Celtic Influence on English?!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ธ.ค. 2019
- Inspired by John McWhorter's book on the subject, in this video I talk about the apparent Celtic influence on English. Pick up a copy of McWhorter's book: US Amazon - amzn.to/36b6lQ8
UK Amazon - amzn.to/2ZAdY05
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I’ve actually seen the use of the word “crag” fairly often.
Hunter Smith especially in poetry written by pillocks
Cairn also get used by hikers. At least it did when I was a kid. Though I see that Cairn is listed as Scottish by the dictionary
Lots of fells in the Lake District are called Crag
It's fairly common among climbers in the states, and not particularly uncommon among the general pop.
Crag is rarely spoken. Craggy in expressions like 'craggy face' is more common.
I stopped using the do-support in English. I now say "Believest thou me?" instead of "Do you believe me?"
Good job!!!!
I believe not.
Believest thou this?
@@KeyVyers Yes.
@@grillygrilly thou sayest well
Someone: They use Celtic rules in English?
Northerner: They do, though, don't they, though!
Look up Yan Tan Tethera. The counting system Shepards used (and some still use) in many parts of the Northern England and including many counties bordering Wales, and the mid south of England.
I also think that Latin and Celtic would have been much closer together than they were to Anglo-Saxon. Same with Norman French which might have some Celtic influence from Brittany, and a significant amount of Gallic.. there were even Breton lords in William the Conquerors army. All of these sources - Romano-British, Norman French (Brittany and Gallic) and Latin being more similar to Celtic than it is to German (you only had to go a few hundred miles north of Rome to be in Celtic territory when it was a city state) means that Celtic roots of words or grammar can be rewritten to Latin roots very easily - especially if you don't know the Celtic roots, which many linguists today don't - they much more readily only now their Latin equivalents. So there's possibly much Celtic influence in English today being left rewritten as Latin influence.
@@gazlink1 Hardly anyone uses Yan Tan Tethera, and haven't for decades.
@@gazlink1 There was a popular story that when Cesar was doing his conquest in Gallia, he was kidnapped from his camp. While in a cage, he was able to understand what the Gauls were saying almost like Latin which he was able to offer a deal. It was an incredible story that further supports the Italo-Celtic branch of Indo-European family tree.
Is this a genuine Celtic idiosyncrasy?
@@gazlink1 They're all indo-european so the similarities are pretty obvious - just try counting to 10 in any celtic, latin, slavic, germanic language for starters. Or persian or any north indian language for that matter. It does account for why we have such a huge vocabulary in English though - what with sets of words with overlapping meanings from different routes/roots
"Do" is still sometimes used in "cowboy talk" here in the Southwestern US, not for affirmative emphasis, but much like in your Shakespearean examples: "John Barner got done busted up at the rodeo." Various forms of the auxiliary verb "to do" are still thrown around by rural folk here.
I've never heard it in that order. It's always "done got".
They probably got it from the indians. There was documentary evidence that a group of Welsh people sailed to America in the 11th Century and were later assimilated into an Indian tribe who could also speak welsh.
@@sharonjuniorchess Where is this documentary evidence?
@@calar333 In an eleventh century church in Wales. It recorded some locals setting off to sail and then returning some years later telling others about a new land they had found and taking more people with them to settle there. The families names were recorded in the church records.
@@sharonjuniorchess okay, but what proof is there that it was North America?
Galore, from the Gaelic "go leor" (a lot, enough).
Add to this "hooligan", "penguin" and some other words.
That would have to be a later borrowing because it's Gaelic rather than Brythonic.
One of the few adjectives that come after the noun in English (immemorial is another one, which comes from French).
@@soyokou.2810 Pussy Galore, right?
Glamor, slogan and brat.
In Irish the present progressive is expressed by using forms of the verb bí + subject + ag + verbal noun. So the sentence "Tá mé ag ithe" literally translates as "I am at eating". Fascinating to see Welsh uses "in" instead of "at" for the present progressive.
I’ve noticed that we sometimes say “I’m in the middle of doing something”, which is a little bit like Welsh. I’m not sure if they’re related, but it sure is interesting
I have to question whether the "yn" in Welsh in this case can be translated as "in" as the mutations do not match in modern Welsh. After "yn" (meaning "in"), a speaker would expect a nasal mutation (e.g., Dw i'n byw YN Nghaerdydd - I live in Cardiff). However, the connective "yn" discussed in the video either causes a soft mutation to a following noun/adjective (e.g., Dw i'N dew - I am fat, or Dw i'N feddyg - I am a doctor) or no mutation to a following verb (Dw i'N byw - I live). Further, the basic Welsh verb sentence "Dw i'n mynd" can be translated may or may not have a "this moment" sense as it can be translated to English as "I am going," "I go" or "I do go".
@@yaboimatt9943 you can say that in Spanish as well so not specific to these Isles
@@ieuanabarthur3985 now there's a mutation/lack of mutation difference but was it always like that in history? What's the etymology of "yn" (before verbal nouns)?
@@barbaracornelius361 true; not surprising that Hiberno-English shows Irish influence! But "I'm after eating" isn't used by other English speakers, at least not in England, (maybe they say that also in the Gaelic part of Scotland and in Wales ? They use the same pattern in their native language: tha mi air ithe & w i wedi bwyta)
4:40 Similarly, Basque also uses an emphatic "do" verb ( _egin_ ) in past tenses. Example:
_Joan nintzen_ = I went
_Joan _*_egin_*_ nintzen_ = I *did* go
Considering that Basque has also been in contact with Celtic languages in ancient times, I wonder if it's also a case of Celtic influence. Or maybe the opposite? Who knows
If the feature is not found in Germanic and Romance languages there is an argument for influence from a pre-Celtic substrate. There is a theory that the Picts and original inhabitants of Cornwall and Wales may have spoken languages related to Basque. I can't help wondering if there is a link between « etxe », « chy » [Kw], and «chez » [Fr].
@@timflatus That's an interesting hypothesis indeed! However similar lexical coincidences have been found between Basque and Japanese words too, so it's hard to tell if causation or just correlation. I wonder if the mystery will be solved one day
Sprachbrund?
@@t.e9147Could be... As far as I know, Basque is not generally considered a part of the European sprachbund, but this feature clearly suggests otherwise!
@@timflatus nop, the only languages that could've contacted basque were latin, french, spanish, and celtic, the first 3 dont have the feature... so we might have somthing in here, and considering basque is a language isolate it could've carried the feature with it and transfered it to celtic, so this english thing may have originated there, who knows
As a former teacher of French and Italian with a special interest in the history of English,
I am greatly impressed by your scholarship and clarity of explanations! Many, many thanks.
