Linguaphiles

The Oxford Etymologic Dictionary (OED) considers Ego / I as if it were a self-standing word developed within the Germanic and 'Indo-European' languages with a mere meaning of 'I / me / self, myself':[Spoiler (click to open)]

I (pron.)
12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/I

ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, "the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks," from Latin ego "I" (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ego

местоим., укр. я, др.-русск. язъ, я (и то и другое – в Мстислав. грам. 1130 г.; см. Обнорский – Бархударов I, 33), ц.-сл. азъ ἐγώ, реже ѩзъ (см. Дильс, Aksl. Gr. 77), болг. аз, яз (Младенов 702), сербохорв. jа̑, словен. jàz, jâ, чеш. já, др.-чеш. jáz (совр. чеш. форма – с начала ХIV в.), слвц. jа, др.-пол. jaz, пол., в.-луж., н.-луж. jа, полаб. joz, jо.
Праслав. *аzъ отличается своим вокализмом от родственных форм, ср. др.-лит. еš, лит. àš, лтш. еs, др.-прус. еs, аs, др.-инд. ahám, авест. azǝm, др.-перс. аdаm, арм. еs, венет. еχо, гр. ἐγώ, лат. еgо, гот. ik "я". Наряду с и.-е. *еǵ- (гр., лат., герм.), существовало и.-е. диал. *eǵh- (др.-инд., венет.). Недоказанной является гипотеза о существовании *ō̆go наряду с *еgō на основе слав. аzъ и хетт. uk, ug "я" (Мейе – Эрну 342 и сл.; см. Вальде – Гофм. I, 395 и сл.). Не объяснена еще достоверно утрата конечного -z в слав.; весьма невероятно, чтобы она совершилась по аналогии местоим. tу (напр., Ягич, AfslPh 23, 543; Голуб – Копечный 147), а также чтобы долгота начального гласного была обусловлена долготой гласного в tу (Бругман у Бернекера, см. ниже). Более удачна попытка объяснения аzъ из сочетания а ězъ (Бернекер I, 35; Бругман, Grdr. 2, 2, 382), но см. против этого Кнутссон, ZfslPh 12, 96 и сл. По мнению Зубатого (LF 36, 345 и сл.), в этом а- представлена усилит. част. *ā, ср. др.-инд. ād, авест. āt̃, ср. также др.-инд. межд. ḗt "смотри, глядь!" из ā и id; Педерсен (KZ 38, 317) видит здесь влияние окончания 1 л. ед. ч. -ō; сомнения по этому поводу см. у Бернекера (I, 35). Для объяснения -z привлекают законы сандхи (Сольмсен, KZ 29, 79); ср. Бернекер, там же; И. Шмидт, KZ 36, 408 и сл.; Вакернагель – Дебруннер 3, 454 и сл.
http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-17126.htm

ich (Ger.), Εγώ [ego] (Gr.), ego (Lat.), io (Ital.), yo (Sp.), I (Eng.), jag (Sw.), я [ja] (Slavic)...

However, should one look beyond the hypothetic *constructions, established by the German philologists in the 19th Century, one would see an obvious Nostratic relation of the above words with the meaning of ' I ' to the following words with the meaning of ' 1 (one)':

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Could you please help me to distinguish the words in this sentence?

https://youtu.be/2viR539KQ6g?t=38

Lena says something to the effect "You're a strange/funny cop", and all I can make out is "Bulle" at the end. She's speaking too fast for me.

Novgorodian birch bark in Finnish dialect, 11th Century - written in Cyrillic:




1. юмолануолиінимижи
Jumola nuolin imizhi
EST: Jumal noolnud inimesi.
ENG: God 'arrowed' people ( = taught people the word, the speech)*.
RUS: Господь пронзил стрелами людей ( = обучил, научил людей слову, речи)*.

2. ноулисъхянолиомобоу
noulise han oli omo bou
EST: noolja, ta oli oma poeg.
ENG: Arrow-shooter, he was His son.
RUS: Стрельцом ("метателем стрел") был Его Сын.

3. юмоласоудьнииохови
Jumola soudin iiohovi
EST: Jumal sõudnud iia-hoovi.
ENG: God rowed to the eternal yard (heaven).
RUS: И отбыл Господь на небеса (досл., "священный двор").

The author of the decryption is Andres Pääbo - who also decrypted hundreds of Venetian runic inscriptions :
http://paabo.ca/papers/pdfcontents.html
http://paabo.ca//veneti/VENETILANG2014.pdf

* ...The word is what is sent, a message from person to person. It is no coincidence that the symbol of the word in the Vedic religion was an arrow.
Valery D. Osipov, PhD. 'The single language of humanity.' Moscow. Concept. 2016.
https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/1018511/10/Osipov_-_Edinyy_yazyk_chelovechestva.html

nool, gen. noole, part. noolt (Est.), nuoli (Fin., Karel.), nooli (Izhora), njuolla (Saami), nal (Erzia, Moksha), nölö (Mari), ńe̮l (Udmurt), ńe̮v (Komi), ńoᴧ, ńal (Khanty), ńāl (Mansi), nyíl (Hung.), ńi (Nenets, Enet.), ńī (Sekulp.), ńié (Kamas.), ńej, nej (Mator.) - an arrow;
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nyelv (Hung.) - language, words.

