How the CELTS Changed The ENGLISH LANGUAGE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- The Celts were the dominant culture in England for many centuries from about 900 BC until 43 AD but who were there before them. Who built Stonehenge and the other Neolithic sites in Britain? And how did the Celts influence the English language. New research and DNA evidence tells us more than we knew even a few years ago. The answer is that they had a massive influence on English. In this video we see how.
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00:00 Who were the native Britons?
00:52 A word about sources
01:13 Pre-Celtic history of Britain
02:05 The first inhabitants
03:05 Mesolithic period
03:39 The Neolithic period
05:26 The Bell Beakers
07:47 The Celts arrive
09:16 The Roman Rule
11:42 The Anglo-Saxons and the Celts
13:56 Celtic vocabulary in English
21:09 The "meaningless DO"
26:38 1000 years to adopt DO. Why?
27:37 The present continuous
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CREDITS
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English by John McWhorter
Amazon affiliate link
amzn.to/3rug407
The History of English Podcast
historyofenglishpodcast.com/
Kevin Stroud
Verduria.org
www.verduria.org/viewtopic.ph...
The development of the Periphrastic Do by RÜDIGER ZILM
www.grin.com/document/95594
Many thanks to Bill Hicks for the Welsh recordings.
Pytheas
Par Rvalette - Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
DOGGERLAND
By Max Naylor - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
ANATOLIA
De Svenurban - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
STONEHENGE
By garethwiscombe - www.flickr.com/photos/garethw..., CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
BELL BEAKER
By Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden - Edited version of this image: File:Bell Beaker Rijksmuseum of Oudheden 136.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
BRONZE AGE TOOLS
Zde, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons
PONTIC CASPIAN STEPPE
By Terpsichores - Own work Source :background : Natural Earth II (public domain) by Tom Patterson, US National Park Servicenational borders : File:NED worldmap 110m.svg by Gringerecoregion shape : File:Western palearctic biomes.svg by Terpsichores, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
THE CELTS
By QuartierLatin1968, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
MAKING CRUMPETS by Kevin T Quinn via Flickr
Hi, German here. Yes, there’s a “do” over here. It exists in Plattdeutsch, which is the old version of German that is still being spoken by some elderly country folks in the north of Germany. That dialect is very closely connected to English. I don’t remember when the German pronunciation changed from pp to pf and from k to ch, it’s been too long that I studied this, but the old version that still exists as a dialect uses “do” exactly like you do in English, and instead of “Apfel 🍎”, they say “Appel” and instead of “machen” (to make) they say “maken”. This dialect is also very much alive in modern Dutch which is why us northerners who still understand that dialect and practise it for traditions sake or for the fun of it in certain situations can also understand Dutch quite well.
this is interesting, in the old scots language, we said mak for make, and some old people even speak like this today, also the word 'ken' that is widely used in eastern scotland means 'know' which is used by the young and old alike!
@@Jc-ul9ff I find that fascinating as well. My uni professor once explained to us where our German word “Kind” (engl.: child) comes from.
It’s derived from the word family “ken” or “gen”. And the German verb “kennen” actually means “know”. So a “Kind” 👧🏼👦🏻is an individual that belongs to those we know. The word “gender” is derived from it as well, as in “belonging together”. And thinking about it further the English “kind of” makes sense as well. I’m just guessing of course, but: If someone is “kind of” weird or “kind of” nice, he literally is the “child of weird/the child of nice”/belongs to those who are weird or nice. I love languages.
Hullo, south German here. I believe the "do" exists in Swabian as well, at least to some extend. Instead of "Hilfst du mir kurz?" we might say "Dursch mr gschwend helfa?", which translates to "Tust du mir kurz helfen?", the "dursch" merging the "tust" and the "du". That being said, not too many people (especially of the younger generations) really speak with Swabian grammar (or vocabulary) anymore, most tend to speak more standart German with a Swabian accent.
@@chrisg7795 that is cool! That reminds me of the English word 'kin' meaning family i think. And also the word kith meaning friends I think (?)
@@Jc-ul9ff 🤩Yes indeed! I know the English word “kin” as “family member” as well. Kinship, akin to… I haven’t heard “kith” yet. Very interesting, I’ll look for more information about it 🤩
Fascinating! I am a German teacher. Most of my students are native English speakers. When I tell them that German and English are first cousins, they want to know why and how. Your explanation of the movement of tribes will help me explain and the pie chart of the English language and its influencers will also be most helpful. Thank you.
Most interesting. I am a Canadian whose first language is English. My second one is French, and I have taken Italian and Russian at school ( university ). But for the last 23 years I have taught English in South Korea ( yes I speak a fair amount of Korean too ). By the way, Korean has a present and past continuous too. However, in the spoken language you can often get by if you use the present simple etc.
I wouldn't say that the movement of tribes explains the movement of languages, right? Lots and lots of people in North America speak English. A language very different from the Mandarin or Cantonese or Japanese that their ancestors spoke. Someone who was taking up a professorship in Norway asked me to say something in Norwegian. I stared at him blankly. My grandmother's maiden name was "Bakken" which might mean "hill" in Norwegian. Is "viking" a Norwegian word? That's all the Norwegian, I know. Oh, yeah! Lefsa! Is that the spelling? LOLOL!
"wir alle leben in Amerika, es wunderbar"
Ramstine
@@dinkster1729 People of ribes from all over the world have moved to the USA where English established itself as the lingua franca. Same in Canada, here in Australia, in New Zealand, etc. And words from those tribes have this become part of the English language, often food words like tortilla, enchilada, dim sum, kebab/ kabob, etc.
@@dinkster1729 Lutefisk!
I'm an armchair linguist, and have studied this subject over and over and over again and never tire of hearing others talk about it too. Excellent video.
I’m a Celtic anthropologist, so I really enjoyed this. It’s interesting hearing things that differ from what I was taught, but hey - that’s the beauty of anthropology and history. We’re constantly gathering new information that helps us contextualize peoples of the past.
I only know what I know from doing a degree in Speech and Language Therapy.
like remembering a collective dream lost.
What was you taught? Imagine saying what you have and claiming you are who you are and what your qualified in and not offering a full completion by stating what it is you've learnt. Utterly pointless 😴
ooooo cwtsh, ill have a cuddle :)
Well, as the 'Celtic' notion in the UK dates only from the 1700s and the English were not majority Anglo Saxon, I take it you deal with a lot of fiction?
Coming from France and teaching French to 12 years old Canadians, I told them they already knew a lot of French words and asked them to research the etymology of words in their dictionary . It was a hit!
Most effective style of teaching!
Magnificent!!👍😁
Yes, the English "people" is a mix of ancient Anglo-saxons and NORMANDS, due to the Normands' invasion in 1066. It's very difficult for English society to admit that they are a mixture, not a pure nation, so English is more similar to Spanish, Italian or over all French than to any celtic language. Thousands of words that ethimologically are latin.
P M, there is no such thing as a “pure nation” in that context. Every nation is a mixture of previous migrations.
@@PM-ld4nn But Normans are Vikings and Scandinavians had already been among the original North Sea peoples that resulted in the Anglo-Saxon original language and culture. Don’t forget that the Normans of Normandy themselves even though they had contrived some sort of Franco dialect had not forgotten therein much of their original Norse vocabulary. Cabbage is an example of those words that replaced cole and also French col due to the too big number of homophones in older English to denote the vegetable.