🙂
How many years I wondered about this weird use of “Do”. Now, I do know how “to do” ... the Do!
lol
It is just a language reformation in the 16th century, and obviously Shakespear didn't used it so for although it was already established.
Do you?
B. Levin How do you do? I hear you know how to do the do, so do tell how to do the do
See Betty Boo.
The „do support“ thing in English does exist in German too, although it sounds very primitive or childish to use the German equivalent „do“ in the way English does. A child could say: „Tust du Kaffe trinken?“( do you drink coffee?), but an adult would rather say: „Trinkst du Kaffe?“. I think children use „tun“ (to do) because it is easier to remember one conjugation for the word „tun“ than remembering all the weird unregular conjugations for verbs that German has.
That's an interesting take. Also look at the continuous-like formation using the infinitiv in German, as in
"Ich bin am Essen."
which mirrors the Welsh structure.
I understand your point but what you're omitting is that the do support MANDATORY in English but not so in German.
Not just that, in some German dialects it is the regular way of speaking.
I’m struck by how clearly “Tust du...?” are exactly the same words as “dost thou...? and “Trinkst du...?” are exactly the same words as “drinkest thou...?”
The further you go back in time, the more English becomes recognisably German.
@@fromchomleystreet
That's probably why I heard the rumour, that Shakespeare is far easier to understand by Germans that can speak English as well, as it is for mono-lingual native English speakers.
I haven't seen crag much, but I have used an adjective form: craggy, as in craggy rocks
craggy island
This is fascinating! I’m English and my mother-in-law was born and lived in North Dorset, in the South West of England. She frequently used the general “do” (without emphasis) in her sentence constructs, presumably from the Dorset dialect, influenced by ancient Brythonic. Examples would be “I did go to the shop this morning”, or “we do have an early supper on winter nights”. So this Brythonic. grammatical element survived into living memory, in spoken language, and likely still does in elderly people in the English West Country.
Breton (especially Old Breton) would be another good one to compare with, since it's a Brythonic language that developed in isolation from English from the time of Anglo-Saxon settlement.onwards
Agree.
Cumb translates to similar words in Breton, Welsh, Irish, Gaulish and French.
@@MrPictor - Almost everything is very similar in Breton, Cornish and Welsh (all essentially "Old British"). With the other Celtic languages however one has to be more cautious.
the syntax of Old Breton isn't much known, we don't have much material in it, unfortunately.
my understanding of Breton people is that they were brythonic refugees from great britain during the germanic invasions, displaced by war, etc. that they brought brythonic with them and are not native to the continent. continental celtic is entirely extinct aside what has been absorbed into other languages, but no continental celtic languages survived. Your point however has interest in that early breton speakers would not have been influenced by germanic once they "escaped".
You know, English is actually a pretty fascinating language. People that I see on the internet seem to be convinced that it’s the most boring, dull, generic, Great Value language ever but the actual truth is quite the opposite. It has a lot of really amazing culture and history behind it and has come into contact with so many other interesting languages such as Old Norse, Welsh, Latin, Greek, and so on. It has a rather complex and even somewhat exotic phonology and contains many features that set it apart from most other languages. And the Old English language looks and sounds super cool. English is a strange language, indeed. But a boring one? Absolutely not.
Hi, I am a Russian and I try to learn Welsh (and English).
I did assume that all these ‘do/did’ in English should be a celtic stuff.
Blwyddyn newydd hapus!
Ag i tithe!
Привет из Польши. Оказалось, что не только я хочу научить валлийский
I'm English and I've studied Russian and Welsh. I have to say Welsh is a lot easier :)
Cześć!
And I have to say Welsh is a lot easier than Polish. At least in spelling. )
@@user-ec6zx2ec5f ахаха я понимаю, эти все пше, бже и так далее, а для нас поляков это нормально
This reminds me of how many Creole languages have the vocabulary of the administrative language with the accent and grammar of the native.
McWhorter, the author of the book Paul is referring to, is a specialist in creole languages. He mentions it in one of the linguistics courses he taught for the Great Courses. I wouldn't be surprised if his expertise piqued his curiosity about the role of Celtic influence in English.
There is also the Middle English creole hypothesis, which posits that Middle English (and by extension modern English) should actually be classified as a creole, formed primarily from Norman French superstratal vocabulary and Anglo-Saxon substratal grammar.
@@atheistlinguist542 Not really. Although it is true that an significant proportion of English is from French and Latin. In common speaks, Germanic word are more often used.
Interesting you mention accent, since if you listen to "OP" (Original Pronunciation, the pronunciation of Shakespeare from his day, long before Received Pronunciation came about), it's very similar to Welsh, Irish, and Cornish accents
I thought creole languages were ones born out of being unable to speak their native languages, or is it also due to trade/communal living?@@atheistlinguist542
Hi guys! I hope you like the new video! The major source for this video was John McWhorter's book “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue,” which is both an educational and entertaining read.
Also, for the people commenting about the occurrence of “do support” in German dialects and so on, McWhorter addresses this in his book and says why he thinks it’s not the same as what occurs in English and Celtic.
Langfocus make videos more often! I don’t care what it takes
second reply
third reply
Thanks Paul 👌 Hope you had a very Merry Xmas 🎄 Happy 2020 🎉
seventh reply
Vos chroniques sont toujours intéressantes.
Un grand merci.
@@antonvasin2657 cala-te
Viva la Quebec!
@Digital Rain Mais, Je suis Anglophone,
Je suis etudie la langue francaise. >
@@kkeanie c'est "vive la Quebec", "viva" c'est en espagnol. Le verbe n'a pas genre.
Je comprends le définition de mots. Merci beaucoup pour votre réponse!
It is also used in informal German: "Tun Sie essen?" Do you eat? And there is also a similar form for the progressive form: ich bin am Rennen. (I am runnning) Very often used.
Rennen is a noun though, not a verb form. As they said in the video English used to have two ways of doing it, with a verb-form and and noun-form. The verb form won out, but we still have the noun form in other Germanic languages.
In vulger Dutch also.
@@Carewolf It's a verbal noun with the form of the infinitive. So, quite similar to Celtic, where the verbal noun is used. This form is very commonly used to indicate progressive aspect in Dutch, e.g. "Ik ben aan het rennen." (and is entirely standard) The do-forms occur in some Dutch dialects but not the standard language.
