in german, the narrow land. Angeln also means fishing in german, which is most likely named after the angles, rather than the other way around.
Yes! Was waiting for that to be mentioned.
Fishing is also referred to as Angling in English.
Eng in dutch also means scary so Engeland means scary land/ place
So East Anglia should probably be called West Anglia
@@JohnyG29yes, this makes for a joke in the German translation of "Monty Python's Quest for the Grail", which does not quite stick to the original text:
"Ich habe den Sachsen das Angeln beigebracht! Seitdem heißen sie Angelsachsen! Ich bin der König aller Angler! Ich bin Artus, Erfinder des Eukalyptusbonbons am Stiel!"
However, the word "angeln" has nothing to do etymologically with "eng". It does have to do with the "angle" of geometry, however.
The walnut info was fun! In Polish we call it orzech włoski, so “an Italian nut”. It’s so cool to know that the origin of the word is similar, even though they sound so different.
Samo słowo włochy pochodzi o od "walh" :-)
Fun fact about the word "Welsh".
In Italy we have a province called "South Tyrol" (in Italian "Alto Adige" and in German "Südtirol") where German is an official language and it's spoken even more than Italian. At the border with Trentino (basically the last fully Italian speaking province before South Tyrol) there are two towns called Nofen: one was historically German-speaking, therefore it's called *Deutschnofen* ("Deutsch" means German) and the other was historically Italian-speaking and so it's called… *Welschnofen* ! So interesting!
Similarly, Verona used to be called "Welsch-Bern," presumably to distinguish it from the German-speaking Bern in Switzerland.
@ Buck...
Deutsch actually means
"of the people"
Deutschland means people's land
@@TimeTheory2099 yes, this is the original and etymological meaning. But now it means simply "German"
@@TimeTheory2099Thought it would derive from Teutsch with the root *teut? Can You tell sth about this pls
@@notsheramThanks for the info that's quite interesting! Although the French term for Wallis is actually "Valais" ("Vaud" being another French speaking canton).
I'm so happy you talked about my little lovely Brittany 🤩 I speak breton (brezhoneg in our language) daily and also teaching it in school. We have indeed a special link with Wales, not only linguistically speaking, many welsh people are living here and it's pretty easy to find welsh lessons. It's actually easy to learn when you're coming from breton. Thanks for the vid !
Deskiñ a ran brezhoneg ha implijout a ran anezhañ bep tro ma c'hellan.
I'm Irish, Have B1 french, native English and Native Irish. Where can I find Breton resources? I have always found it a beautiful language especially in songs
Great to hear about this: in France many people believe that Breton is a dead language.
For years I have been mentioning to British people how Great Britain is named in relation to our other British country Little Britain, now commonly known as Brittany. I once saw an old English dictionary, something like 1700s and they called it Little Britain Over The Sea.
One of my favourite ever songs is Beaj Iskis with Nolwenn Korbel on vocals.
@@niall7597There's plenty of them on the net but most of them are websites / courses made in french first. I can suggest you the breton radios (Radio Breizh.bzh), the online tv channel Brezhoweb (there's subtitles with most of the vids), and also the web portal of the OPAB (Public Agency of Breton) which collect almost everything that exist in breton on the net. Hope it'll help !
6:44 The Vlachs/Wallachians in Romania are also named after the same word.
and the "welsch" (french speaking swiss) in switzerland quite obviously haha
And don"t forget Wlochy. Polish for Italy.@@jurgnobs1308
In Greek we have the word Vlahos (Βλάχος singl. male) for the Vlach populations in Greece. I didn't know the origin of the word up until now nor the origins of the Vlach people. Wow!
as is Valois in Switzerland I believe
@@LaMarula They are the natives of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Most of them don't realise they are Vlachs.
That was amazing, I learned so much in 17.40 minutes!! Thank you ! In Spanish, Wales is País de Gales, and the Welsh language is Galés (with an accent on the e).
There's a great Billy Connolly skit where he references the Scotti coming to Scotland from Ireland and exclaiming "We've found somewhere colder and wetter than home, COME ON!!!"
Brilliant
😂
Doesn't get more Billy than that! hahaha
And it's true. Scoti was the latin word romans called an Irish tribe that settled in Scotland.
Some Scots later found an even colder and wetter place and moved to the southern part of NZ. Dunedin is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh.
I clicked on this video out of genuine curiosity for the topic, expecting a monotone and boring presentation. Was I wrong! This was fantastic! Immediately subscribed for more!
I'm actually a co-author of a book on etymology for learners of Eng language, but I learn so much from this channel. Should be made a mandatory watch for schoolkids in Britain.
Same here
@@Steveinthailand UK Fact Time:
1. Anglo Saxon King of Mercia, Offa Rex, minted coins (756 ad) with the following Arabic inscriptions 'la ilaha ill lall lah, Muhammad rasool Allah' meaning there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is His messenger. Coin is in the British Museum.
2. British army armoured vehicle named after Salah Ad Din, the great Muslim Sultan of Egypt, the liberator of Jerusalem.
3. Pirate Jack Sparrow's real name, John Ward, born in Kent, 1553, converted to Islam in 1610, settled in Tunis and changed his name to Yusuf Reis.
2. Around 4 Million Muslim soldiers, travelled to Europe and fought for the British Empire, during the World War I. 500,000 in WW2.