You are endlessly fascinating. I'm a retired teacher of English, from Australia. My personal interest has always been the evolution of language in the lands following invasion and migration patterns. The Jamaican use of modern English sparked my interest years ago. I have since been looking for a video like yours to provide another piece of the puzzle that is English today. Thank you for your research and sharing of knowledge.
The only puzzle I see in english is the difficulty to speak it!
Diolch yn fawr!
I cracked laughing at what you said, "Je suis femme." I was in Les Deux Magots, a restaurant in Paris with my French friend. This was around 1976/77. Waiter approached to take our order... "Je suis femme." I said. My friend almost crawled under the table. The waiter laughed and corrected my French: "Ja'i faim." Well, I learnt more French that day, and never made that mistake again. Similar thing when I was learning Spanish. I lived in Gibraltar not long after that incident in Paris. I made friends with local people very quickly and decided to learn Spanish. We were playing volley ball on the beach and I hit the sand, face down. I shouted: "Estoy muy embarazada." instead of "Estoy avergonzado." Embarazada = Pregnant. Avergonzado = Embarassed. The same very warm day I declared, "Estoy caliente." instead of "Estoy calor." Caliente = Hot as in hot water or sexually aroused. Calor if you are feeling very warm. My friends fell about laughing, literally. I never made that mistake again. The joy of learning!
Thank you so much for yet another informative and interesting lesson. I always enjoy your presentations!
I'm an English teacher and I was always fascinated by the history of English. I've dabbled in a variety of different languages and realized that the "do" we use at the beginning of yes/no questions is similar to Arabic. In Arabic, they say "hal" at the beginning of any question that has a yes or no answer. We use do the same way but we also use are the same way in English. I don't think it's because these two languages connect in some way but it is interesting that they both have a word that signifies a yes or no question.
It's not so much that the word introduces a question. After all, a question could be "can you....?" Or "will they...." Or "should I...." . And the verb "do" has its own meaning: "do these tasks!" isn't a question, right? And also, question words without a yes/no answer also use "do": like "what do you want?" And "where do we go?". And "do" changes to "did" in the past, while we don't use "do" for future questions.
What's really happening is this rule: unless it's in a simple affirmative statement, every verb must use an auxiliary. If there's not an auxiliary already, then "do" is inserted as an auxiliary verb.
Emphatic sentences stress the auxiliary, negative sentences use auxiliary+not, question sentences invert the auxiliary and pronoun.
In the sentence "I can play football," the verb play is already using "can" as its auxiliary verb, so it doesn't need any do-support:
Affirmative: I can play football,
Emphatic: I CAN play football,
Question: Can I play football?
Negative: I cannot play football.
But in the sentence "I play football" there is no auxiliary, so we need to add "do" as a supporting axuiliary for everything except the simple affirmative:
Affirmative: I play football
Emphatic: I DO play football
Question: Do I play football?
Negative: I do not play football.
So the "do" introducing a question is simply the inverting of the auxiliary verb "do" and the pronoun.
Just adding a minor historic point: the connections between Arabic and other languages are manifold because they sat at the center of two major trade routes. So, you have Vikings in 1000AD showing up with crucible steel, which was made in the Levant and literally nowhere else. That's just a concrete case, but it was just as true as Caesar was writing his commentaries and informing us that the "Gauls" refer to themselves as Celts.
Misinformation.
The Celts were a tribe north of Italy and were fiercely anti Roman. Any other people's that resisted the Romans were labelled Celts. It's inaccurate and nothing but Roman propaganda.
The English language isn't Germanic but has its roots in the Chaldean region.
According to Ancient Brythonic history the language of the Chaldeans who came to Albion in 1500BC was Iceninglas. This is the root language of English. Iceninglas became English.
The English were re-educated in the 1700s to believe they were Germanic as to be more accepting of their new Germanic Royal family
Interesting you mention Arabic. The closest languages to Scottish and Irish gaelic as far as grammar and syntax goes, are apparently Arabic, Hebrew and Ancient Egyptian. There are similar nouns too.. Laban (milk in arabic) bainne (milk in gaelic) I'm currently learning gaelic and I keep coming across words that are used in English that I can't find an origin for other than gaelic. For example, Tioraidh (pronounced: cheery) for saying bye. Bròg (English: brogue) a shoe, leabhar (pronounced; lore) a book ("folklore"). Theres loads.... also Glasweagians are known for putting vowel sounds in-between consonants that don't have vowels in the word.. Film becomes Filum, Girl becomes giril, arm becomes arem... that's a feature of gaelic that happens in almost every word of similar construction... Orm (wearing/on me) is said Orum, Alba is said Alaba, ainm (name) is said ainum...
The present continuous tense thing is quite interesting too, you don't say "I want a drink" in gaelic, you would say (not literal translation) "I am wanting a drink" (literal translation would be "Is me wanting drink")
Another thing I've noticed is in English you can say "that was well good!" meaning that was really good. In gaelic the word for good is "math"(pronounced ma) but if you say "gu math" it changes the meaning to "well" as in "I am well" or "tha mi gu math" but if you want to say something is really tasty you say "tha seo (this is) gu math blasda (well tasty) I wonder if that's another Gaelic influence on English?
@@OneEpicEric who's your dealer mate?
"Are you wanting a coffee?" sounds like, "Are you one coffee short?" to my non-Scottish ears. I'll remember that. And let me just say that years of university education haven't taught me as much about the Celtic influence on English as this excellent video of yours. Changes at the grammar level are so seldom addressed in teaching materials.
I think few American ears would have understood your interpretation, it would just be like weird to them (or quaint).
That is interesting. They say Afrikaans is the daughter of Dutch. Kort means short. Afrikaans seems to follow the Scottish tzther than Dutch in this sense. Ek kort een koffie. I lack or am short of a coffee implying l want a coffee. If you said in Dutch...ik kort een koffie... they may think you are shortening somehow a coffee
Needing would be lacking, wanting is not needing, it’s getting something more even if what is wanted is not a need. That is how Americans, such as myself, think.
Julia D'Plume, I suspect that in generations that preceded the WW2 generation the use of “want” to imply the lack of something was significantly more common in the US. I’m familiar with it from the old proverb, “For want of a nail…”.
@@meadow-maker I've heard the wanting/lacking terminology in European old English. (I believe it was also used in a movie based on that time. Great movie with Heath Leger as a knight. "A Knight's Tale," I believe is the title.) Anyway, after this, I just thought it was the way "wanting" was used "across the pond."
Diolch yn fawr am eich dysg a wybodaeth. Thank you so much for your learning and shared knowledge. As someone whose Welsh ancestors left Britain in the 1730s, I found your talk highly informative and easy to grasp. I am proud that my family has retained a degree of fluency in Cymraeg for what is now almost 300 years after leaving. My children and grandsons, now scattered across four continents, continue to show interest in maintaining that tradition, though to varying degrees. Of course, your observations about use of "foreign" syntax is spot on. For the reasons you intimated, I have found Spanish and French grammar far easier than either Kiswahili or Kibukusu, and German the most challenging of all. Though I must admit that Swedish is the most difficult of my non-tonal languages to pronounce correctly from reading. Please keep up the great work. BTW, in more formal Welsh, the phrase you quoted, "I didn't open the door", is not written as, "Wnes i ddim agor y drws", which is used casually, but rather, "Agorwn i ddim y drws", which I suppose is best translated as, "Opened I not the door".
Agorais i ddim y drws. (south wales) Wnes i ddim agor y drws. (north wales) // both are colloquial, and the first one yes it's sort of formal too. Nid agorais y drws. - this is more literary
@@ENGLISHTAINMENT Agorais (I opened), not agorwn (we opened), I agree. Blame my error on old age. However, this form was used by my Gog family too, so I don't think it's limited to the South.