@@Carewolf But you could just as well use it as a verb and say "ich renne". However if you want to emphasize that you are running *right now* , you'd have to say "ich renne gerade" ("gerade" = "at the moment") or use the aforementioned "ich bin am Rennen"
During the first year at school back in the sixties (in central Germany in a rural area) our teachers taught us not to to use "tuen" in phrases like, "Tust du das glauben?", "Tust du mir das geben?". What we originally did because we had learned it from our parents and grandparents. Just saying.
Und das kommt sicher nicht aus dem keltischen Bereich, denn auch im deutschen Süden nutzt man dieses "tun" an jeder Ecke. Z. B.
"Tätest du sagen" anstatt dem hochdeutschen "Würdest du sagen" usw.
@@valentinkuhfuss7718 Es gibt ein berühmtes Keltenmuseum in Hallein bei Salzburg.
I'm sorry, what are you talking about lol
@@Boyd2342 The statement by Valentin is saying that the use of "tun" (to do) in the south of Germany certainly hasn't got anything to do with the Celts, so i mentioned that there is a famous museum about the Celts in Hallein, saying that there of course Celts had also been living.
"Tuten tut man nicht" Hat meine Mama immer gesagt.
Interesting. In the American South and Southwest, you hear the "a" preposition a lot. I am a running, I am a coming are common phrases.
The Bronze Age of DC Comics As an American, i always wondered why some regions of the USA will add the prefix "a-" to some verbs and now I understand that phenomenon. I suppose it's possible that the American South became a linguistic isolate while English evolved or that the stronger Scottish/Irish immigration to our South influenced the parlance.
@@timcarlos I've also seen some examples of a-verbs in written language (~18th-19th century) (which kinda proves American English is somewhat more archaic than his oversea counterpart - this being British English.
A-hunting we will go, a-hunting we will go...
There's also the Christmas Song, "12 Days of Chrismas". To quote, "...Eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!..."
@@moondust2365 That reads more like a shortend are -> a. are milking, are swimming, are laying
"So long" from "slán". One of my first linguistic discoveries when i was young.
e withk really?? 😱
@@giancastrioto3223 sure. Irish slán still in common usage in american english. Not the point of the video but i thought I'd share anyway.
Disputed etymology but okay.
@@giancastrioto3223 From etymonline.com: "parting salutation, 1860, of unknown origin, perhaps from a German idiom (compare German parting salutation adieu so lange, the full sense of which probably is something like "farewell, whilst (we're apart)"); or perhaps from Hebrew shalom (via Yiddish sholom). Some have noted a similarity to Scandinavian leave-taking phrases, such as Norwegian Adjø så lenge, Farvel så lenge, Mor'n så lenge, literally "bye so long, farewell so long, morning so long;" and Swedish Hej så länge "good-bye for now," with så länge "for now" attested since 1850 according to Swedish sources. Most etymology sources seem to lean toward the German origin. So long (adv.) "for such a long time" is from late Old English.
Earlier guesses that it was a sailors' corruption of a South Pacific form of Arabic salaam are not now regarded as convincing. "Dictionary of American Slang" also adds to the list of candidates Irish slán "safe," said to be used as a salutation in parting. The phrase seems to have turned up simultaneously in America, Britain, and perhaps Canada, originally among lower classes. First attested use is in title and text of the last poem in Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in the 1860 edition." www.etymonline.com/word/so%20long#etymonline_v_25685
That's what I thought when I first saw the Irish for 'Bye'.
Welsh certainly DOES have other tenses of ‘do’ (gwneud)
Wna i yfed te yfory = I will (do) drinking tea tomorrow
Also, there is a future tense of most verbs. In literary Welsh these futures are seen used in the present tense and still some verbs retain present use in the spoken language.
Yes. Very common when asking someone to do something - "Wnei di gau'r drws?" ("Do you closing the door?"). The issue is that the Welsh tense system has become somewhat reanalysed: what is formally a nice balanced tense-aspect system where we have a non-past imperfective ("presennol/dyfodol"/"present/future"), a non-past perfective ("gorffennol"/"preterite"), a past imperfective ("amherffaith"/"imperfect"), and a past perfective ("gorberffaith"/"pluperfect") gets submerged into the question of how one idiomatically describes something that's in the future as opposed to the present (or vice versa) or something that's conditional. The last things we have that are marked for aspect and not tense are "bod" (imperfective) and "i" (perfective) clauses.
Just learning, but I was wondering the same. Seems the video was not quite correct on these points. I have questions about the examples used with "Nest ti..."/"Nes i..." Does that correspond to a specific dialect or register? Also, would the future versions be "Nei di..."/"Na i..."?
Wow! I had no idea that the “do support” phenomenon and “ing” have been influenced by Celtic languages.
That's because there is no convincing evidence that they have been.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw What would could as evidence if what was discussed in the video doesn't?
@@ALLHEART_ There is no evidence in the video, only speculative theories based upon the ideas of a controversial scholar with a particular grudge against Anglo-Saxon people.
@@Khayyam-vg9fw And who would that be? So, you don't think that Celtic had any influence on Anglo-Saxon in regards to this syntactical feature which is deeply exclusive to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon?
@@ALLHEART_ 1) John McWhorter; 2) I think that there is no compelling evidence for the Celtic substrate theory, and that it raises far more problems than it purportedly solves.
I would adore an exploration of Irish-English and how it mirrors Irish structures
i was just about to suggest this!! things like the habitual be and plural you "ye"
Wait there's an Irish English? I'm Irish and I just thought it was British English with fucked accent.
@@31ll087 hiberno irish but you're right in reality lol
Your wish came true
Interesting video as usual. Keep them coming. Suggestions for future videos:
- Celtic or Germanic Influence on French
- How Different are European and Brazilian Portuguese?
- The Pennsylvania German Language
- The Danish Language
- The Icelandic Language
- The Welsh Language
The Romance languages are actually Celtic languages with Latin vocabulary.
- The Breton Language
@@sylvainb2366 this is way more complicated
@@maloyaman113 Plus regional influence e.g. French has Germanic influence, Spanish ; Arabic influence, Italian ; Greek influence, Romanian ; Slavic influence, etc.
@@sylvainb2366 Absolutely not.
I've always wondered why this was the case and having learned English as a second language, it didn't really make sense. When I started reading Shakespeare, I found that curious, but now it makes sense.
