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Been checking the forecasts for SE Michigan, Ontario and Syracuse - it sure is looking sweet for the week ahead. Oh man, I can't wait.
I've decided to move my departure time to 3:30 am Wed morning - so I can be sure to clear the peak hour traffic in the Detroit area and to get in ahead of possible bad weather at that time. I pick up the rental car tomorrow at the airport at 3 pm - hoping for a real fuel-sipper...lol.
I can't believe the long, long wait is almost over - I'm boiling over with excitement now.
Hissi (elevator) - Germanic
alkuruoka (starter) - direct translation of antipasto
loma (holiday) - proto-Baltic
syksy (autumn) - proto-Finnic
alkoholi - Arabic
olut (beer) - Norse/Germanic
viini (wine) - Germanic
viina (booze) - Estonian
Of all your examples, only two are Finnic in origin, all others are loans. Shows that even small languages are nowhere "pure".
Well, technically, the majority of words in the English language are of Latin or Greek origin. Germanic words are a minority. However, everyday speech tends to make use of a greater percentage of Germanic words. I don't what the case is for Finnish and what proportion of words are of nonnative origin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Max96
In Russian:
Лифт (lift) - lift/elevator - English
Закуска (zakuska) - starter/appetizer - native
Праздник (prazdnik) - holiday - Old Church Slavonic
Осень (osen) - autumn - native
Алкоголь (alkogol) - alcohol - Arabic
Пиво (pivo) - beer - native
Вино (vino) - wine - Slavic, but very old loanword (of Proto-Slavic period) from either Latin or some Germanic language
Выпивка (vypivka) - booze - native
Quote:
Originally Posted by Donar
I'm also very interested in etymology and I prefer German words over loanwords,especially if a German word already exists. But I don't care as much if they are European or not, and I don't like the recent influx of English words into the German language. Non-foreign words are just much more intuiutive and easier to understand but I'm fine with loanwords that were already part of our language before the High German consonant shift in the early middle ages.
I think in general German has much less foreign words than English and I've heard Icelandic has almost no ones. Sometimes the replaced English word is still known like bookstave=letter or bookhouse=library.
Wine is an interesting case. All my sources tell me it basically comes from a Proto-Germanic source (wīną), but was in fact an even earlier loanword from Latin.
I'm not quite sure what got me into this subject, but I've had an interest in it for quite a few years, at least since 2009. It was around then that I constantly looked up work etymologies. It has gotten to the point now where I can identify the etymology of the vast majority of English words. Knowing Spanish to some extent helped, since I already knew the vast majority of English-Spanish cognates were of Latin (or Greek) origin.
And I would say word origins do matter. Too many Latin/Greek words makes English sound very technical and scientific. On the other hand, Germanic words make English sound more rustic, and this is partly why I prefer Germanic words.
I think this forum could use a Language section. Maybe make it for discussions about foreign language learning and other general language topics.
Location: Northern Ireland and temporarily England
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Your weird. Who goes to bed at 8
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