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882 not limited to the south, but “neshi agor y drws” is what most gogs say
I asked a friend from Ceredigion what he'd say and he said nes i agor y drws not agores i y drws. I think both are probably equally common with a verb like agor. But with less common and longer verbs the past tense becomes more and more formal. I don't know anyone who would say cyfarfyddes i o instead of nes i gyfarfod o.. a beth am cyfarfuont?? hmm.. Pa mor hen yw'r arferiad dwi ddim yn gwybod . dwi wastad wedi cael yr argraff ei fod yn dod yn fwyfwy cyffredin i ddefnyddio nes i ond does gen i ddim syniad os ydi o'n mynd yn ôl i'r ganol oesoedd neu beidio
@@billhicks7665 nes i agor construction is as old as the hills. this construction is found in cornish too. even in cornish english in the present tense. "i do go there"
I remember hearing often when I was a child ( in South Wales), some children and adults saying eg, ‘ I do do that’. ‘ I do do the food shopping on Thursdays’. The response would usually be, ‘ Oh, you do, do you. I do do mine on Fridays’. 🙂
And Scousers say "ayyyy ayyyy ayyyy mate dey do do dat doe don't dey doe" calm down calm down
"I do do that" comes from South Wales? Yikes!
This American is of Low German ethnicity ...yet i have often utilized that positive emphasis on ...the Middle English "meaningless" "do"???
"Do be .. a do bee🐝
and
Don't be...a don't bee"
(A saying once taught to children...but I no longer even remember why!)
@@rmp7400 Perhaps when the Welsh had to switch from their own language to English, much of which obviously comes from the Saxons from Germany, there was a mixup. 🙂
I thought the Dodos were instincts. Not in England ? 😶🌫️
😏😳☺️
Brilliant thoughts on the Celtic influence I have not heard before as a lay linguist or a person fascinated by our English language but never a student in a linguistic class at university. Thanks for this break down.
American here- love your channel and lessons. Keep it up!
many thanks
Thank you so much, Gideon, for this video and your work in general. Bringing togheter two of my special interests - Cultural History and Linguistics - in an entertaining way. Love from a Celt at heart (from the Helvetii tribe) with an obvious Germanic makeover (tongue, aswell as blond hair and blue eyes).
Scottish, irish, welsh, cornish , and english genes flow through me, yet I was born in Montana from a long lineage of Americans. Can this cowboy be yearning for knowledge of his own history? I also have a strong desire to learn more about early humans, and proto-language. This channel helps calm that beast inside me.
Ok
@@addycatlin1260 lmao
Based lineage.
Do what you want, man. No one is stopping you.
I find it a fascinating too.
I feel baffled by my luck stumbling across this video randomly. In school, I struggled with grammar. I think it’s fair to say it was mostly due to a learning disability and missing lessons because it took me longer to finish tests (I would be sequestered to another room to finish while missing whatever the next lesson was). ANWAY, thank you sir, because feel like I have a second chance at learning this stuff. Especially from an intriguing historical lens!
A most enlightening comment. Many thanks
Dear Mr. Gideon . I owe you a lot .You're an outstanding professor, the finest . Your videos are amazing . Much obliged for all your effortness.
An ancestral surname in my family is a conjugate of Celtic and Old English. We trace that lineage back to the 1200's, not all that long after the use of surnames became a thing, or was becoming a thing. I just find it a charming reflection of those two languages coming together.
What is the surname?
Great video! It's helpful for students of the English language to know about the various contributions other languages and cultures have made to it. As for "do," I think it's helpful in announcing to the listener that the question I'm about to ask is a question in the present tense or the past tense, and of course for forming negatives. Thanks for taking the time to go over this in such great detail.
Thank you for this great video I have just discovered. I have been an English teacher for almost 37 years and I have always been interested in diving in old mysteries like the meaningless do, which I couldn’t find the explanation for. I will continue watching all the videos as they make me feel at Salamanca University long , long time ago. I love linguistics and I must thank you for giving me such an awesome opportunity to bring forward many of the things I studied but never used in my classes. Greetings from Spain.
This was absolutely fascinating! In Cornish dialect, people still use "do" (in shortened form) for positive statements: I d'like sugar in my tea. I d'go down town Mondays.
Same in the Southern Welsh valleys,
We Irish sometimes do the same. I do be is a phrase you'll still hear, much to the horror of my English teacher. 😃
Same in german : ich tue die Frankfurter (Zeitung) lesen
Mosey in English probably comes from the Cornish word MOS (moz), meaning GO.
We say it in North Wales.
Here's a Scottish Gaelic (also Irish Gaelic) word construction that is heard in Nova Scotia, Canada --especially Cape Breton Island where thousands of Highland Gaelic-speakers settled --- I was just 'after' putting the kettle on when you came in. This is a direct translation from Gaelic but is part of the dialect in English.
That is the construction in Welsh too, something like Dw' i WEDI rhoi'r tegell a ferwi, I think it is. I am after putting like Gaelic is used for "I've just put"... Unlike the dialectal Wnest ti... example they give in the video
@@meadow-maker YES that sentence is good e2nglish tho a bit informal but the use of AFTER in the other sentences leaves me a bit confused as to meaning as we don't say that in American English
We use that structure here in Ireland commonly as well.
I want to thank you for the trouble you're after taking to come and explain.
I am just after: the exact correspondent of the pusclavin " sem drö a.. sem drö a fà ...a legia, ..a ga pensà sü
Poschiavo is an isolated . non- lombard language spot on the south Alps, 30 km from the Lombard border .
I’ve absolutely loved this video! Subscribed within the first 5 minutes! Thank you so much for putting this together for us history and language buffs.
Brilliantly presented! Clear, concise and entertaining.
Many thanks.
I was excited to know about the ”unnecessary do” being an element of celtic grammar, which influenced the english language profoundly, albeit celtic vocabulary left only sparse traces!
It's absolutely fascinating. I've often wondered why English requires two verbs where one would suffice.
It seems like 'to do' still kept increasing its presence until fairly recently. Not that I have much evidence for that, but in a book from 1880 I kept seeing "I know not". That *could* just be a particular way of speech of course, but I believe I've seen that elsewhere as well (in old books).
@@tohaason A mode of negation shared with German, I think.
Celtics, particularly Gaelic, has donated more vocabulary than I ever thought: 'trousers' for instance. More than just 'galore' and 'slogan.'
@@w.reidripley1968 I wonder, what did the ancient Persians call trousers? They famously wore trousers (infamously/scandalously to the contemporary Greeks).
@@Chris-mf1rm IKR? Actually, a scholar of ancient Persian I am not..
Those guys sure did think trousers were weird.
Not sure either where Imperial Romans got 'braccae' from, for the britches their legions wore for bad weather marches etc up north. Might have taken the word from Gaulish. And we have what's left-- breeks, britches... and these only seem to come to just below the knee.
I've long wondered about this. One of the big features of English is it's ability to absorb words from other languages, but it seemed strange it did it so seldom with the Celtic languages native to Briton. My thought was that it's willingness to absorb vocabulary was tied to how valuable the source language was perceived to be, as opposed to how common the other language was spoken. This would explain why so many French words made it, but so few Welsh or Cornish. I never realized that if you switch from vocabulary to grammar, the story is a bit different.
Welsh is VSO.
We may have adopted vocabulary from French, but thank God we don't have their tortured grammar.