In Breton we sort of have that too since it's a sister language of welsh and Cornish, we can use the verb "to do" as an auxiliary to conjugate any verb at any tense in the exact same way. For example if you want to say "I eat" you can say "debriñ a ran" (literally "to eat I do")
We also have that present continuous thing (I am washing the window=O walc'hiñ ar prenestr emaon, I wash the window=Ar prenestr a walc'han)
I was wondering about Breton, since breton hasn’t had as much contact with english, you could probably use it to check if they spread from english to the welsh and cornish (it wouldn’t be quite as likely for them to hop the channel)
@@tompatterson1548 You are right about this Tom, I feel exactly the same way. So I moved to Brittany and studied Breton and it is quite clear that the features shared with English come from Celtic and not the other way round. There ae many ways in which Breton is bizarrely similar to English - all clearly Celtic features that English also shares.
Prenestr is so similar to the Welsh word for window: ffenestr
@@irierailton2916 I think that came from the Latin “fenestra”. Non-Italic languages use variants of it, too, like the Swedish “fönster”.
@@irierailton2916 fenêtre / fenestre in French
6:54 I'm a native Spanish speaker from Spain. I'd say it's very uncommon to use the present simple to refer to an ongoing action, it sounds weird to me. I exclusively use it to talk about a habit or a routine.
Same, I'm a first gen immigrant from Argentina and I don't think I would ever say "yo como" if I was eating right at that moment
That's what I thought when I was learning Spanish. I was amazed at how closely the present simple vs progressive distinction resembled English.
I am not native Spanish speaker but I live here. 100% agreed
🤷♂️ Whenever I confirm something with native speakers, other native speakers disagree. Welcome to the chaotic world of language!
@@onesandzeroes I also speak Japanese and I'd say it's the same in that, 今、ご飯を食べる (ima gohan o taberu) "Now, (I) eat rice" sounds like you're about to eat rice. Japanese has no future tense so maybe that's part of it, but if you wanted to say you are eating rice right now, you would definitely use the progressive. 今、ご飯を食べている (ima gohan o tabeteiru) "Now, (I'm) eating rice"
About the present continuous:
In Brazilian and European Portuguese we have an identical construction! However, the simple present cannot be used in the same form (as in your exemple from Spanish). Specifically in European Portuguese, the construction of the continuous is identical to the old celtic formation, with the "a" as preposition. And even though they have and understand the Brazilian form, they are very protective of their own.
This really called my attention, because, not many people know, but there were celts in the iberian peninsula as well.
Maybe there's a relation, who knows 🤔
There's no relation, I'm afraid. The Brazilian -ndo form is actually the older of the two and was well used in Portugal up until the early 20th century. Even today the -ndo form is used in Portugal with varying occurrence between dialects.
@@evertonmatheus7084 That's interesting to know as nowadays if you ask a Brazilian (I'm one) about the differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, the ndo (gerúndio) vs. a (preposição) thing will certainly be near the top of the list.
That form must have derived from Latin gerundium.
@@FelipeZavan I think there's a certain degree of ignorance among the Brazilians regarding European Portuguese. As a Brazilian myself it's very common to hear other people say that they downright cannot understand European Portuguese which sounds as insane as an American claiming he can't understand British English. If only we could eliminate this permeating ignorance we'd understand each other so much better, as opposed to one side yelling "you stole our gold" and the other yelling back "we speak real Portuguese, not you".
@@chicoti3 Agreed. Even though the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese are deeper than British and American English and more akin to the difference between Metropolitan and Quebec French, the main reason why many Brazilians can't understand the Portuguese is simply a lack of exposure. With some effort both sides can easily understand each other without having to get needlessly defensive.
I know the word cragfast, for someone who is frightened on a hillside and can't move.
I would not hesitate to use craig in a sentence to refer to a rocky outcropping. Tor is a technical term used in geology for a fractured rocky peak. I wouldn't use carr to refer to a rock, but I would use cairn to refer to a manmade pile of rocks, either set with mortar or a dry set pile of fieldstone. I recognize cumb as the initial syllable of the place name Cumberland Gap. I'm not familiar with brock as a name for a badger but apparently it is used in at least some English dialects in Britain.
I would really like to learn Cornish, as I've lived in Cornwall for over 20 years now, and regrettably never took the time. There are ongoing efforts to revive it down here.
I've been living here for 11 years, would be very interesting to take a look at it
No time like the present. Check it out. I've picked up a bit of Cornish here in the U.S. simply because I'm interested and belonged to Cornish-American societies for a time and learned a little from a workshop by a touring Cornish dance troop. Help out the cause.
I'm cornish born and bred I'm seriously considering learning my native language 🤔
I am convinced by the hypothesis of Celtic influence on English
Lê Ngọc Bảo Thịnh
Is "do" in old english, that is what he did not talk about..
If by ‘Celtic’ you mean ancient British including the entire island then of course but if you think there was some separate race apart from those inhabiting England then you’re totally wrong. There is no Celtic language there are no Celtic people. Celt is mere a Roman word for non Roman.
Trucker yes, I believe that the so called "Celts" that many refer to are just the original inhabitants of Britain. I guess they could prove me wrong.
@@Paul-nr6nm That is the point - also, the 2 Progressives mentioned in the video as extant in OE beg the question, can they be verified in other Germanic languages as far back as then *and* which ones, because quite a few seem to have been affected by Celtic substrates as well.
@@Porkcylinder It's from the ancient Greek Κελτοί (Keltoi).
God i love this channel. I've actually been struggling trying to translate things like "do you like to go to the gym" in Spanish and racking my brain trying to think of conjugations for "to do" when in reality I don't need that. Always nice to see how the rules of language relate! Thanks as always
"¿Te gusta ir al gymnasio?" In this case, I've always wondered why in Spanish, I just can't ask someone if they LIKE something, instead of "is something pleasing" to them.
@@GoGreen1977 Well, in Old English "I like/ You like" was expressed with "Me liketh/Thee liketh". That is the same grammar as in the Spanish phrase "Me gusta/Te gusta". Object pronouns at the beginning of a sentence instead of subject pronouns followed by the verb like. In German there is a also phrase which follows the same grammar rule "Mir/Dir gefällt".
@@GoGreen1977 in portuguese we have 'gostar' but we use it exactly like in english.
'Voce gosta disso?'
'Do you like this?'
thank you Paul for all this great work you do for us!
Your content is often freaking fascinating. This vid is an example. Fascinating dude. Well done sir.
Bavarian also uses the meaningless "do" e.g. "Duast du essn?" (do you eat).