3. King John of England (1199-1216) sent an embassy to the Almohad caliph al-Nāsir (1199-1213) in which John offered to convert to Islam and to hold the kingdom of England as a tributary of the Muslim caliph.
3. Top 10 new born baby names in England is Muhammad (No 1).
4. According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Most of the classical literature that spurred the European Renaissance was obtained from translations of Arabic manuscripts in Muslim libraries.” (1984), Vol. 15, p. 646
5. English aristocrat, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (daughter of Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull), in 1721 introduced smallpox innoculation to England, learned in the Ottoman Empire, way before Edward Jenner.
5. Did you know, in the 12th century, furious with the archbishop of Canterbury, England's King Henry II threatened to forsake Christianity for Islam.
6. "Sir Winston Churchill’s family begged him not to convert to Islam, letter reveals. He might have been a staunch protector of the British Empire, but the British Prime Minister had a love of the Orient and Islam" Independent, Sunday 28 December 2014 11:30
7. England’s greatest architect, Sir Christopher Wren, wrote that what we call “the Gothic style should more rightly be called the Saracen (Muslim) style.”
7. Largly unknown, rarely seen: In the Thomas Jefferson Building inside the library of Congress, around the dome of the reading room is an important mural, meant to represent the nations and ideas contributed most to American civilisation and it might come as a surprise to many that amongst the ideas represent here is Islam: Physics.
8. There is also a freeze, in the room where the chief Justices seats and dispense justice. This is freeze pays homage to ideas and principles that have inspired the American legal system and one of the foundation documents represented in this freeze is the Glorious Qur'an.
9. Marmaduke Pickthall, friend of Winston Churchill, converted to Islam, translated the Qur'an in to English and a scholar in Arabic.
9. English words from Arabic: Zero - sifr, admiral - amir al bahr (ruler of the sea), arsenal - dar as Sinaah (warehouse), Algebra - al-jabr (reunion of broken parts), Algorithm - Al-Khawarizmi (Muslim scholar), Adobe - the brick, Safari - safar (journey), Sofa - Suffa, Mattress - matrah, Sugar - Sukkar, Candy - qand, Syrap - sharab, cotton - qutn, alcohol - al-khul, Coffee - Qahwah, magazine - makhzin, Tariff......
The Red flag whith the three legs is also an ancient symbol of Sicily Island called "Trinacria".
As a french speaker of Switzerland, we got the nickname of "die Welsche" from the german speakers. The meaning here is closer to "the others". We prefer to call ourselves "La Romandie" 😊
Love your work !
Yeah, when I was over there in the US Navy, every different port we had to change money and change languages !!
There's also Rotwelsch, the language of the less-law-abiding non-citizens of former times, used specifically as a private means of communication, if you didn't want the authorities to listen in.
Yeah, was raised being told Welsh just means foreigner.
@@janetmackinnon3411 I don't think you know how 'self' works.
I just discovered this channel as I started to realise I am actually interested in such topics! Rob’s narrative and choice of topic has become just delightful and so interesting to watch and listen for me; everyday before I sleep I have a great and informative time, thank you ❤
I did during school on my school issued Chromebook weirdly and after watching a few videos there, I realize this topic is really interesting to me so I had to subscribe on my phone
As someone living in northern Germany I knew about the origin of the word "England" (btw there is still a small region called "Angeln" here in Schleswig-Holstein) but the way you explained this plus all the additional info was spot on and entertaining as always. 🤩 Thank you!
Would you be kind enough to take your brothers back?
@@infinitydreamzzI'm afraid they're far too many by now ... I'm sorry. 😔
@@friede6256 yeah that's true
Schleswig-Holstein meerumschlungen
Angeln connected to fishing?
As a medievalist professor (now retired) I explained to my students every year that the Angles gave their name to England and to English
It's a funny old world, I've seen various comments on forums lamenting why the land of England isn't called Saxonland or something similar, however the Northumbrians and the Mercians (both Angle Kingdoms) burned their mark so deeply into the medieval conscious that it became imprinted.
Unluckily for them, especially Northumbria, they were the nearest part of Angleterre to those pesky Scandinavians and were where the full fury of the Northmen hit first - before anyone managed to work out a way to deal with them.
I've read a book about the early Northumbrian kings and it seems that the seeds for the downfall were sown at the height of their power - Oswald (who kicked everybodies ass) gifted the Church (obviously to save his eternal soul) too many 'hides' (a measure of land that could support a fighting man and his retinue) and when push came to shove there wasn't enough geezers who were handy with a sword (as opposed to parchment) to take on the invaders.
Even Bede - who was a monk - complains about this.
Northumbriam
Wouldn’t that explain why it was historically called Anglia, not England?
@@Nevyn515 In my language we call England Anglia. South Slavic language. England is Anglia and Britain is Britania.
@@systemai That is an ugly stereotype.
@@systemai Oh, you thought I was a telepath and because of that, I know of what ethnicity you are and if that was self-deprecating... You presume too much.
I'm so happy that I found this channel. I'm what you call a word-nerd. I'm Flemish from Belgium, and I'm a linguist and Orientalist specialised in Indian languages. But I love all languages, so this is gold for me. Thank you, Rob.
If you haven't already done so, you should study Anglo-Saxon, which became Old English. Being Vlaams, you will find it easy to understand than most native English speakers do. I always think of the Flemish and Frisians as the English who stayed home instead of migrating to Britain.