Or the tortured grammar of its cousin, Spanish.
@@galinor7 as are Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. I don't know about Cornish or Bretton but i imagine they're VSO too
Syntax is deeper than loanwords. The fact some syntax stayed but most vocabulary didn't means people in Britain mostly switched vocabulary but retained more of the way they thought/composed sentences. This is a classic example of the backbone of a substratum language, previously spoken by most of a population that then was subjugated/conquered/invaded and forced to make a language switch.
Also think of this: when a linguistically naive person, for example, creates a Spanish-speaking character in an anglophone context, they will have him/her throw random Spanish words in the English dialogue, like 'I went with my amigo to his casa'. That's the WRONG way to show this character was born speaking Spanish. The way we think in our most used language most often comes out in another with atypical, 'wrong' syntax. So a Spanish speaking characters would make 'errors' along those lines, not vocabulary.
Very interesting. I am a teacher of English as a foreign language in the UK and several of my students want to know why on earth we have to use the auxiliaries do and did when nobody else does. Now I can tell them, or better still, get them to watch your video. Many thanks
I just found your channel and I immediately subscribed. Fascinating history and information. You're also an excellent presenter. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research with us. 🇺🇸🌴
Hello Dear
How are you doing?
Enlightening as always Gideon -- for what it's worth, I'm a native English speaker who had several years of French in grade school and studied Irish as an adult -- to borrow your term I was gobsmacked by the ways in which Irish felt like an *incredibly* *alien* (but immensely beautiful) methodology for constructing meaning (where, in retrospect, French seemed eminently 'reasonable'). I noted in your account that Welsh and Cornish were the Celtic languages at play in the dynamics you described (and, according to your chart, that Irish descended from a different branch of the Celtic language tree) -- there's no doubt a great deal more unpacking possible here. Thanks, as always, for the continuing information ❤
I concur with others who have commented: your presentation is very informative and easy to follow.
I had come across the concept that Celtic influenced English grammar once before. It makes a lot of sense to me, and explains why English, while a part of the Germanic branch, does not have similar structures to German. (Old Norse also played a part.)
Thank you.
Fascinating video! Thank you very much for your tremendous work, Gideon! I love this historic excursion series!
By the way, as a non-native speaker studying English, I've though about this "meaningless do". In "I have to do it", for example, it plays an essential role, marking an action that has to be performed. But in "Do you speak English?" or "I don't know" it has only grammatical meaning, making the logic structure of the English sentences, but doesn't bear any meaning itself. And in "How do you do?" the first "do" is grammatical, "meaningless do", but the second is actual, essential "do".
Brilliant, thanks for covering a complex topic in a well-researched and interesting talk.
Hi, and thanks for your video(s).
Concerning the use of "do", I must argue that even in Albanian we use it, but not so much as in Celtic or in English: e.g. we often say "bëj të flas" = I do speak, or "bëj të fle (or flë, in southern Tosk dialect)" = I do sleep, where Alb. bëj = English (I) do, is maybe used more in the sense of "(I) try to". Alb. "bëj" = I do is quite exclusively used in affirmative phrases, it is very rear in interrogative phrases, and quite never in negatives.
Instead of English, we use the present continuous in two forms:
1. The regular form uses "duke" + past participle, the former word being very difficult to translate, but in Albanian it relates to the verb "duke-m/-sh/-t" = I/thou(s-he/it) appear(s), which in northern Geg dialect yields "tu(j)", e g. Tosk (= standard Alb.) "duke fjetur", Geg "tu(j) fjet" = sleeping, "duke folur", Geg "tu(j) fol" = speaking, etc. I find this form with "duke, tu(j)" as an ekuivalent of English "to".
2. The other form uses another supportive word, "po", which again is very difficult to find an ekuivalent in English, but we use the same word for yes, and as an abbreviation of "por" = but, as e.g. in "po fle" = (I) am sleeping, "po flas" = (I) am speaking, etc. This form is used in either affirmative, negative, or interrogative phrases.
On the other side, Albanian has the word "do" - spelled do, not du as its English phonetic equivalent - and uses it in the supportive role of the future tense, as in "do të flas" = I will speak/talk, in the very sense of will, as it's a short form of the Alb verb, in Tosk "dua", in Geg "me/tu(j) dash" = to will, want, like, etc., which may only be found in the interrogative phrases of singular, as e.g. in "çfarë do?" = what do (thou) want/like/will?
It is for sure not by coincidence the similarity both of grammatical forms and words used in both Albanian and English.
Albanian-Dardanian King Bretton
The Swedish word for iron is järn, and the pronunciation of haearn is quite similar to the Swedish word. According to the Swedish Wikipedia, järn and iron are from older germanic.
Main iron source for extraction is called "Hematite".
I'd taken the relationship between Eisen and iron to be due to rhotacism, as in the -is/-ir plural for lamb in English and German.
However, even if iron came to England from Cuxhaven, that doesn't entirely negate the possibility of a Celtic origin.
Àa
A
@@susilgunaratne4267 aàaaaa
I’m learning Italian presently. I always wondered why the sentences seem to be structured backwards from English. Very interesting that Celtic language had not many words incorporated into English, but those that were changed the entire structure of sentences. I will be watching more of your videos!👍
I thought the sentence structure in English mainly came from German, and the sentence structure in French, Spanish, Italian (which seems to be backwards compared to English) came from Latin.
Structured backwards? Well, Italian doesn't have an interrogative form (but north italian languages like piedmontese have), is the pronunciation that gives you the "question feeling" (as is in Welsh, I see). In Italian (and French, Castillano, Català, Portuguese...) _usually_ the adjective follows the noun (una mela rossa - a red apple, un uomo ricco - a rich man) but some times it precedes (un buon caffè - a good coffee). Sometimes the position changes the meaning: "un uomo buono" - a good man, but "un buon uomo" - a simple minded man, "Hai una faccia bella!" - You (well, Thou...) have a beautiful face!, "Hai una bella faccia!" - You are insolent!!, "una donna buona" - an good woman, "una buona donna", a bit... ehm....
I thoroughly enjoyed this video! I look forward to seeing more from you😊
Really fun stuff to learn. Who says being an academic means being dry and boring. You explore the elements of language and all associations quite logically and that context really brings it all together. Thank you so much for an excellent presentation.
Hi, always so interesting. I'm half breton (then from France), we have this breton word still used "Mazout", it means diesel for heaters and in french slang it's a mixture with alcohol. "Avon" looks like "Aven" in breton, it means "River" too. Bard (Barde in french) is still used too and comes from Gaul also then celtic. In Breton "Pen" means "Head" and "Leader, Chief" (Penmarc'h is located in Brittany and means "horse head"). We have "Du" in Breton it means "Black" so what's the meanning of DUblin (blin?)? Great channel thank you!
Absolutely fascinating to hear this from a Breton speaker.
The "Du" in "Dublin" does indeed mean dark, as does the "Doo" in my surname, Dooley (Dubhlaoich). The second syllable in Dublin means pool, so essentially "dark pond".
Dark is actually "dubh" so the b goes with the Du- and not the -lin.
@@denisdooley1540 Finally I got the answer, thank you! Something I found weird when I went to Dublin, Gaelic really looks like Breton but it doesn't have any sense to me, I mean I can understand romance languages as a french even if I didn't study them but for these both celtic languages it was confusing, they seem so close and so far in the same time. Kénavo 🙂
@@LetThemTalkTV I can only read a sub Breton language from my area, a kind of mix between Breton and French spoken by sailormen that my mother used to speak. Literary Breton language is hard to learn and is dying in fact. Diwan school is trying to save it but it's a wager. I think in one or two generations this language will be extincted.