Present continuous does also exist, even with the preposition or sometimes "do" instead. E.g. "Wås duast? - I dua wercha/I bi aum wercha" (what do you do? - I am working)
These features don't exist in German, so where do they come from? English or celtic influence? An independant development?
It's not just Bavarian; these grammatical constructs are found in many local vernaculars of German.
Speaking of southern German languages (Alemannic varieties and Bavarian varieties), it could well be that those are also having Celtic influences, given the fact that after Germanic tribes moved into southern Germany (core Celtic area) beginning at circa 200 BC, they lived alongside Celts well into the first centuries CE.
For example in Swabian (Alemannic variety) we also use "do" as a marker, e.g. "Duasch du mi liabe?" which means "Do you love me?"
@@arthur_p_dent I know, it is common in all Upper German dialects (I think the border is the river Main or some other river)
I just wasn't able to find example sentences for the other ones.
@@maxx1014 Interesting theory about Celtic influence on German. FWIW, the same case could be made about Spanish.
However, the influencing celtic languages would have to be continental celtic languages like Celtiberian or Gaulish or Lepontic - not Welsh or Breton like in the case of English. Do these continental Celtic languages even have the features Paul has been discussing? Might well be the case, but I for one don't really know. Also, another question would be how come French hasn't been affected but both Spanish and (edit) High German have.
@@maxx1014 That could be the reason, I mean many alpine traditions are also said to date back to celtic times (e.g. The expulsion of winter by mystical "Percht" creatures)
Lots of people say things like "I'm a-hunting" or "he's a-running" in the southern USA, so that preposition has NOT been lost
Edit: For those saying these are examples of words like "Imma" listed to this song watch?v=sdCmwh_RztE or this one watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY
Fernando Franco Félix I think that’s more formed from accents
Lol weird
people do say the word "I'm'ma" but this is just short for" I am going to"
Southern USA is pretty lost imo. ;P
@@rivertakeshita306 Wouldn't it be short for "I am a-going to"? After all, elsewhere in English - wait: are you saying that you've heard people say "I'm'ma" WITHOUT "going", so, for example, "I'm'ma to the store"? If so, that would be a combination of two archaic usages: 1) the verb "go" (in whatever form) being unspoken but 'understood', as in the Shakespearean "I am to the castle"; and, 2) the "a-" before the verb, e.g., "a-hunting we will go" - so you end up with, apparently, "I am a-going to the store" becoming "I'm a-' to the store"
Love how balanced you presented the info while maintaining your own stance, excellent video.
The influences on English of the languages of the conquerors and conquered is a rich subject, worthy of an entire series.
7:35 so is this why we say "the times they are a-changing" ?
linguistic habits are always preserved longer in poetry than in everyday speech.
Yep!
So you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone!
up the airy mountain
down the rushy glen
we daren't go a-hunting
for fear of little men
You can still find the a- prefix in speech in parts of Appalachia.
YES! Ever since I looked at Welsh grammar, I've wondered if the auxiliaries had anything to do with those in English, and finally there's a video talking about it!
you looked at Welsh grammar and survived? Dda Iawn!!!
Hi Paul! Great to watch your informative video because you shared information regarding history as to how one language influenced the other.
Hi Paul, happy new year to you! I like your videos, keep it up! I am amazed how you find interesting subjects.
Wow, I was just watching Celtic related videos and didn't expect Langfocus to upload a Celtic related video as well. XD
Loved this !
More on Celtic languages please (:
Interesting and informative, as always. Thank you, Paul.
The concision and depth of analysis you present, and the clarity of your examination, are stunning to listen to. What an intrepid intellect you have.
I love your Channel, is all about languages!! I love languages and how they involved during ancient times to today!
Me too!
AHAHAHAh YES YES AHAHAH
I can see you’re a true man of culture.
Me too!!
yeah! it is so interesting to know what the origin of words is
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH
knowing that I'm passionate on languages my bf once asked me "where does "do" come from?" and I honestly didn't know.
Now I do.
Sei fantastico!
As a Scot, I recognise 4 of those 8 words that you mentioned about vocabulary from Celtic, and I think there are a couple more that people from Wales would recognise. Most are geographical terms that are used in our respective countries (and I'm guessing that "luh" is loch as in "Loch Ness")
Here in the South-West of England many Celtic words survive such as Tor (hill), combe (valley) and other words you mentioned. John from Ilfracombe.
"Crag" is also perfectly familiar to me, even way out here in California.
"Carr" and "torr" also sound familiar from British place-names, though I didn't know what they meant.
I've heard "crag" a lot, and I'm Mexican, so go figure.
"Ah, Dickens...the imagery of cobblestone streets, craggy London buildings, and nutmeg used for Yorkshire pudding cakes. Hello, I'm a British person."
- Malcolm McDowell
"Cumb" as well. There's a region at the Scottish/English border called Cumbria, even once had it's own Brythonic language known as Cumbric.
I know of "tor" from crossword puzzles!
it is so interesting to know what the origin of words is
In German, I notice the usage of "do" as well as the continuous tense to refer to a current action.
1) "Tun" (engl. to do) is often used in colloquial German in a manner similar to "do" in English.
Standard German: Er kocht nie (He never cooks)
Colloquial German: Kochen tut er nie (he does not ever cook)
This colloquial German is typical in certain rural dialects, you'll rarely hear it in cities.
2) German does not have a continuous tense like English, admittedly, but still there are sentence constructions that are similar.
English: I am running right now
German: Ich bin gerade beim Laufen (literally it would mean "I am currently at the Running", but just roll with it).
It isn't extremely similar to English in this case, but it just came across my mind.
I don't mean to doubt the existence of a Celtic influence on English, just something that flashed across my mind when watching your video. Thanks!
I first noticed this usage in a Swiss book that seemed to be written for slightly intellectually challenged children: "s papi tuet läse" 'father reads'.
1) That is a normalization. You are turning a verb into a noun with a helper verb. The generic helper verb is just 'tun'. English isn't normalizing, running is still a verb form, not a verb in noun form.
@@Carewolf German doesn't have a true continuous tense, I agree, it is a bit of a stretch. I am a bit confused as to which point you're responding to, though :) . Do note that I'm not at all a linguist, merely an amateur passerby...
The same happens in Dutch (and no *nominalization is involved there). In fact, in informal/colloquial Dutch more instances of non-emphatic 'do-support' can be regularly heard.
