Language Related with Gareth Roberts

Linguist Answers Word Origin Questions | Tech Support | WIRED
WIRED | 22 Oct. 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mey9EsOwhDo

5:28 head and caput ... would make more sense with head and cauput, right?

6:41 I can imagine a comedian impersonating a prejudiced non-European.

"There are ants. There are pee-ants. And then there are even Euro-pee-ants" ...

10:56 But not all branches.

For father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, all of them supposedly PIE in origin, there is one group that preserves all. Germanic. Hittite has Attas. Slavic has Otech / Otets sth. Welsh tad cannot quite be traced to Irish aithir or Gaulish atrebo (lacking forms exc. instrumental plural), and neither can Lithuanian Tevas ...

12:28 "We evolved to be able to do things like complex syntax,"

Did we?

I can confidently trace Spanish oso to Latin ursum. I can somewhat less confidently, but still, trace Anglo-Saxon fæder and Old Norse faðir(it's the latter that gave Modern English its word) to PIE supposed *pχtehr. But I cannot trace the three tier system used for notions to a one tier system used for pragmaticals ...

[tried to add:]

Calling a cat "meow" doesn't explain why one started to call things words in the first place.

13:46 Much as it is possible a particular word for a close relative comes from children babbling, this does not explain why one started naming parentage, parenthood and other close relations, in the first place.