I'm English but my Great grandfather on my dads side was from Belgium. My nan said they spoke Flemish, and their surname was Wilrcyx.
What is an orientalist? Can you explain what that means?
@@simonpage5870
Do you mean 'Wilrycx'?
Could be related to 'Wilrijk' which is a town/district in Antwerp.
@@forregom Yes Wilrycx
I was disappointed that you didn't go more into the origin of the name 'Angle'. It's related to the word 'angler', another word for fisherman, ultimately meaning 'fishhook'. The Angles lived in a coastal region and would therefore have been somewhat maritime and done a lot of fishing. It's alternatively thought that they may have been named, effectively 'the fishhook people' because the coast of the area where they lived was shaped like a fishhook.
This question got me in trouble in high school. My teacher thought I was being an ass. I really wanted to know why England was named so. Decades later, I now know. 🙏
I figure Anglo must share an etymology with Angels. In German it's kinda on the nose since we Angels 'Engel' -> 'Englisch' 🤔
@@Broockle Both, English "angel" and German "Engel" come from Latin "angelus", which comes from Greek "angelos", both literally meaning "messenger". The tribe of the "Angles" on the other hand comes from the Latin "Angli". Just an accidental similarity, it would seem.
@@georgh.
Isn't 'Angli' just plural of 'Angles'?
Or what does 'Angli' translate to in your source?
So what you are saying is, your teacher was an ass?
No one should get in trouble in school for asking a valid question.
Absolutely an ass. Same with Colonel. Only way I remember how to spell it is to pronounce it the wrong way. @@RealCadde
Estonian word for Germany is Saksamaa, meaning "Saxon land/Land of the Saxons". England is Inglismaa, "land of the Angles/Ingles".
The poor old Jutes just got left out of the whole naming rights in Britain, didn't they? ( yes I know they at least got Jutland in Denmark!)
And the old Finns referred to Germany as Saksa for Saxonslands/Saxony. Very interesting!
I mean finnish and estonish comes from the same laguage family. @@filipieja6997
The Mexicans call the US "Inglaterra' lmao
@@filipieja6997 Viel’ on kuin lapsi Saksanmaa,
jot’ aurinkoinen hoivaa,
imettäin sille lämpöään
ja tulta kapinoivaa.
Ravinto moinen kasvattaa
ja veren vimmaa äkin.
Te elkää kiistaa nostako,
varokaa naapurväki.
Se jättilaps’ on kömpelö,
mi tammen maasta kiskoo
ja sillä selkää, päätänne
armotta ruhjoo, viskoo.
Se on kuin Siegfried saduissa,
mi nous’ ja miekan takoi
ja alasimen iskullaan
kahtia sitten jakoi. -
Sä lohikäärmeen ruhjoat,
kohoat sankariksi. -
Hei kuinka äitis aurinko
ylpeillen nauraa siksi. -
Sen tapat, otat aartehet
ja kalleudet kohta.
Hei kuinka kruunu kultainen
sun silloin päässäs hohtaa!
I love reading the comments after the video because folks add so many little details. Great companions and fantastically informative.
Same here.
@@mquietsch6736 Yep, me too 👍
❤thank you so so much！because I just got this question a few days ago and today I open youtube,your video shows up!!! Subscribed.and I found language evolution is so interesting!
Fabulously interesting video, I'm a Frenchman with a Welsh grandpa and a Kentish grandma, what a mix!
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls. "On the basis of a Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blend together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason. "The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen... This dogma was twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words. "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?" Tribute by a French NON-Muslim poet, statesman, historian: Alphonse de LaMartaine in 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854.
@@nononsensegamesI was born and raised in Paris France but Mom is half Kentish half Welsh. Still have relatives in the UK, an old aunt and many cousins 😀
@@nononsensegamesWhat I'm saying is with this video I understood why Saxon country (Kent was part of it) or the history of Wales being invaded, and France with Brittany being part of the influence, I have quite a mixed heritage. I'm not making a point, what a weird idea. Are you American?
@@nononsensegamesYou seem very confused. I said a Welsh GRANDPA and a Kentish GRANDMA many times, and as the video shows, the Saxon settlements included Kent. Kent is now part of England of course (my family is from Tenterden). Nothing to do with being part of Wales or France. Perhaps you should watch it again and stop arguing where there's no argument to be made
"I'm a Frenchman with a Welsh grandpa and a Kentish grandma." Wow, how do you feel about Welsh and Kentish Ales? imho they are the two best regions.
Also note that the most westerly point of Cornwall is Lands End. The most westerly department in France, in Brittany, is called Finisterre (end of land), and the most westerly part of Spain, Gallicia (just like Pays de Galles) has Cape Finisterre. All Celtic parts of Europe.
Nice try, Gallicia is not celtic looool
I was hoping Sagres in Portugal would also have a tie-in with "the End of the World" as it is referred, but alas, that name has more to do with "sacred".
@@georgiewalker5826 It may not be now (can someone from Espania clarify that for us?), but it was named for the Celtiberians who lived in the area. Look up 'Celtiberians' in Wikipedia. As a side-note, part of Turkey is also named after the Celts (Gauls). The central region around Ankara was called Galatia.
There's also Pembroke in south west Wales, which is the anglicised version of Penfro (pen + bro) in Welsh. This means 'end of the country', or approximately, Land's End.