@@andersringstrom825 I don't know if you came to the conclusion it must be for intellectually challenged children because of the use of "do" - because if you did, you are wrong. A lot of original German dialects are using the "do" forms, sometimes exclusively, just like in English. I know from Alemannic Swabian that there is no other correct way to say some things. "I am eating" is "I dua essa" in Swabian.
"Transscribing" 1:1 from High German ("ich esse") doesn't work and sounds completely off. And because Swiss German is another Alemannic dialect of German, I suspect it is the same there.
Usage of "do" forms has always been used to stigmatize uneducated people in Germany, because it showed they didn't go to a fancy school and never learned the so-called correct grammar. But it's only correct grammar in what is called High German, which is basically an artificially constructed language.
I enjoy all your videos. thanks so much for all your thoughtful and thorough analyses!
I'm loving this kind of video! I like that it has more original research and opinion, and it's not just a sheet of facts about a language.
Thank you as always for your videos Paul. You have no idea how much your work means to me and others interested in linguistics. You're the man!
I am studying Icelandic and I know in this tongue, the present progressive is formed with the verb að vera (to be) plus the infinitive! Ex. Ég er að læra íslensku ( I am to learn Icelandic). Funny how languages can sometimes function so differently. Bless bless og gleðilegt nýtt ár (Bye and Happy New Year)!
Actually you speak of »vera« as it is the Infinitive. að vera is just the advanced infinitive.
Gleðilegt nýtt ár til þín líka! Íslenskan er æðisleg!
@@cezarstefanseghjucan, Íslenska er æðislegur.
@@SchmulKrieger Þakka fyrir það!
I would really like to learn Icelandic one day because I find it to be incredibly fascinating and I have always been fascinated by Norse culture. I would also like to help keep the language alive. I’m sure that learning Old Norse would only be a small step after learning Icelandic.
This makes sense to me as a Welsh-speaker. There are a few other words in English from Welsh tho...eg 'Gammy' as in a Gammy leg/eye 'Cam' is the Welsh for bent. Also the word 'Cart'...which eventually became Car and 'Flannel'....there are more!
Every days colloquial English words like Dad, Mom/Mam, Nan are virtually the same as in Welsh ( Tad, Mam, Nain). Also many local variation of shepherds Brythonic counting system (Yan, Tan, Tethera, etc. ) existed up to the last 100 years in Southern and Northern England as well Southern Scotland.
Note on car: short for carriage, not cart directly so far as I've ever come across.
Hi Paul, I've watched quite a few of your videos, and really enjoy how informative each one is. Right now, I am learning my fifth language, German (I speak Mandarin, English, French and Italian). I would love to see a video of German vs. Swiss German. Thank you for inspiring us to learn new languages and embrace challenges!
"I am on running" appears in Dutch too: "Ik ben aan het rennen", which is, literally: "I am on the running".
Same kind of thing can be found in English, "I'm on the run". Although this may have come from a completely different background noticing that the verb isn't in the progressive.
exept that Dutch uses the infinitive (rennen) instead of the gerundive verb form (rennend)
Same is true for German - although it's very colloquial and a feature that started to spread out from the south, its usage in written language is also strongly discouraged. "Ich bin am Rennen", "am" being the merger of the preposition "an" and the dative "dem", thus literally "I am on the running". In proper(/written) German, the correct form would be "ich renne gerade" (= I run right now)
@@lifelessons7401 Actually, the correct translation of the German" ich renne gerade" is "I am running", and not "I run right now". Germans studying English often have a problem understanding the continuous forms of English verbs, as they don't exist as such in the German language. In the case of "ich renne gerade," this is written in the Simple Present (ich renne).
@@TheOzzibear Yes sure, I apologize for not making it clear enough "I run right now" is merely the literal translation of course, while the correct translation is indeed "I am running". And I agree with everything else said!
Cambrian and Pictish might have had influences we can never know.
'hen' that Scottish people say as a term of endearment seems to be from Cambric
I really love when you do the comparison and hypothesis on influences languages have on each other.
How I wish I know one of the Celtic languages to be able to understand this video fully.
I can say, though, looking at how speaking English has affected the way I speak my Chinese (sometimes English structure mistakenly used when speaking Chinese), what you mentioned is highly possible, being present only in spoken speech but not in standard writing as long as the language is still under the restrictions of a standard form, but it could change in a couple of hundred years later.
Your scholarly presentation is impressive, an inspiration for many and myself. Keep up the good work.
I just found your channel! Great work!
Thanks so much!
I began a quest to see if I can prove/disprove
If English was designed;
So I began studying some Hebrew but ended up reading that Hebrew is Obgam; a dialect of Gaelic Irish and going down this huge fascinating rabbit hole!
An interesting fact is that there are many more Celtic words in contemporary French (like... combe for valley!)
Jean Bonnefoy there are more Celtic words that came into English from Gaulish via French than from any of the insular Celtic language
*The Gauls have entered the chat.*
It's pretty logical if you ask me, despite a lot of migrations the largest ancestry in France remains Gaulish. French is far from simply being a latin language, it was heavily influenced by Gaulish and Germanic languages. The only difference with English is just it was during the process of the creation of the language, while old English already existed when it was influenced by Norse and then old French.
IMO there are unrecognized words that must be Celtic in English, for example "town" to me looks extremely Celtic (dun, dunon, modern Gaelic dún, modern Brythonic tyn or din, from a likely *tun, all with the meaning of fort or town), however the Academy prefers, it seems, to imagine it as Germanic, from a plausible cognate proto-Germanic *tun with the only meaning of garden or enclosure (and not of fort/town). There should be more but as Celtic is a minorized and abused group of languages, it is not paid enough attention. Much of the same happens to Basque or otherwise Vasconic substrate, which is ignored by linguists who just don't speak it at all.
French were celtic gauls
For questions in Turkish we also add a word *"mi?"*
Yedin *mi?*
Did you eat?
Yer *misin?*
Do you eat?
in english, do is used in non-question sentences and phrases such as "i do not agree" or "i dont care", plus its tradition to say "i do" as a agreement to marriage
Hello Paul, and thank you for this video. I loved it. I live in Brittany, on the very west coast where quite a lot of people speak and learn Breton. So I’m very interested in Celtic languages. I will start learning Breton next year. As an English learner for many many years and lover of linguistics, I’m glad I came across your channel.
This video has answered several questions I have had for many years: specifically why the present participle was "ing" rather than "-ende" as in other Germanic languages and what the odd somewhat dialectical form of "a-" as in "goin' ahuntin'" originally was about. The use of "do" as an auxiliary was also puzzling. Thanks for a great video and for clearing up these questions with plausible explanations.