@@denisdooley1540 Svarttjønna
Thank you for this most informative video. And your ability to present information clearly is impressive.
That was satisfying and enjoyable. Thank you!
A really interesting video which answered a number of questions I had floating around my head. Such as the word combe - having lived in France many years, where combe designates a valley, I assumed English had borrowed it from French. Not so! Also in parts of France and French-speaking Switzerland, the word nant is used for a stream or small river, just like in Welsh. Now I understand where the influence comes from! Thanks for posting 👍
I'm a Cornish native living in Germany so this is fascinating.
Most of what he states is horse shite
I wish you had been my English teacher when I was in school. The manner in which you explain what you're speaking about I would have understood and not have flunk English at all. Thank you so much for uploading this video. And I look forward to watching more of them.
Hello! I’m Brazilian and Portuguese teacher. I’m am fascinated by your video! I love languages History and have learned a lot about Celtic language. I have just subscribed to your channel and looking forwards to watching more videos to come! Bty your pronunciation in French and Spanish is fantastic. Thank you ever so much.
A very interesting and informative video, which I will pass on to my Spanish son-in-law, who lives in England, and takes some interest in the history of the movement of peoples, and languages.
I'm from Emilia, in northern Italy. We speak a Gallo-Romance language that has many words of Celtic origin and is intelligible with the Occitan and Catalan languages. After watching this video it seems to me that our Emilian language is definitely more celtic than English.
Yes I had a weird gallic discussion with a lady in the hills north of Udine, close enough to welsh to understand it!
Marco Menozzi. This is fascinating. So many Celtic words are hidden in the ancient Italic dialects. Italian is just a mere 900 years old…or thereabouts.
The family of Indo European languages is vast and amazing. Thank you for this video.
@@pennypiper7382 Even italian has several celtic words. This is because mainland celts lived in northern Italy (they founded Milan) and were strictly linked to the romans. So, several imperial latin Words derived from celtic. Celtic is more present in northern italian languages and in french and iberian languages, since the only contact with the south was through latin.
@@angelolaurenzaMJJ
The archaeologic findings made in the center of Milan a few years ago reveal findings of the LIGURIAN horizont of Golasecca. Under this stratum, the terrain is sterile.
So Milan , has been founded by the Ligurians in the center of the wast forest of Cispadania where they had a sanctuary. Nortern Italy was densely populated by the Ligurians, the main nation that had repopulated north- west Europe after the last glaciation.Ligurian toponyms, hydro- oro- zoo- and phytonyms are found from the British Isles (Albion)to Sicily (the Siculi) and from the Baltic to France (la tarasque de Noves )and Spain.
The Celts immigrated much later in small dispersed groups , seeking new ground for agriculture. The Ligurians were redoutable warriors ( Aeschilos in his Prometheus liberated
warns Herkules from the Ligurian army:
ηξεις δε Λιγυων εις αταρβητον στρατον
cited by Strabo, Geographica p 256 of the bilingual edition Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli).
As the Etrucans penetrated the padan forest and encountered the Ligurians there was no military conflicts.
After the Romans had conquered Cis and Transpadania, the Ligurians entered the military as auxilliares, and acceded to the class of the Knights among which the senate recruited his members.
The myth of the foundation of Milan by some savage Gallic rabbles has been debunked by archaeology and genetics. As preindoeuropeans the Ligurians had majoritarily the A Rhesus negative Bloodgroup.7.11.22.
Northern Italy used to be called Gallia cisalpina by the Romans, didn’t it?
just great! I hadn't even the questions to ask. Now I have a brand new rabbit hole. God bless from Vancouver!
This is exactly the sort of video I enjoy; well researched, lucid and full of interesting connections. One issue I had was that when a list of three or four written examples was being displayed, it disappeared all too quickly. Thanks all the same. I did enjoy it, (emphatic did). Drawing attention to features with which you are already familiar but not especially conscious of is particularly good.
Hello Patricia
How are you doing?
The "do/does/don't/doesn't" in front of another verb is - still today - totally common e.g. in Alemannic (the native Swiss language, of pre-medieval Germanic origins and with many similarities to the Scandinavian languages). It took me 3 weeks to be fluent and secure in Danish, and 4 weeks for Dutch, as they're so obviously similar in structure, vocabulary, grammar and syntax) to my Swiss mother tongue. Of course, our Helvetian origins are Celtic as well. Things are changing fast now (standardised media gibberish, general decrease of active vocabulary).
The «meaningless do» immediately made me thing of the swiss german « go/ga » as in « I gange ga ichoufe », which when translated word by word gives something along the line of “I go (to) go shopping”. I’ve often wondered why we have that “useless go”..
@@annatinaschnegg5936 ichaufe ist hochdeutsch, schwizertütsch heissts poschte
@@ruedihuber8798 Äuä!! hie sägämr ichoufä!!
And there are other examples in other Germanic dialects too. The claim that these constructions in English are Celtic influences is highly contentious.
Frederik Stiki..Yep, you hit it, on the head. We are losing words.
When I was in school, the teacher asked a young fella ( fellow) to come up with a sentence with the word “autumn” in it. He replied “ In the autumn, the farmers do be out in the fields “. Dobedobedo is very common in Ireland. And shure why not?👍🏼
I always thought the phrase, was "shuren begorran".
@@bryanjackson8917 only in Hollywood and British TV.
I didn't realise Frank Sinatra was of Irish origin 😂
("Strangers in the Night")
@@Bjowolf2 millions of us have origins outside the country in which we were born. That's why research into ancestry is so popular.
@@jegsthewegs Yes, I know 😉
You may have missed my little joke there about the Irish "dobedobedoo" - Sinatra actually sings that in his famous version of "Strangers in the Night", as you probably know 😂
Fascinating stuff! As my curiosity toward both language/s grows, I feel more satisfied? A commanding and deft handling of the history and much appreciated. Thanks. 🌿
Thank you so much for sharing all this information. I´m an English teacher (Spanish is my native language) and I studied this some time ago but I always learn something new from your videos. Really enjoyed it!!!!
In German we also say "I have hunger", so this English saying must be coming from the Old Germanic the Saxons spoke. Besides, Old English had a second phonetic shift to become modern English, while modern German only went through a single phonetic shift. This is why English is pretty similar to German and some German dialects, especially those named "Plattdeutsch", have lots of identical words English also has, and also the Grammar is almost the same.
Quite an enriching video, thank you 😊😊😊, I’m from the Levant, and as you can guess, the last 10.000+ years or so of languages and they shaped us is a pretty fascinating one as well, with controversies alive and kicking today as well …
The history of the Levant goes back way longer than Britain. You had agriculture and towns while we were still throwing spears at wildebeest
We celts came from the Levant originally so hey cuzz!
Brilliantly done!Thank you.
Love your video. I'm an English teacher in China and find your videos very useful. They are a bit advanced for my students, so I usually use part of the information with my students.
I grew up in the north west of Ireland, speaking English with a lot of Elizabethan relics. But we were told that our spoken language had an Irish grammatical structure. This always fascinated me. That this hidden structure was at play. Like some subterranean rebel force governing our thoughts.
I heard that VSO is rare among languages, and may hint at a Persian origin - any truth in this do you think? (The Cuchulain story has a direct parallel in Persian myth.)
One example of this i I’ve noticed is the way Irish people answer questions in English as the same we answer in Welsh.