Quote “Penn an Wlas”
Land's End (Cornish Standard Written Form: Penn an Wlas or Pedn an Wlas) is a headland. Another source for the original Cornish name states the following : The many names for Land’s End are centuries old. The earliest name for the site seems to ‘Penwith Steort’ recorded in 997. Penwith is Cornish for ‘extreme end’ and Steort is Old English for ‘tail’ or ‘end.’ The Middle English name ‘Londeseynde’ appears in 1337 and ‘Penn an Wlas’, Cornish for ‘end of the land’, is first recorded in 1500.
Love it!
We have a term in Germany, Kauderwelsch. It refers to the italian dialects spoken by impoverished wandering tradesmen, mostly kettle / cauldron menders, "Kauderer". I guess it's related to cauldron. So Cauldron Welsh means "unintelligible speech" and is nowadays used to describe either gibberish or technobabble.
Same word in Norwegain: Kaudervelsk - meaning meaningless babble.
In fact, when the Romans expanded into the barbarian lands, they found populations characterized by unthinkable cultures, languages equipped with complex vocabularies that could perfectly describe the hundred different ways of building a hut.
But why be surprised, if the same German spoken by the high-ranking German officers who discuss the umpteenth aggression against Russia (probably the German national sport), does not seem to be properly courtly, but, rather, a real Kauderwelsch, as when the employee of the Air Operations Center, Florstedt, declares that "im Grunde genommen ist es doable (!!!), und wie bringt man den Ukrainern die TTPs bei, um das Ding zu schießen? (!!!)".
And in Dutch: Koeterwaals. Same meaning
Many (if not all fo them) of Slavic languages call Germans unintelligible speakers or the mute ones. (Nemec-Nemci)
Kauderwelsch
Word Salad
Perfect
Thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. Greetings from Cairns,tropical North Queensland Australia
May I just tell you how much I “nerd out” on your videos? Thanks to a primary grade teacher and two secondary level English teachers I LOVE etymology! (Reading the dictionary is a favorite pastime!) You bring the English language to life.
As a primary school literacy intervention teacher, you just made my heart sing😁 ❤
I am so glad I stumbled across your channel - I've been interested in etymology since I was young and used dictionaries to help me solve crosswords, noting the words' origins. I sometimes amazed myself with my ability to formulate correct answers purely from my growing knowledge of the roots of our words. Keep up the great work, I always look forward to your next notification... word-nerds of the world, unite! 😂 Cheers from Oz. 👍🇦🇺
I spent my childhood in Brittany.
My English friend came one summer with his Welsh grandfather…
This 60+ man didn’t speak French, but could recognize and have very basic conversations with the Bretons locals.
That's fascinating...😀
I fell awake wondering about this very subject just t'other morning. Serendipitously I stumbled on your cracking video. Look forward to watching more of 'em. Thank you 😁
A friend from Bretagne FR told me that Cornish people fled from the Anglosaxons over the channel. After all time there are now 2 different dialects of sam celtic language.
I'm from Wales. My Grandmother told us of the Sionni Onion Men, Breton onion sellers who came over on bikes to sell their wares. They could make themselves understood by speaking Breton to Welsh speakers. This would have been in the early to mid 20th century.
@@JohnHardingIngvarThis included my grandmother.
So weird... I find myself listening to this man, totally focused on what he says, enjoying every word, without any other interest in languages, history or other stuff around the subject.... It just proves that EVERYTHING can be interesting as long as the "teacher" is good enough. Very well done!
I can give you an example of a group of people living in the Italian dolomites. They call themselves "Latini" because after the Roman occupation their language became "latinised". When Germanic tribes moved from the north these Germanic speakers called the Latini "Welsch" meaning foreigners. Also called another group of people "Windisch", meaning slaves. German speakers started to use "Ladinisch" in 18th century.
That’s very interesting. Windish is part of Carniola in todays Slovenia (east of Italy, south of Austria). The Germans referred to Windes as slaves.
Yes, but much later. Wenden was a Germanic tribe in the East as we know called the Vandal people as Wenden from the West, but when Salvic settlers moved westwards the West Germanic speakers simply used that term still, so that in the High Middle Ages the term got reused to mean Slav. And yes, also Windischgrätz in Czechia.
Interesting that the barbarians called the foreigners “foreigners”, bc for the Romans, “barbarian” also meant “foreigner”, “outsider”
@@cz2301 what? The so called Barbarians aren't Foreigners for themselves. 🤦🏼
Dont tell the Poles, but just 8 km away from where I live ( see my name) is the village ‚Wendisch Evern‘.
Thank you Mr Rob. Im from Azerbaijan, I enjoyed learning of interesting facts about England
Princess diana English armenian
So now, the question ⁉️, why Brexit ?!
They want to denounce & repudiate their European connections & origins ? Maybe they don't like their history ? 😮
They're European no ?🤔
Kinda knew that the "great" in Great Britain referred to the size of the land mass. The rest just blew my mind. Super content. Super fun to know.
Hey Rob, just came across your channel and so enjoyed this video on England. Warm hello and greetings from Johannesburg ZA.
This channel is one of my all time favourites on YT!!! Thank you for all this culture and information. ❤
Love this video! Although being Swedish, in Sweden, I'm very interested in both history and languageand how everything is connected. Especially in northern Europe. Cheers!
6:50 Ha! Walnuts are called "orzechy włoskie" in Polish, literally meaning "Italian nuts".