We have the same 'do' curiosity in my West-Flemish dialect (of Dutch), but only in response to emphasize that the opposite is true.
- Drink je gie gin kaffie, deh? (Don't you drink coffee? Lit: Drink you you not coffee?)
- K'en doen! (I do!)
We also have a verb 'komen', which is a cognate to 'come', but is also used as 'become'. The verb itself is Germanic, but it's usage is Celtic.
- Ik kommn olmeke slicht. (I'm becoming ill suddenly. Lit: I become suddenly bad.)
Love the video. Easily a favorite. Topics like historical linguistics and language evolution (including influences, adoptions, borrowings, inclusions) are so fascinating to me. Thank you for doing these kinds of videos! Hope are having a joyful holiday season!
Re: reservations
Could Welsh’s exclusive “did” support indicate their borrowing of do-support from English? It seems to me a similar phenomenon to Old English adopting the verbal noun form (and dropping the preposition), which demonstrates it being a Celtic structure /English borrowing. I don’t know the information related, like whether or not Welsh would borrow from English.
Thank you for your well argued presentation. I am English and live in England. Your arguments make sense to me.
It was never mentioned here but several early kings of the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia had Celtic names. For instance, in Wessex the first two kings are named Cedric and Cynric, both names being Celtic in origin. Later in the genealogy of Wessex you find names like Centwahl and Caedwalla. Also one of the first poets to compose poems in the Old English language was a man by the name of Caedmon, a name that also originated in the Brittonic Celtic language. His first language was old English, but given that his name was Celtic his parents were probably Celtic Britons. He was from Whitby which is in the east of England, being born long after the Anglo Saxon conquest of that region had taken place. Prominent clergymen of the era such as the brothers Chad, Cedd, Cynibil and Caelin had Brittonic names also. King Ine of Wessex enacted laws that demonstrated that even in the 700s the Celts of the region composed a distinct ethnic group from the English. A lot of documentation shows that the Celts largely survived the Anglo Saxon invasion, and while many were subjugated others rose to the highest levels of Anglo Saxon society.
There was no Anglo-Saxon invasion. Belgae tribes (Ingvaeones = Angles) came to Britain before Ceasar. They spent hundreds of years intermarrying with the Celts and Britons. Saxons came as paid mercenaries in the late third century and again in huge numbers in 450 as refugees fleeing Attila. But they never killed off the Celts. The Celts, Britons and Angles all intermarried, but the language of the Angles prevailed for some reason. What people often over-look is Celtic influence on old Anglic/Belgian while in Gaul, before the Belgae established their British kingdoms. And I am not even sure the Celts were dominant in Britain. I think they dominated the west and a few other spots. The Frisians (another type of Ingaevonic/Angle tribe) dominated the swampy east, where their cows did well. And in the central highlands, I think the original Britons dominated, until the Roman era.
I just read an academic paper arguing that the Wessex origin myth with Cedric was actually a mis-remembrance of the Belgae invasion hundreds of years earlier. The myth has striking similarity to the events recorded by Caesar.
3:42 not a native welsh speaker, but I am learning - I believe the correct written form is ‘wnest ti’. ‘nest ti’ is ellipsing the w, which is common in colloquial speech but not in writing
100% correct - the verbnoun "gwneud" begins with three consonants - yes, the "gwn" are all consonants - and to make speaking easier we either drop the "gw" and use just "neud" or drop the "w" and use "gneud in common speech". In book Welsh, the equivalent forms would be "Gwnest ti" (as a statement) and "Wnest ti" (as a question or negative)
Useful information... I am always interested in learning languages and i enjoy your vids a lot... thank you so much... respect from iran🇮🇷🌹
Thank you very much! You are a Master. I am doing a similar work with Southern Italian Languages and the Ancient Greek. It is very interesting. Good year!
Wonderful, you go right into the topic.
I’m a French speaker:
"So we’ll go no more a roving
So late into the night..." (Lord Byron)
At last I know where this "a" comes from. Thanks Paul!
mezui romain A hunting we will go.
A hunting we will go.
Hey Ho the Derry-oh.
A hunting we will go.
I’m curious: do you know if any young people in Southern France still speak fluent Occitan and/or are trying to preserve the language?? I think it’s very interesting (and quite unfortunate) how the two very closely related languages Occitan & Catalan took completely opposite paths of development- Spanish Catalans generally speak their language and want to preserve it (and even want independence) but this is not at all the case with French Occitans (based on my understanding)
@@salomez-finnegan7952 There are some people of all generations who try to revive the occitan languages. There are even a few bilingual schools. I believe most people in the South are in favor of speaking more the languages more but there zero effort from the gouvernement so the language is still in danger of desappearing.
The second language related to French is not Catalan but Arpitan (formerly called "Franco-provençal") en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Proven%C3%A7al_language
the form with "do" is commonly used in Breton too as well as the preposition : "komz a rit brezhoneg?" = speak / preposition "a"/ you do / Breton?
I was wondering about Breton in this context. From what I understand, it’s the third extant line of pre-Saxon the British Celtic language.
This presentation is excellent! Paul knows more about English than some teachers of the subject.
Wow! Such interesting discussions, both in the comments and the video. Nice work!
When, I learn Welsh, the yn in front of the verbnoun, it was proceeded by a pronoun and the last was a vowel, the y would drop and it would have an apostrophe e.g
Dw i yn neidio becomes dw i'n neidio, and it shows, that it is just as a continuous tense or simple tense, and it wasn't literally translated; it is the same y, 'r and yr, that there are not literally translated, but use to connect sentences.
I am also studying Welsh, and I found this very confusing at first.
@@claudianowakowski same. we're all confused together now
Awesome channel. A language fan from California. I've noticed "galore" meaning "a lot" is an English word, though that's Irish origin. But my family always used the word "crag" for a sharp cliff area when we were doing some fishing or on a hunting up in the mountains.
I love understanding word derivations and languages, which is why I *love* your channel, and I have noticed many times that an English root word in Latin might be actually be better said to be the Celtic root, that is, Brythonic.
Old Gael languages were contemporaneous to Latin, but not significantly changed in modern times from their early forms. The Gaels were the longest term enemy or conquest of the Roman Empire by most accounts, from the Battle of the Allia ~387 BC between a Gallic tribe called Senones (of Northern Italy) and the Roman Republic, (which might have started the whole conquest thing when they sacked Rome) to ~400 AD.