Do you like football? Yes I do (rather than just yes). This os why there are so many ways to say yes and no in Welsh
Ydw - yes I do
Byddaf - yes I will
Oes - yes there is
Ydyn - yes they do
Etc
I heard that a lot of Persians came to Brittain as legionairs during the Romain Empire, and a great number of spaniards as well. There have bin archeological findings of the mithras cult in the UK.
@@cymoeddambyth is it "yes I did," or "I did?" You get a lot of "it is" and it isn't" with Irish people speaking English. It's like there's no fun in a straight yes or no.
@@evelinharmannfan7191 The Mithras cult was hugely popular with the Roman Army, not just Persians.
Well, Welsh and Irish both are Celtic languages (Gaelic), aren’t they?
Hi from Canada 🇨🇦. I’m new to your channel. It just came up on my feed. This really interesting. I’m Scottish/Irish and English decent and can speak some Gaelic. My Canadian husband learned Gaelic due the same background and is fluent now. I’ve learned a lot from your video and I’ve subscribed.
Excellent and truly delightful! Thank you!
I find your videos very interesting! Thank you for sharing. And, above all, I find your T-shirt in this video very cool :)
I really find the topic of the effects of Celtic languages on English fascinating. As you consider things like the status of English following the Norman conquest, one potential situation is that just was English was relegated to a lower class dialect, possibly, though not attested in writing, that Celtic influence was already present. The sagas of the Saxons and Danes would have been "high court" entertainment, but if the Celts really did stay right where they were and were not displaced, well, how likely is that their language was displaced? Other words like "cat," "uncle," and a number of other words are more or less cognates across Celtic, Italic, and Germanic languages. When combined with grammatical survivals you describe, perhaps the legend of the origins of English has been vastly over simplified, and continues to be more simplified than it really was.
Isn't that the case with so much though? And it's a real pity. What we might have of the truth gets lost in the desire to simplify things that are by nature complex. And also this compulsion to make definitive statements, when in reality we absolutely don't know.
Another possibility is that the invention of the printing press allowed for much more writing to be produced, including works in informal English. You're less likely to use a quill and parchment for something casual, but maybe a printing press.
The Celts did not stay where they were, large populations likely migrated to the west where their kingdoms were based to an ever greater extent with the passage of time. This is attested to by modern genetic studies. This was an interesting video but given the hostile relationship between the Anglo-Saxons and the Britons I find it very surprising he suggests that there was not substantial migrations of Celtic populations westwards from the areas under Saxon rule.
@@roberthudson3386 The genetic evidence mentioned in the video says that by and large they did. By the time the Danes and Saxons are arriving there was no place left to migrate to on the planet that did not populations already in place. Earlier migrations may have replaced significant portions of populations. There is support for that in European genetics. The account in the video though discusses the surprise that population genetics does not reflect evidence of wide spread replacement. That indicates the population remained as an "under class" for the the Saxons, just as the Sacon/Celtic population did when the Normans arrived. All I suggested is that the language is more of a layer cake than the common account describes. If the Celtic population stayed when the Saxons moved then their language stayed right there with them.
@@theeddorian What evidence? He didn't provide evidence that I'm aware of, just an assertion. There have been multiple studies that have suggested the populations in modern day Wales and Cornwall are distinct genetically, there are also studies that suggest more Scandinavian DNA in areas of northern England and the Scottish Highlands, which are areas settled by the Old Norse.
I have always enjoyed finding out about the history of language.
I really enjoyed your video. Thank you!
I started studying some Welsh a while ago and I also noted that the grammar structure of the English language, especially with regard to that meaningless “do,” comes from the Celtic language
I appreciate your unbiased opinion and sticking to the facts. a very good analysis.
Because of the Glasgow football club and also the Boston Celtics I can't for the life of me pronounce it "keltic".
Great video... has worth all your hard work on it.
Many thanks. Keltic/Celtic either way is fine by me.
I had always heard it said about the Boston team, but now that I know there's a Scottish football club that does it too, it isn't so cringe.
@@meadow-maker I will do my best shall that situation happens one day. 😄
@@bilanovitch Yes, Celtic Football Club. They also play in green reflecting their Irish roots.
@@LetThemTalkTV It doesn't help that most words I can think of starting with _ce_ - cement, centre, cereal, cell, ceramic - are all pronounced with the soft C... so when you get to celtic it all falls apart pattern-wise.
Diolch o galon am y fideo addysgiadol hon!/Thanks a million for this informative video! I am sure that you have heard about the 'Celtic from the West' theory. If true, it could mean that the Celtic languages arrived in Britain, and Ireland, a lot earlier than previously thought. Your analysis of the origin of the names of the river Thames is interesting. The orthodox theory is that it is from the Proto-Celtic *tamesās, which is also the root of other river names such as the Tamar (Devon/Cornwall), Afon Taf (x2 in South Wales). It's true that there are very few words thought to be of Brittonic/Old Welsh origin in English, but one of them is "car" which comes from the Welsh for a sled. Again, especially in the west (of England), English and Welsh populations lived side by side. Any place-name begining with "bret-" usually signifes a Welsh-speaking population. The theory of Welsh substrates in English is beginning to gain a lot of currency. You mention the auxiliary "do" in the video. Another one is the present particle (gerund) -ing which mimics the use of the imperfective (I think you call it "continuous" in the video.) marker "yn" in Welsh, e.g. Mae'r dyn yn siarad. ('The man is talking.)
Facinating. It is amazing that we are able to communicate at all. Thank you.
Wow! Thanks for this historical context 🤔
a small correction. In Spanish we do have the same structure "estoy bebiendo café". "Bebo café" would be a generic, atemporal sentence like in " I drink coffee and not tea"
My thoughts exactly. "Bebo café" or "estudio" would sound odd as anwers to "que haces"
I do 😊 😊also agree. I would say that when referring to what you are doing ‘now’ there is a strong tendency for Spanish to use the ‘estar + gerund’ construction. ‘Estoy viendo un vídeo de Gideon’ is something you are doing ‘now’, whereas ‘veo vídeos de Gideon’ is something you usually do, but not necessarily ‘now’.
Yes, but it comes from the Latin gerund, although admittedly you have pinpointed a similar present continuous tense in use in Spanish. It could of course also have been influenced by Celtiberian!
A very good introduction to a tricky but fascinating subject. Scholars have been responsible for a lot of assumptions about vocabulary that don't hold up. The British word 'coit' meaning wood remained in use as a place-name in Nottinghamshire until the C19th (even if no-one knew what it meant). It seems to have been used in the same way in Anglo-Saxon (coitan) but may have been mistranslated as cott or cottage. It was feminine the same as 'coed' in modern Welsh.
I am so super grateful I came across Your channel on YT. I while ago I wrote my MA thesis on History of English Language so those videos are amazing for me. Thank you!! Btw Poland here
These videos are amazing for me. I am very ignorant to the topic half the things go over my head but I cannot stop listening to it. I actually take little notes. Since I have been traveling to different parts of the UK over the past 15 years. I have become to realize that is not at all what I thought and it had been an amazing discovery. I have found, maybe a reach, some commonalities of blending of different cultures and people coming from my Mexican heritage. The various indigenous and remote peoples of the base I stand from. I am learning something similar with UK. I know it is nothing new to everyone. But for me it is amazing. This topic is rich and spans so much time it is such a treat to have to this and learn. If I could do it over it again and different circumstance I would of like to study this field properly. But I will stick to laying concrete and making furniture I guess lol. Thank you very much for this channel and all the knowledge that you offer. It is a deep rabbit hole to say the least.