Laurus, Laurel leaves have been used since time immemorial as a talisman to protect against the evil eye and damage:
"... Laurel leaves wreath attached to the baby's bed was thought to help protect the child from the negative effects of mystical creatures. The more of them - the stronger the protection. It is believed that in this way entire households get rid of the danger of the influence of evil spirits."

'Indo-Europeists' tell us, in their textbooks, that Latin laurus allegedly is... a phonetically transformed Greek daphne: https://www.etymonline.com/word/laurel 

This is obviously a fairy-tale (as 1000s of others). Compare LAURUS to the following words with same phonetic stem -LAR-,-LOR-, and meaning related to 'protection' from Spain to Iran, and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean:

Lares - Roman deities patronizing (protecting) homes, family and community in general;
ларой [laroy] (Ingushian language, Caucasus) - shamanistic: the Guardian spirit; modern: the Guardian angel.

лора, лорадар, лорадер [lora, loradar, lorader] (Ingush) - protection, defence; лоравала [loravala] (Ingush) - to get protected; лораде [lora-de] (Ingush) - to protect, preserve, guard, store (literally, "do the protection");
larru (Basque) - leather, skin, fur;
lorum (Latin) - a belt, bridle made of leather; loratus (Lat.) - tied, fastened with a belt;
lorica (Ital., Lat.) - a chain mail, armor; also shell of a grain; loricato (Ital.) - dressed in armor, in chain mail; zool. a crocodile;
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Dear linguaphiles,

Linguistics needs your help! Well... I need your help. ;) I am currently writing a paper on word-finding difficulties in older adults - arguably one of the most common complaints when older people talk about their language abilities. I am doing a behavioral study on whether older adults experience more or fewer word-finding problems when the words they had to produce or recognize were related to specific movements that you perform when you interact with them or when you perform the action they describe.
Of course, in addition to my old people who have to process these words, I also need independent people who tell me whether they consider these words to be related to motor skills or not. Could you help me with that?

There are three different questionnaires, depending on your native language:
English: https://www.soscisurvey.de/motor/?q=base06
German: https://www.soscisurvey.de/motor/
Dutch: https://www.soscisurvey.de/motor/?q=base07


I would be very grateful if you could help me out with this! :) (And if you do, please make sure to read the instructions and examples carefully because in the past I've had people misunderstand what I mean when I say "movements" - my mistake, not theirs, so I clarified this a bit.)

Thanks so much in advance!

Dear linguaphiles,

I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam in Germany, and I'm preparing materials for a new study on German plurals. In order to figure out which words make for suitable test items, I need to know which plurals are known to native speakers of German.
The questionnaire takes about 5 minutes and all you have to do is write down the according plural form to the singular words you see. The only requirement is that you're a native speaker of German - current location or age don't matter.

https://www.soscisurvey.de/test092387/

Thanks very much for your help! :)

This is a slightly specific request, but I am looking for a German etymological dictionary... in English. Does such a thing exist?

Many thanks in advance!

Hello everybody!

What's your best tips and tricks for learning grammar when studying a foreign language? Reading grammar books is fine, but in my experience the knowledge doesn't really stick.

Background: I learnt German in school, and I still have no problem with reading and my listening skills are okay, but I always make grammar mistakes. I can hardly write a sentence without some grammar mistakes. I studied a lot of grammar in school, but apparently it didn't stick. Now I mostly self-study through reading magazines, writing a diary, watching tv programmes and occasionally speaking.

Guten Tag, Leute!
Ich arbeite an dem Projekt für meine Universität. Ich soll das Verständnis für das Konzept “die Schwiegermutter” in zwei verschiedenen Linguakulturen vergleichen. Weil ich Deutsch studiere, arbeite ich mit Deutsch Linguakultur. Da, wo wohne ich, kann man nicht so viele Deutschen finden um sie zu fragen. Darum bitte ich Sie mir Hilfe leisten. Schreiben Sie mir, bitte, welche Reaktionen, Assoziationen und Verbindungen haben Sie, wann Sie den Wort „die Schwiegermutter“ hören? Und vergessen Sie, bitte, nicht Ihr Alter und den Familienstand schreiben.
Danke im voraus) Verzeihen mir für meine Fehler.

My mother found some lovely WWI-era photos in a bin at an estate sale place; among them are two photos of the same man, who appears to be Japanese. One has handwriting on the back in German, the other has writing in the back in Japanese. Would anyone mind taking a look and seeing if they can tell what they say? The cursive is defeating me.

Photos under the cut (including photos of the guy, in case you're curious; he's quite dapper.)

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ETA: We've got the German down (thank you all very much!) but could still use someone to comment on the Japanese. Thanks!