Eventually the Roman outposts withdrew from eastern "england", never successfully invading Wales, nor Cornwall, nor western England, nor Scotland, nor Ireland, and the Romans retreated from Western Europe. But they had ruled the entire Mediterranean.
More to the point, many words in contemporaneous Celtic and Latin do often seem similar. But Latin seems to receive all the credit, not the root native languages of Welsh or Cornish for British word origin. This seems odd.
Many have already described the social stratification of words. During Frankish-Norman rule, "pork" was eaten in the lord's house, the Anglo-Saxons' "swine" were tended, and the native Celtic people "mucked" the stalls. But it all means "pig" or "pork".
Here is the meat of my point though. Some examples comparing roots between Welsh or Latin:
Welsh for birch tree, "bedw" but Latin for birch tree, "betula".
Welsh for fish, "pysgod" but Latin for fish, "piscis".
Welsh for garden, "gardd" but Latin for garden, "hortus".
Welsh for blossom, "blodeuo" but Latin for blossom, "germinabunt".
Welsh for farm, "fferm" but Latin for farm, "villam".
Welsh for farmer, "ffermwr" but Latin for farmer, "agricola".
Latin is fine, I love Latin, but it's just not the root for many English words. Welsh seems be doing that where Latin does not.
Sure, these might be distant root words for English, but why is Latin the only reference and not the other, why is Welsh or Cornish ignored when one seems more plausible? But one was local, that being Welsh or other Brythonic languages. And Latin in "england" 2000 years ago was at best courtly.
Latin seems hardly able to be the origin of English words. Welsh or Cornish seems the much more obvious origin point for some English words. Just a question posed and something to wonder.
Awesome Video! Thank you Paul!
I love the beach background. It is so serene it's making it hard to concentrate on what you're saying.
great video as usual! I tend to agree with your hypothesis on 'do-support', but re: the progressive tense, the dutch also have an equivalent to the present continuous. "aan het (doen)" sounds so similar to the "on (doing)" you cited, especially considering how the 'het' often gets swallowed in speech
And in Dutch the "do you drink coffee" even works differently.
"Jij drinkt koffie." = "You drink coffee."
"Drink jij koffie?" = "Do you drink coffee?"
We change the word order to make it a question. If I were to ask "jij drinkt koffie?" then it would sound like I am surprised to hear that you drink coffee.
(I'm only 4 minutes in the video. Maybe my question gets answered later in the video, but I felt like sharing this anyways)
In middle ages, the second from that you've written was pretty common in English
Drinkst thou water? for sing.
Drinken ye water? (in some dialects there was another plural from - Drinkth but it had not survived) for plural or respectively
@Simon Romijn My mind is blown a bit :)
Interesting video, as always. Thanks for the good job you are a-doing :)
As a native Welsh speaker (but amature linguist) I think you missed that Welsh actually does have a "meaningless do" in the present tense, and it actually sounds similar to the English "do" so a closer connection. But it is only in first person.
"Rydw i yn yfed coffi" literally "Do I is/am drink coffee"
Negation although it does change slightly:
"Dydw i ddim yn yfed coffi" literally "do (negative) I not am drink coffee"
I think "rydw" and "dydw" act like a meaningless "do" in English. The "dw" and "do" are pronounced the exactly the same.
Social Studies in school: No
LangFocus: Yeeessssss!
I was trying to find the etymology of that damn a -ing construction since my daughter asked when we were a singing the twelve days of Christmas.
You make excellent points about the possible assimilation of Celtic Welsh and Cornish into the English language. I find your premise plausible. I have noticed something in recent discussions from history and archaeology regarding cultural change as it relates to cultural clashes. Many today rule out conquest as a major factor between groups such as original Celts and Anglo-Saxons, suggesting there was much more assimilation as opposed to conquest.
Fascinating, well-argued and persuasive video. "Do do that voodoo that you do so well," as Cole Porter says in the song. I had always assumed this "do" thing was an affectation.
A curious one I've heard in Ireland is "Does Chris be here this early in the morning?" As in, "Is he usually here?" Stopped me in my tracks the first time someone said something like it, but I got used to it and even started using it myself!
never been so early before! happy holidays!
Happy Holidays!
May I express my great honour for this video to you.
Had it been on facebook , a heart would have been put to it as Like.
fabulous! loved it.
The connection with 'do' is Interesting. In some parts of mid- and mid-east of The Netherlands, I hear people use the word 'do' (doen, from middle Dutch 'doean') without meaning, too.
I'd like to have seen more comparison with Germanic languages in regards do. English is closest to Frisian, then Dutch.
@@Catubrannos There are all kinds of versions of Frisian and what I know of it resembles English less than Dutch, especially Old Dutch is difficult to distinguish from Old English. A characteristic of Dutch and German is the use of little words called particles that give a certain atmosphere or emotion or other meaning to the sentence at hand. Dutch has about 40 of such articles, German over 120. They only occur rarely in English as English is a 'sung' language, which is to say that the meaning of a sentence may vary according to the tones it is delivered in. In the Far East, many languages are sung, especially the monosyllabic languages of Chinese and Thai. English is an anomaly which seems to be missed by Langfocus because he is English native, although Canadian, himself. I, for one, would always begin with stating whether a language is a sung language or not. That makes a world of difference. Listen to Margareth Thatcher. She goes almost three octaves within 2 sentences. Even for a professional singer that would be a stretch. Kissinger was of Germanic origin and one of the reasons that he stood out, apart from his brilliancy, was the monotonous way he delivered his English; very uncharacteristic of English - perhaps American lost its sung quality which is why so many foreign words are adopted in American?
@@thephilosopherofculture4559
That is something that we learn to do as we grow up. At school I noticed that younger children read out written (prose) text in a wooden, monotonous way, whereas older children recited "with expression," which was sometimes regarded as "girly."
Of course, that requires you to scan quickly ahead to understand the whole sentence before starting to say it. Spontaneous speech comes with intonation built-in, but reciting from memory may require some effort to insert the emotion.
There was a curious art form called "choral speaking" for which children from different schools in Scotland competed in reading prose and verse. If I remember rightly, competitors used English, Scots or Latin (it was not a Gaelic-speaking area). I never saw the point of it.
Loved the broad base of languages used for examples. I'm putting "do support" in my bag for drawing out next time I need an Interesting Fact
This is intriguing because it helps to build on the evidence that quite a bit of poetic diction is rooted in old linguistic style and mechanisms. It's also fascinating how easily a native speaker understands these oddities that have been out of usage for hundreds of years.