Fantastic!
Meanwhile, in Russian they're called "грецкие орехи" which means "Greek nuts" 😃
@@RobWords it gets even better, because apparently Polish name for Italy ("Włochy") is actually derived from the same Germanic root as that whole "weahl" thing, which we Poles simply borrowed from the Germans :)
I didn't know that earlier, found out just now, when I started to look for some information on why we actually don't use some derivative of "Italia" to name that country like pretty much the rest of the world does.
In Finnish they're called "saksanpähkinä" which means "German nut". Funny how nobody seems to agree where walnuts come from. 😀
Irish is "gallchnó" which literally means "foreign nut"
The old English word for wales comes from the proto Germanic Walhez, which is also why the Polish name for Italy is Wlochy - same early Germanic root meaning Latin/Romance language speakers
County Donegal in Ireland is also probably linked to Wales and Gaul. In Irish it's Dún na nGall which translates as fort of the foreigners.
So basically you are saying that Irish are not Gál-Gaelic-Gaul?
Donegal was invaded by the Vikings and they're believed to have established a settlement at the end of Donegal Bay, possibly on the site of where Donegal Castle is today - that could explain the origin of the name - the Vikings being the 'foreigner' in this instance.
@@Pfth The Nordic people didn't call themselves Gál-Gaelic-Gaul so wouldn't name a village Don-Dom Gál either a home of Gál-Gaelic-Gaul.
If this what Irish belief is for the word Gál-Gaelic-Gaul then Irish are not Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk.
@@MAKDavid-1Maybe Dún na nGall was the name the Irish used to describe the place and it stuck. I agree that the Vikings wouldn't have called it that. How do you define Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk? Only asking as I genuinely don't know. I know that Irish ancestry, like all ancestries, is very complex - contains Gaelic as well as Scandinavian, French, English, Welsh and Scottish elements - but no one alive today can reasonably claim to be "pure Gael" - and even the Gaels would have had some pre-Gaelic DNA in their genetic makeup. At least, this is as far as I can make out.
@@Pfth Gál-Gál-Gaelic-Gaul moved between Portugal,BenGal and Mongolia and have connected Iberian Peninsula with Caucasian Iberian Kingdom and Siberia throughout the times like other regions which is why R1B and R1A haplogroups are so worldwide spread.
This why Irish-Scottish genetics appears amongst native Afghan Pashtun population just as Iran,Middle East ...and entire Scythian lands for Gál-Gaelic-Gaul where a established tribal alliance in bronze age that had they global influence.
This why some native Irish that can trace they origins in Ireland for many centuries have been scoring a more central Uralic genetic connection since arguably they had a connection or derived from a Udmurts whose known feature is that they all Ginger and they claim that every person that have Ginger hair in modern Russia are of Udmurt origins.
From my Hungarian-Macar-Scythian point of view by looking at my own archeo-genetic data and general culture that is our and have no connection to Mediterranean people I have a different view on the topic.
Gál is a common Hungarian surname that is associated to be the same as Gaul-Gael which have connection many other Hungarian-Macar-Scythian surname like Gálvölgyi whicb means Valley of Gál and its a surname that indicates that Árpádian basin known as Carpathian basin was known as Valley of Gál-Gaelic-Gaul to Hungarians.
This why when we look up Scythians archeo-genetic data the Western Scythians are a Ugro-Finnic alliance meaning Hungarian-Finnish from which Hungarian part is Gál-Gaelic-Gaul while Eastern Scythians appears to be more Turkic.
This explains many things like why Hungarian pig breed Mangalica is called as such since Hungarian called themselves ManGál or Gálic people and it's from ManGál that the word Mongol have derived from.
As to what what Gál means from a Hungarian part it's the root word for Galamb meaning Dove 🕊 which appears in more English form in Moldavia but more importantly it's a animal associated with so called Turan-Turul bird from which Hungarian-Macar-Scythian traced they origins which can be found in Etruscan Turan related sources just as Mongolian to this very day.
The Turan-Turul bird in some traditions is more a hybrid animal depicted as a Griffin or so called Phonics even some sources.
Hence arguably we Gál-Gaelic-Gaul folk where a group of people that had a Mother Goddess as part of they cultural-religious centre hence the role of male and female where different compared to other more male centred societies where females didn't play a significant role in society.
This why arguably in modern English language Gal is also a word used for female since today we have a more Phalic Mediterranean culture that dominates the continent which is not native in this land and whose narrative are inserted compared to more native Mother Nature centric culture that was native in the land.
You are my favorite new channel. I love etymology and your channel is fantastic! You are a hidden gem.
Oh! man
this video contains A LOT of bizarre, informative, exquisite, lovely, reasonable, unreasonable ....... information
thanks, man
this is such a help
Straight to the point. Excellent visuals. Very informative.
Well done. As a Romanian (Vlach?) I’ve known about the W/V-L thing from the historian Neagu Djuvara, and how Polish people refer to Italy as “Włochy”.
It's rather interesting that the Slavs took the term from Germanic people and used it to describe Romance people as well.
And "Włoch" (person) has evolved from the earlier "Wołch". Wow!
@@kacperwoch4368 I think Slavs inherited the diverse meaning directly from the Germanics, they were already using the term to describe citizens of Rome
So glad the algorithm suggested this channel. I love etymology and history, and they seem to be one and the same!