We in Carinthia, this is southern Austria, speak an bavarian dialect and we also use this do, which is tun in german. We say: Tust du arbeiten? Which means Do you work? And we also say: Ich tu lesen. Which means: I am reading. … If this also has Celtic origins, I dont know. But Celtic tribes lived here too.
I'm not a linguist, just a lover of languages and I can tell that you speak from a vast knowledge. And you're very clear. Thanks a lot! I was fascinated by the names of train stations in Scotland. Gealic has such a beauty and sonority! Please, can anyone tell me how to say thank you in Gaelic Celt? Thanks!
In Irish it is “Go raibh maith agat”. Literally, “ May good (maith) be at you”.
And here is another video you might find interesting, on how Irish influences the English spoken in Ireland. th-cam.com/video/DyGpq4yKPG4/w-d-xo.html
@@gerardacronin334 But what is "maith"?
@@mikespearwood3914 As I said above, “maith” means “good”.
Maith = good. Is maith sinn = that is good. Smashing = is maith sinn. There are lots more Gaelic words in English than the list shown here. Of course, the influence of the language of an inferior race (according to the superior invader) would not be acknowledged.
Very interesting and informative. Thankyou!
Extremely interesting! Thanks a lot!
This was fascinating. As the Welsh speaker I have always wanted to know why so little Welsh vocabulary entered the English language. I always thought that welsh was associated with a lower status group and (maybe) because men are more likely to fight whereas women might be taken as servants, concubines or wetnurses. this would make sense of retaining grammar while picking up vocabulary for the children. I think this makes more sense that an assumption that the transmission is due to men sharing drinks in a tavern - adults have established linguistic patterns . The grammatical patterns would spread through the home rather than through in the public sphere. You say it took time to appear in writing. One element that might have triggered the emergence of this, more modern, English, is the politics of the 15th-16th Centuries; first when the links between England and France fractured, and second when the Wars of the Roses finally came to an end with the arrival of the Tudors. There was a fair amount of complaint at the arrival of 'foreign' Welsh voices at court. You can see the discomfort about regional voices in Shakespeare’s play Henry V. This is a play which deals with voices with an Irishman, a Welshman and a Scotsman, together with a French princess having to learn English. It's a play aimed at a triumphant English audience.
I miss a bit of the politics in your discussion, hugely fascinating as it is, of who spoke what and when.
Welsh to me is so incomprehensible, how can it be learnt? Would love to know just a few phrases. Born in Gloucestershire so near to Wales and my brother lived there, tried to pick up a few words, would love to know more.
And I as an english speaker with Welsh forefathers (way back) and German of recent origin, would like to know why just the name Ralph is translated to Raif and why, apart from Ralph Vaughan Willams insisting (so said his wife) on being pronounced "Raif" and not "Ralph", this distinction is sometimes made and sometimes not by the English speaking majority?
Thanks. More useful than this video.
There is some form of present continuous in western German dialects called the Rheinische Verlaufsform or the am-Progressiv. It is used to illustrate current actions: "ich bin am schreiben" (I am writing, literally I am at write or I am at the write). It is so common that some have started to consider it a variant of standard German.
You don't get a lot of German in Sydney, and those who speak it usually put on their best Bühnendeutsch for non native speakers like myself, but I have come across that construction.
I had a co-worker in 1964 from somewhere in North-West Germany who may have used it. He didn't speak English.
We use that in Dutch, too: "Ik ben aan het schrijven." (Ich bin am schreiben = I am on writing. That sounds kind of odd in English. Like, I am on drugs. I'm doing drugs. (Not that I would tell you if I was.)
I'm a native to North Eastern Germany - and not from a Rhinish or Western region - yet I'm familiar with this construction, though it would be considered colloquial and not proper German.
" Ich bin am schreiben, putzen, arbeiten, backen" etc. is nothing unusual to say here in the swabian part of Bavaria either.
@@sefbauwens5764 As in German, that locution is literally "I am at the writing." In German "am" contracts "an dem," in English "at the" (inflected in the dative case).
Congratulations on your marvelous work... I was going to comment about the present continuous in Spanish but your video noted that case as well. I paused too quickly :)
I have learned a lot, especially the History of Languages and Europe.
WONDERFUL, indeed!
Thanks a lot for your entertaining, sophisticated style, explaining such an interesting piece of history to the people.
I do be subscribing, of course! ☘
I am a Spanish teacher who is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks German, Italian and English. I appreciate how you explained “do/did” , since is something my students always ask about. What is do /did in Spanish? I’ve been telling them that is almost a replacement for the opening question mark we use in Spanish, but not in English. It seemed logical to me and to the students. I guess I was a bit lazy and never looked for the answer. Just followed my “gut instinct”. Then, as an emphasizer in do hope/know, etc… I also learn from your explanation on why English, unlike Spanish, uses the present progressive instead of the present tense. Ahhh, the etymologies of languages, love it!
Muchas gracias, Señor Gideon! Vielen Dank, Herr Gideon! Tante Grazie, Signor Gideon! Many thanks, Mr. Gideon!
I remember in a German class someone asking 'Why?' The reply was that is what they say, you just have to learn it?
Just a little observation. Are you aware that "Mr." and "Herr" are normally used with a man's surname, not with his given name? In English, "Mr." is sometimes used when talking to children, kind of in a joking way. "How are you today, Mr. Charlie?", for example. Even in Spanish (I´m also a native speaker) "señor" is normally used with the surname, except in a couple of countries.
We, in Spanish, use the progressive tenses quite a lot too. A slight difference in amount cannot accout its origings. Besides, I find unusual the sentences he uttered in Spanish. I, for one, would never say in Spanish "Estudio" (I study) but like in English "Estoy estudiando" ("I am studying") which sounds far more natural. Arguably, both English and Spanish are the languages that use the professive tenses the most, among all of the modern and big European languages.
does spanish have different ways of saying "i eat" vs "i am eating", or do they blend the two into the present tense?
@@SergioGarcia-my2zi answered my question before i even asked it. ty
I lived in Somerset in the 80s, and there were still a fair number of older, and younger working -class people who did-use the meaningless do all the time. Sometimes it was just a d-apostrophe. I would think someone meant “he’d say to me” (he used to say) when they were saying, “he d’say that…” ( “he do say” or “he did say”),
Scotticisms of mine, that I hadn't realised were not Standard English, confused the hell out of people: “I’m away” (I’m off, I’m leaving) and “that’s me” (I’m done / I’m ready) Also “is + verb + ing” … (the cat’s wanting out). You can imagine how “Right, that’s me needing away, then” went down.
Thanks for that. I've never really thought about it till seeing you state that they were "Scottisms" Will you just "do one!" comes to my mind!! I would say I'm off to town.
Needs painted
Wants fixed
Needs sewed
THAT drives me crazy
This was a very interesting video. Thanks!
I do love this video. Very, very interesting. And your Castilian sounds really good, enhorabuena.
As basque I also heard about oxonian Prof. Stephen Oppenheimer's the theory about basque landing in Great Britain after the glaciation 16k years ago and their huge influence in the Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English people's DNA (more than Celts or AngleSaxons one). Luckily, their influence has been limited to genetics and they didn't pass on our difficult grammar (sintaxis and our crazy verb system).
Loved this. Makes total sense as TESOL teacher. Some comments I'd like to make.