Anglo Saxon. Angles and Saxons. Land of the Angles. Angle Land. Angleland. Angland. England.
Thanks for explaining, I wouldn't have understood the video without you.
That was always what I thought when I learned about the Angles and the Saxons. And also, when I learned French in school, we learned that the French name is Angleterre. And terre means land. So Angle land.
Very similar with Scotland and Ireland.
It's actually very simple
Eventho it was the saxon kingdom who united them
And if it was called the land of the saxons, they would be called Sexland
As a language student and teacher this was truly fascinating. Your other video on Proto Indo-European was equally wonderful and reminded me of a study project I did during the Pandemic 💜
I have only just discovered your channel and am delighted. Your videos are informative and you present them quite well. Thank you for the hard work and education!
Love this topic
I am a native Cantonese speaker. We called England as 英格蘭 which pronounced as Ingeland.
That's what us English call England during football and rugby matches....😊
Scotland is 苏格兰 and Britain is 不列颠 right?
Thank you Rob, this was a clear, and entertaining piece of content. I am English and learned more from this than 4 years of history lessons at school (a long time ago).
I made my first trip to the USA last month. I was very impressed by the friendliness and generosity of everyone we met. Driving especially was a great experience, very polite. The only negative was the surprisingly terrible coffee!
I love that etymology moment around the 'wal' morpheme, it's like a whole load of random doors opening far away down the hall. But also I couldn't help notice you neglected the island of Lundy, it was on your animated map all sad and unhighlighted
Great metaphor
Let's hear it for the puffins!
Rob, you never fail to both inform and amuse me. I love your videos. I just wish I could remember even a small amount of the facts you share!
This is one of those videos that one expects to listen to but then leave soon after. I stayed till the end because it is fun and very interesting! Happy Trails from Florida
Angle here whose descendants lived in Skulthorpe. I appreciate your education the masses about the Angles.
The etymology of the Welsh word for England, as you said, is 'Lloegr', which derives from old Welsh for.. 'The Lost Lands' or a variation of, which harks back to the Britons being pushed to the western fringes by the Anglo-Saxons. While the word for English 'Saesneg', Englishman 'Saes', and English people 'Season', resembles the other Celtic languages in referencing the Saxons
Thank for this. I read it meant "lost lands" but couldn't find another decent source for it.
My only source is a lecturer telling me over a pint mind! There is a fair bit of Latin in Welsh, where it doesn't appear in English ("Pont", "Ffenestr", "Eglwys" etc), most likely loaned from the Romans I imagine. I wonder if the Anglo-Saxons picked up on that too@@RobWords
Wow, that's interesting!
@@danieljones4754Also Celtic languages are related closest to the Roman languages. Maybe that also plays a role.
@@danieljones4754there were also a few early borrowings into Old English from Latin either before or after the invasion of Britain.
For example 'butter' comes from Latin 'butrum', etc.
Love this video. I am Dutch, Netherlands and also Hollands. Why am I so many names? The humour and knowledge you gave me was really great. Will watch your other vids too!
When I was little, we learned that Holland was Holland; the Netherlands (low countries) were Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg together...
@@roseguber3240
The Dutch themself can add to the confusion though by things like "Hup Holland" at football matches and so on!
Netherland being Holland was becuz the Dutch wanted their country called that instead of Holland
That’s what I learned in USA (born in 65)
Thanks! Coincidentally, I came across your video, and I find it very very interesting. Not being British (i live in Chile), but having ancestry, I have always been curious to know more about Great Britain (history, native peoples and why the names of the states that make it up). Thank you again! Loved your channel
also, despite england being created by a saxon (aethelstan technically, but his grandfather, alfred the great king of the west saxons (aka wessex), was the one that created the stepping stones towards the angles and saxons becoming one and created the name 'england') he decided to name it after the angles rather than his own people because he already had the support of the saxons, but the angles werent really on board and didnt like the idea of being ruled over by the saxons, so he wanted to convince them by naming the country after them instead
I moved to the UK not so long ago and your such videos are very interesting, curious and exiting. whey help to know history and origin of words, names, and places of the country. I like to know that's in depth and your video help to do that. thank you!! very fundamental and curious information
You moved to little britain,I actually feel sorry for you
Best video to date! As a norwegian speaker, it's so fun to see some of the old pronunciations, as the kind of sounds like the pronunciations we use today. "Yrrland" for Ireland, or as we write it: "Irland" (pronounced Irrland, with "rolling" R).
I took Medieval Lit during my final semester as an English major. Learning about the evolution of the language and hearing how English originally sounded, pre Chaucer and Shakespeare, was one of those moments from lectures that really stuck with me. We had to memorize Cædmon's hymn and I still know it 8 years later. It's my "party trick," as well as being a fun way to engage my students. Everyone always says it sounds like Norwegian or Elvish 😁
same word in german, except we don't roll the "r" in Irland, even in the south where we do roll our r at the beginning of words.
In pre-christian culture Iriy meads Paradise. Ireland is a Paradise land.
Or with «skarre r»=french r, wich is used in the west ad the south of Norway along the coast
Hmmm. If you read "England" in Norwegian it actually means "Land of "Land of field/meadow" .... which could be brought to Engkand by Vikings ...
In Turkish, Wales is called "Galler". Which is plural "Gal". Can see why, learning the Gaul/Gaelic explanation here.
I didnt expect anything to watch this video, but it was fun, entertaining and loads of knowledge. Thank you and keep the videos coming.
In nordern Germany (Niedersachsen) some people can speak "Plattdeutsch" what is near "old englisch. A few words of plattdeutsch sound like english, until today.
Yup, Low German (called so because of altitude, not related to class) is the oldest German there is, with no vowel and consonant shifts (unlike High German spoken in Austria, southern Germany and Switzerland) and is thus closest to English. At some point, all the dialects between German, Dutch and English were on a Dialektkontinuum, but over the centuries, that broke apart.
@@Schiffsfahrer Dialektkontinuum sounds like something you'd hear in Star Trek. LOL, that's great. I love languages.
@@Schiffsfahrer I think the dialect continuum over the netherlands and germany is still there, because to me as a Dutch person, I can understand low german so much more than high german. To me low german looks like dutch with some german sprinkled in. Then again dutch also did not undergo the sound shifts that high german did.
The language I first learned as a child was Plattdeusch.
having lived in the UK my whole life, I love that there's so much I didn't know about the history of my country. Very informative and well delivered. Excellent job my friend.
Yeap, you are a German
@@infinitydreamzzor Danish..
are you a real white british? or from India?
@@RealLimerickman or dutch
Awesome Rob! Watched this till the end without stopping and learnt something new... From old Ceylon now living in NZ.
As a Coconut seller in Africa,I really admire Your video,You do very serious research.Keep the job on so that our view of present things will change!!!
Thank you very much, it’s such interesting to me. Even I’m German but I have so many friends from England. 😊
Have a happy first day of spring. 🌷
Incase some of you didn't know ,sax from saxon changed to sex in place names ,Essex is East Saxony ,West Saxony is Wessex,,guess what Middle Saxony is and South Saxony ,3 points for each 😊 Norfolk is North Folk ,Suffolk is ...
Sussex
But what is middle Saxony
I’m slow lol
@@YeshuaKingMessiah Middlesex
@@sharonprice42 ah! But ofc!
And telephone sex? Where is that?
Oh my god you are brilliant craic to watch. Had no intention for this video but was hooked by the end 😂
In Swahili, England is called Uingereza, the Eng sound is still there
This is absolutely one of the most interesting and informative videos I've ever seen on UA-cam. Great work.
Very informative , thank you. However you did not mention the there still is an Anglia in Germany on the border with Denmark- - Anglia (German and Low German: Angeln; Danish and South Jutlandic: Angel; Old English: Engel) is a small peninsula in northern Germany, on the Baltic coast of Jutland.
When I hear Anglia I think about a car.
@@okaro6595 And the Whopping Willow.
I encourage English folks to visit Angeln, it's a beautiful little peninsula
Thanks from a french-breton who understand your cleary pronouced english and have learnt a lot!!!!
That’s the best geography lesson I’ve ever gotten on England ❤
May I hint to the fact that the anglian peninsula actually is not part of today‘s Denmark - you find it in the northernmost part of Germany, southeast of the point where German and Danish land borders close to the city of Flensburg. A lovely region with a rich history.
Very interesting video for an admirer of the British Empire, like me. I visited England and Scotland and was very surprised by these cultures. Especially peaceful rivalry, so to speak. I ended up buying two bagpipes in Edinburgh. Which I never learned to play (LOL). I have English friends, even living here in Brazil. Here we call Inglaterra to England. Wales (País de Gales), Scotland (Escócia), Northern Ireland (Irlanda do Norte) and Ireland (Irlanda). Hugs from Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. Rubens Leffer De Liz Santos.
If you knew anything about the British Empire you could not admire it. If you knew of the systematic brutality employed by British colonial forces to suppress unfortunate peoples of the colonies you could not admire it. If you knew of the detention camps, where torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings were rampant you could not admire it. If you knew of the British legal system's complicity in sanctioning state-sponsored violence in the colonies you could not admire it. If you knew of the dehumanising effects of torture and trauma experienced by peoples of the colonies and the moral dissonance of British officials tasked with implementing these oppressive policies you could not admire it. If you knew how British mercantilist policies prioritised the export of raw materials from colonies to fuel industrialisation in Britain, leading to deindustrialisation, impoverishment, and dependency in the colonies' economies you could not admire it. If you knew that British benevolence and civilizing mission in the colonies is pure myth you could not admire it. If you knew that popular narratives that portray British colonialism as a force for modernisation and progress are just whitewash for the atrocities, human rights abuses, and exploitation perpetrated by the British Empire, you could not admire it. Noone can admire what is shameful.
@@kevinnolan1339 I respect your point of view. God bless you.
@@kevinnolan1339
It seems you've never known, or spoken to, anyone who lived under British rule in any of the former colonies.
@@kevinnolan1339The British Empire was awesome and everywhere it touched is better for it. Mald harder.
@@kevinnolan1339I'm going to assume you're Irish because of your name? I'm English but I agree, nothing to admire about the British empire by modern standards. We cannot change the past or choose where we are born, but there has been little to no recognition of the atrocities carried out in the name of the empire by our governments past and present and our monarchy. This is shameful when countries like Germany teach their history warts and all and do not try to put a positive spin on it.
This is a fantastic channel
I love it
Interesting, informative and fun.
Kia ora from New Zealand. At 1:23 Rob says that England (plus derivatives) is the only word where the "ENG" combination of letters makes that sound. I found this statement very ENGaging. What do other folk think, please?