I have noticed many people who speak an Indian variety of English have a tendency to apply present continuous tense in a range of situations that English L1 speakers do not. I'm not sure if this reflects their own grammar system, or if it's over compensation in applying new grammar.
Also, in Vietnamese language I notice the word "lam" which usually translates to "make" is often also used similarly to the English "do", however I'm not sure if that's the meaningless "do".
In the the German language "do" can translate to "tun", but again, Germans seen to use "machen" in a similar way to the English useless "do", and perhaps "tun" is the useful form if the word.
I'm not fluent in any language but English so I'm not sure about these observations.
I do however, explain the "emphatic" form of do to my students.
German 1.L (spoken) English 2.L (spoken fluently) Latin 3.L French 4.L (just some basics left from school time) Spanish 5.L (spoken fluently)
“Tun” in German is often used like the meaningless “Do” in English at least in the northern part of Germany especially where people still use “Plattdeutsch” which is very close to English (and Dutch).
“Machen” in German translates to “make” or the meaningful “do” in English - though it’s the other way round 😉
Your video is fascinating. It's interesting how the meaningless do became more common during the Tudor period. I'd read this was sadly a bad time for Welsh culture because Henry VII told the Welsh people to conform and start speaking English to improve their business prospects. Perhaps the influx of Welsh courtiers learning English and using phrases they found comfortable influenced English in London.
I'm all for that, if it got back at those Tudors.
They massacred a lot of welsh around that time too.
Wow! I never thought of that before. Could very well be the reason! Also there were caricatured Welsh characters in Shakespeare's plays at that time (Falstaff and Pistoll).
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing.
Such nice stuff! Many thanks
Living in the Philippines and speaking Cebuano means that I fully understand what you were talking about. In Cebuano there is no difference between past tense, present tense, and present continuous except for the context. However, there is a future tense, and an infinitive. Languages, and their grammar, vary quite a lot.
Very interesting. Differences in languages truly are fascinating. In my mother tongue Estonian language there is past tense and present tense, but no present continuous or future tense. You just need to add when you are doing whatever you do or planning to do. In English it would sound like this: I eat carrots. I eat carrots now. I eat carrots tomorrow. :)
@@hannalaasberg2105 My late wife in Australia had Latvian parents. At the first house we lived in after our marriage we had an Estonian neighbor. My wife could understand Latvian, although she wasn't a fluent speaker of the language. She could not understand any Estonian, which is also understandable as Latvian is an Indo-European language, while Estonian is Finno-Ugric. Our neighbor's given name was Aasa. At university I knew a lady by the name of Reet Kaby, who was from an Estonian family. I don't understand much Estonian, but I have sung an Estonian song (from Eurovision 2013) on online karaoke! The song is "Et Uus Saaks Alguse" which I understand to mean something like "And there will be a new beginning". I remember the singer at Eurovision 2013 was an 18 year old lady who at the time was in the third trimester of pregnancy! To mirror your carrots, in Cebuano we would say "Nagkaon ko ang mga karot" for "I ate carrots", Nagkaon ko ang mga karot karon" for "I am eating carrots now", and "Magkaon ko ang mga karot" for "I will eat carrots". To the future tense sentence we could add "dayon" ("soon"), "human sa" ("after") or "ugma" ("tomorrow").
In the mid-1980's I visited Israel and worked on a Kibbutz with 3 West German girls. I kept up a correspondence with one of them. She told me that when she wrote out English essays in college, she always used Latin derived forms of English words. She found that she received higher marks then when using other English words with etymologies from Norman French or Saxon origins, etc.
As always, so interesting.!!
Excellent. Very informative.
What a marvellous video Gideon! A real amazing research, entertaining and fantastic presentation!
I'm from Venezuela and one of my dreams was to learn English, which l had the opportunity of study it in Coventry and Warwick, 39 years ago.
I've been teaching it since then and l always say that all languages should have the simplicity of English regarding the most tedious matter, verbs conjugation!
Just 7 main auxiliaries and 3 verb tenses! Whilst in Castilian for example, we have to learn 5 verbs for each tense, having around 23 tenses.
Thanks for all your terrific and amusing videos! Blessings!
oh my. Loved it. Specially the part of the present continuous, that in portuguese is like in english, although you phrase it differently here and there. In Brazil we answer: Estou lendo (for what are you doing?) and in Portugal "estou a ler". I know no Brasilian who would repply "leio". It wouldn't be wrong, but surely would sound weird.
Same in Spanish.
Came here for this. It's odd that this feature in Brazilian Portuguese is closer to its counterpart in English than to that in European Portuguese.
It's worth mentioning nonetheless that those languages said not to have a continuous tense usually have less used constructions to convey the same meaning. They are based on the infinitive form of the verb, as in "estou a ler". In Dutch, "ik ben aan het lezen"; in French, "je suis en train de lire".
@@joaopedrobalieirodacosta2844in European portuguese you do always use the present continuous to refer to an action taking place now, except that we (usually) say "estou a ler" (i'm reading) rather than "estou lendo" as in Brasil.
Not correct, "leio" would not be heard as something weird in response to "what are you doing?". It is just more formal and rude in informal situations.
I’m a new follower . Love your lessons and know more about history . Thank you 🙏🏻👏🏼👍🏼
Thanks for that, fascinating stuff.
I've always regarded that meaningless do as a funny thing.
Regarding the similarities between welsh an french, here are some examples :
Eng: sad
French : triste
Welsh : trist
Eng : bridge
Fr : Pont
Wlsh: Pont ( or bont)
Eng : Church
Fr: église
Wls : eglwys
Eng : horse
Fr : cheval
Wls : ceffyl ( sounds "kefal" like the old french word "cavale)
Eng: Windows
Fr : fenêtre
Wls : fenestr
And many more these...
A cousin of mine from Brittany and speaking Breton married a Welsh. She soon spoke welsh fluently and better than her husband(hubby, children and welsh collegues'opinion)!
edit : She had to reverse to french with me, though 😅
Fascinating video that really makes me think about my first language, German.
In Standard German, an excess use of do (tun) is often considered “improper” and “uneducated”. Still many West German regional dialects have variants of it and even my older relatives would say “Ich tu gerade ein Buch lesen.“ (I do read a book at the moment). I wonder where this can be traced back to.
I am never certain when to use "tun" or "machen". Was tut er, oder was macht er?
@@voxveritas333 Both sentences are equally correct. There are differences though that even German natives mess up sometimes (and by which language skill is measured at school).
Interestingly, the German tun is often used in places where English speakers would place a form of “be”…which might be an aspect of Frankish?? Yeah, language is weird.
I remember when my daughter (at about the age of 5) used to play with the girl from next door who spoke swabian dialect "tun" would often be used. E.g. "wir tun jetzt singen" = we're going to sing now, or let's sing now; or "ich tu gerade spielen" = I'm playing right now. Sort of a language often used by children in my region. But you can also use "tun" for "put": "tu das auf den TIsch" = put that on the table. It would be interesting to find out more about the origin of the word "tun". Could there be a link to the Celtic "do"? The Celts were actually all across Europe before the Romans came and the names of the two rivers in my town are supposed to be of Celtic origin.
As a child im Odenwald I was able to tell the Village kids came from by the use of their Dialect. The words Just and Fork(e) are found. Then we all have the Garage.
@@magmalin More likely that TUN was used way back in Earlier German dialects. But of course Old English is structurally closer to Modern High German. No periphrastic "do". The jury is still out on Celtic influence
Magnificent explained, thanks a lot
I am thanking you for this wonderful and instructive video.