@@liamloxley1222 Ah. Thank you. I have a strong Kiwi accent and the difference between those two sounds, for me, is very minor. I appreciate your help. Cheers!!!
rob really thoguht he did something there. this will forever be ENGraved in his memories of embarrassing moments.
I say en-(grave) not ing-(rave)
For engrave and engage
But I say ing for England
I’m American
Super stuff, Britain's history never ceases to fascinate. i also thought the word eng in German translates to narrow. i see now from the map that angles before migration inhabited a narrow strip(eng land) between mainland Germany and its Jutland peninsular. I just needed to go back to the origin of the Angles. Thanks !!!
Eng translates to "closely" in German. I read somewhere that it's a nice coincidence that the Angles naming it "land of the Angles" also means "close land" as in land close to their original home.
@@dmc6262 - nice, thats another angle to their origin story. Though i think 'nah' might be a more appropriate for location. eng for description of the actual(narrow) land. eng could also used describe relationships between people.
@@adroitspartan7907 You could be right. It's nice to speculate.
Great job ! Your brains and your pronunciation are sharp and clear, even for foreigners. And your tone is just perfect ! Keep up the good work !
Greetings from Hong Kong! What a fascinating lesson on the word 'England' Thank you, Rob!
:)
Looking for Ungland? (1:01) Try a native of the South Island of New Zealand - famous for turning 'fish and chips' into 'fush and chups'.
The Kiwis have taken a _vowel_ of silence
I was born in Germany, with a German mother and an American father. My DNA test was a big surprise for me. Scottish/Irish/French/German (my mother’s family is coming from Saxon 😂), my father from Scotland/Ireland and France.. thank you for the explanation!
Because these DNA tests are not as good as advertised.
@@hendric-juliuslange5446 An assessment on your part since you don't know where I got tested. What would be your suggestion?
@@IncaMcCarter all DNA tests are flawed. I wouldn't suggest any of those. We know today's spreading of all the DNA markers, but not the spread from centuries ago. Everything is just an assumption. Having a certain marker in Scandinavia today doesn't mean it existed in the Vikings. Sure there are some that are a given, but enough aren't, making this way to speculative.
Fascinating Robwords, as ever! Thanks :-)
And congratulations on one of the smoothest narrative-to-ad-to-narrative transitions!
Usually, I skip any ads not blocked by my numerous intruder-blockers; but the in-narrative style is far more palatable to this fussy, selective viewer. And yours was buttery smooth!
BTW: I've been using Ground News for a couple of years now - it's part of my suite of news fact-checkers and the like. I back up your promotion of it, finding it an invaluable source of journalistic balance among the barrage of bullshit reportage. (I'm a retired print-media editor.)
I'm not from GB but be proud, you guys and your country is amazing. You are the basis for the modern world. Be proud.
You’re very kind.
Lloegr - the Welsh word for England means ‘the lost land’. An eloquent word that says it all about the fate of the Native Britons (of which only the Welsh remain as a significant linguistic and cultural group) of the island of Britain.
Yet when you go into the Welsh language portal all you see are white liberals who support all the invasion programs destroying what's left of them.
I suppose the Celtic Britons did speak Latin by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived due to the lasting influence of Rome, so calling them Romance language speakers makes sense.
A little trivia to the 'Welsh' bit. I am Swiss and the German speaking part refers to the French speaking part as 'welsch' with the same connotation of 'stranger' or 'speaker of a strange (as in 'alien' or 'unknown') language'. So the German speaking part of Switzerland was in the Roman times (or around then) settled by the Alemanni a German tribe, where as the area around the lake of Geneva was settled by Celts. And hence the colloquial expression of 'welsch' for anything/anyone coming from the French speaking part of Switzerland.
So basically the English were foreigners and the Welsh were the original inhabitants, but the English called the Welsh foreigners 😅
No Giovanni. It's much more complex than that. Mind your own business
Did you pay any attention at all to the video??
@@proudsussexerScotts invaded from ireland, the welsh just stayed in wales as much as they could, the lands known as England were a melting pot of all sorts of crap invasions. The Cornish, well, never mind.
The Anglo Saxons rose triumphant. But the Britons were everywhere.
Why’s James Blunt doing history documentaries??
😂😂😂😂😂😂
1:16 I think the "eng" in "disengage" would be sounded as /ɪŋ/ for me. 👀
Hi Rob, thanks for these very interesting videos. Whenever I'm in Europe, I love to read the signs, and being sure to do the correct local pronunciations, I've found that it's possible to connect many words with other similar words in other languages. Cesar and Czar is a favorite one, but certainly not the only one. The morphology of languages is so interesting! Please keep the videos coming!
Also related to Wallachia in present-day Romania.
In French we sometimes still ironically call Britain "la perfide Albion" (the treacherous Albion), nice to know where that comes from. :þ
It explains the Albion bit, but not "la perfide". It comes from one of the many 18th Century wars - War of Spanish Succession, War of Austrian Succession, Seven Years War??? - one of them anyway, but I can't remember which one offhand and I'm too lazy to look it up. England was being perfidious once more - not for the first time and, sans aucune doute, not for the last time either!!
Perfidious Albion
Cumbria also gets it's name from Cymru
What a little treat randomly finding this channel. I subscribed straight away, fascinating.